Boxers eye world stage

A new year and a new name but things will remain the same - that's the message from Rotorua boxing coach Aaron Warren.

Warren is the head coach of Supreme Performance formally known as Ultimate P4mance, the organisation has been helping rangatahi (youth) since 2009, use the sport of boxing to help turn their lives around.

The school-base programme has been operating in a number of schools throughout the Rotorua region and recently started in Christchurch.

Warren said the programme, started by Lee Edmonds and himself, targeted youngsters who sometimes had difficulty academically or needed something positive in their lives.

"I realised boxing is a sport that has a lot of discipline behind it, just like any other martial arts, but I actually lived it and I've been through it and those are the most disciplined and best times that I've had in my life as a fighter so to speak.

"That's the reason why we got into it was to help kids find their character and build character and that's basically why we got into it, to help people," Warren said.

Although Edmonds had decided to step away from the organisation, Warren was determined to continue the pair's vision. "He's going to be a huge loss ..."

During the organisation's three-year history, the programme has helped more than 1000 youngsters not only become fitter and more discipline it has also helped them improve academically.

Warren said boxing built confidence not only in the ring but in the participants' everyday lives as well. For the coach the rewards where the smiles on the faces of the youngsters who had taken part.

Although the organisation was also starting to produce New Zealand representatives in the form of Murupara youngsters Roxaine Halkett-Duff, 16, and 15-year-old Summer Lake.

The pair will be joined by their fellow Rotorua boxer, 14-year-old, Moana Tahuriorangi and travel to Kazakhstan for an age group international boxing competition.

It's not the first time the programme has produced boxers of international class. Helkett-Duff along with Aroha Sorenson represented New Zealand last year, winning a silver and bronze respectively in an age group boxing competition.

Warren said he was proud of how far the likes of Halkett-Duff and Lake had come on the programme.

"Just to see the smile on their face and watch them grow ... they are more like family now. That's how we feel, we have a lot of them staying here," Warren said. " ... They are actually good role models in the community now."