On a typical Sunday morning on Rye’s Park Avenue, a chilly wind scatters fallen leaves that make the only sound in the neighborhood as they scrape along the road.
While it might seem like nothing out-of-the-ordinary is happening on this peaceful street, the line of parked cars hugging the curb in front of one home in particular tells a different story.
Down a long driveway that winds behind the house sits a three-car garage. And atop one of the garage doors, a hand-lettered sign reads: Rye Boxing Club, Est. 2006. Inside, a quiet Sunday morning is anything but.
Weights clank, feet skip rope, and gloved hands pound a punching bag to the pulsing beat of rock music. As sweaty bodies push themselves to get stronger and increase their stamina, the air feels humid.
From November through March, children, teens, and adults parade into this garage every Sunday to learn how to box. Under the patient and watchful eye of Rye resident Terry McCartney, they practice jabs, crosses, hooks, and uppercuts. They go through footwork drills. And eventually, if they are so inclined and McCartney feels they’re ready, they can enter the ring.
McCartney, 61, has been teaching boxing, free of charge, for 18 years. He’s a firm believer in public service.
“If you want to have a good community, you have to give back,” he said recently, as his boxers went through their paces. “There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re making solid citizens here.”
“When you listen to Terry and the coaches speaking to the kids, it’s more about life lessons than actual boxing,” said Noel Brady, who lives in Larchmont and whose children Eva, 14, and Ben, 13, who work out with McCartney every Sunday.
“Terry’s really big on, ‘Look me in the eye and give me a firm handshake,’ said Mark Howard, from Rye. Brady, 17, is the last of his three sons to go through the program. “That’s kind of a simple life lesson, but it’s also impactful every time they meet somebody because they’re making a first impression.”
The Rye Boxing Club began when McCartney’s then 10-year-old son Jack asked his dad to teach him and his friends to box. Jack, now 30, knew his dad had boxed in college and had watched him hit the heavy bag hanging in their garage.
McCartney was hesitant because Jack already played the kinds of sports that carried the risk of head injuries.
“I told him we’ll have to take it really slow and do it the right way,” said McCartney. “It took months and months before I allowed them to spar.”
Safety is McCartney’s top priority. Students wear state-of-the-art padded gloves and full-coverage head gear that prevents direct facial contact. Sparring is optional and doesn’t take place until about six weeks into the program, after the kids have mastered proper defensive skills.
McCartney matches up boxers by ability rather than weight, and is always right beside them in the ring managing and controlling the sparring.
“We have never had a single head injury in 19 years in thousands of rounds of sparring with hundreds of kids,” McCartney said.
That was the opposite of how McCartney came to boxing as a 13-year-old.
“My dad literally just dumped me off at a police athletic league in Newport News, Va., and that’s where I started,” he said. “It was rough and nobody was worried about me. No one was taking it slow.”
McCartney went to college at Virginia Military Institute, where boxing was a mandatory gym class. The instructor, who also coached VMI’s boxing team, noticed the freshman’s skill and asked him to join the team. McCarney not only boxed on the team for four years, he was team captain for two.
McCartney then became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Marines Corps, where he taught boxing to every platoon he commanded.
After 11 years of service, McCartney went to law school and began a career as a trial lawyer. With boxing in the rearview mirror, his focus was on work and family life with his wife, Julie, and sons, Jack and Dan.
Until Jack asked for boxing lessons.
Rye Boxing Club’s inaugural class consisted of Jack and a few friends. It eventually grew to two classes, when their younger brothers begged to learn. Then the sister of one of the boys asked for a girl’s class. Soon enough, the moms wanted in on the action and the women’s class was born.
The Club’s Sunday lineup begins at 8 a.m. with the women, followed by the girls and then the younger boys. The day finishes at 4 p.m., when the older boys have been put through their paces. The strictly word-of-mouth classes are capped at 18 students, and McCartney says there is always a waiting list.
The appeal for Helen Caffrey, who is in the women’s class, is not only the great workout, but also the emotional support she receives.
“If you’re a beginner or if you’ve been here for years, everybody just supports each other,” said Caffrey, whose son Evan went through the program. “A lot of moms don’t have that when their kids start getting older.”
Another benefit is learning how to protect yourself outside the ring.
“I feel extremely prepared and confident going into college and life knowing some form of self-defense,” said Rye High School senior Ella Ryan. “That’s something every girl should know.”
Eighty percent of McCartney’s students return year after year, he said.
“Every kid, I don’t care if they’re the most talented one or the least talented one, they all one day have the epiphany,” he said. “They get hit and they realize, ‘Hey, it wasn’t the end of the world. I’m tougher than I thought I was.’ And then they land a punch and they’re like, ‘Oh, look at me, I did something that’s pretty hard.’”
Nurturing that confidence and resilience in his students is what drives McCartney.
“The fighting aspect is the least of it,” said Ben Hammer, a Rye High School senior who was seven when he started at the gym. “This club is way more about shaping you into the person you want to be.”
“It has shown me that even when things are tough and I feel exhausted, it’s important to keep showing up and pushing through, not just for myself, but for the people around me,” said Rye senior Scarlett Press, who joined the boxing club at 13.
McCartney knows that boxing one Sunday a week is only enough time to learn the basics. Even so, a few of his students have advanced beyond his garage ring.
Terry Caffrey, who has been coaching at the Rye Boxing Club for 11 years, said the club was a game changer for his son Evan, who joined in fifth grade.
“He was probably a little on the small side compared to other kids,” said Caffrey. “So just getting in the ring with bigger kids and seeing that he can handle himself, really grew his confidence.”
Evan, now 20, boxes for Trinity College and, as a freshman, made it to the semifinals in the highly competitive National Collegiate Boxing Association nationals.
Another alumnus, Matthew McKeon, 18, from Fishkill, branched out to spar regularly in local matches and won his first official fight by unanimous decision in front of a crowd of 400 at Gold’s Gym in Poughkeepsie.
“It’s not just about winning or losing,” McCartney said. “It’s about trying to make them better people.”
When seniors graduate, they receive a card that lists the RBC’s life lessons. Among them: “Be the calm person in the room when things get tough” and “There is nothing to be nervous about if you’re prepared.”
“Terry preaches to all of us that you’re gonna be down, but you have to be able to take those hits and come back and fight stronger,” said Vincent Sculti, a Rye High School senior and seven-year boxing club veteran. “It’s something that I’ve used in my life throughout high school with classes and relationships and outside of school, just in everyday life.”
For McCartney, that’s better than a championship belt.