On Wednesday, January 24, Council Member Dr. G (Dr. Luis S Gonzalez) presented the CITY TALK “Community Impact” recognition award to “Coach” Carlos Palomino, Director of the “Cops4Kids & Community” boxing program for Colton youth.
For the last twenty-six years, Coach Carlos has been mentoring inspired youth who have demonstrated the desire to learn the skill of boxing to improve their self-confidence, conditioning and competitive spirit.
Many enthusiastic youth, boys and girls, over the years have come to the gym to ask questions, be evaluated, and enter a training program as they step into the world of boxing. “The program has always been free for the kids, explains, Coach Carlos, who elaborated, “Several of them have gone on to a high level of success.” When referring to those high-level boxers, Coach Carlos mentioned such names as Eduardo Gomez; Jesse Rivas and Freddie Barrera. To be clear, many boxers who trained at the gym under the tutelage of Coach Carlos and his staff have been very successful in terms of winning individual bouts, and even placing first at local and regional boxing tournaments. But perhaps more important, have made improvements in their personal lives, even beyond boxing.
When asked when he started boxing, Coach Carlos reminisced, “I was 8 years old when my dad took me to a boxing show.” From that day forward, young Carlos felt that this path was for him, as school was a challenge, and other options were quickly diminishing. “I found a lifeline with boxing, and I was quite successful,” smiled Palomino, who after his last fight in 1986 in Las Vegas, turned to coaching.
Accepting an invitation to help coach boxing, Coach Carlos came to the Salvas Robledo Boxing Club to ignite the fire in the five student boxers at the time, and bring energy to the program so that it would not only grow, but excel. That’s exactly what Coach Carlos did, and within 6 months, the club grew to twenty-five boxers, and the kids were winning regularly at tournaments. With his success, Coach Carolos teamed up with the Colton Police Activities Program (PAL) to establish one of the finest boxing programs in the region which later branched out to become “Cops4 Kids & Community”
The P.A.L. program, formerly Salvas Robledo Boxing Club, was using a building at Chavez Park, but as the interest grew and demand in local Parks and Recreation grew as well, a new Teen Center was establish and a new addition was added to the existing building to provide extra space for youth programs, including boxing. By 2009, this successful program boasted 85 members with over one-hundred youth waiting in the wings to be able to join. Over time, another location was made available to the Club on Bordwell, and from 2011 to the closing in 2023, Coach Carlos had trained many boxers who not only received expert instruction, and performed well in boxing events, but have gone on to be successful adults and good citizens.
The CITY TALK “Community Impact Award” was established in 2019 to recognize the great efforts that people make “behind the scenes” to make our community, the City of Colton, a better place. Coach Carlos Palomino is an excellent choice for this this recognition, and truly represents the very best, in terms of recognizing positive contributions to the community of Colton, which is a prime intent of this award. Thank you to Coach Carlos Palomino for all your hard work, and congratulations on this CITY TALK “Community Impact” recognition award.
For more information about CITY TALK, various community groups, Colton history, the trash clean-up project, the G-Team, prayer list, history briefs, Veteran Spotlight, Church Spotlight, Business Spotlight, U.S. Flag watch, neighborhood meetings, community projects and events, or the online live-stream programs, text or call Dr. G @ 909-213-3730. Dr. G is the founder of CITY TALK, a City Council Member and well-known community advocate. Questions and comments are always welcome.