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Angelo Merino (right) instructs one of his trainees, junior Alex Fontilas, in War Memorial Gym.
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Staffer Helps Students Box Their Way Through School
When Angelo Merino, USF’s mailroom manager, was growing up in the Philippines, boxing was not so much a sport as a way to survive.
Starting at age 9, Merino boxed first to prove himself against other boys and later for money. He would travel from barrio to barrio with his manager, winning enough money to keep himself fed. The circuit was dangerous: Merino was familiar with underhanded street tactics and used them. Sometimes his manager gambled away his earnings. Occasionally someone tried to lace his drink before a fight.
When he reached high school, Merino received his first formal training, going on to qualify for a national title before age 19. Nevertheless, the corruption and exploitation he had experienced made him turn his back on the sport.
“Boxing was one of the things I wanted to leave behind,” Merino said.
After immigrating to the United States at 22, he did continue training while in the U.S. Navy but it was not until well after he landed his job at USF 17 years ago that he found himself rethinking his resolution. A chance conversation in 1997 with Chuck White, director of recreational sports at the Koret Health and Recreation Center, gave him an opportunity to reenter the sport, this time as an instructor.
“The idea evolved through several discussions. It started as a boxing skills class and then he added music,” White said. “We tried it and it worked.”
Merino called his class “boxercise,” an aerobics class still offered at Koret that uses simple feints and ducks timed to music. Although the moves came easily, leading the class did not. Merino weighed 245 pounds at the time, too much for his 5-foot-8-inch frame, and he had trouble keeping up. Eventually, however, his stamina increased and his weight came off. The classes became extremely popular, with 60 to 70 students jammed into one room. Merino realized boxing could be a conduit to positive growth and experince.
“I found it was a way to give back to others,” he said. He then began voluntarily coaching students and low-income youth from the Tenderloin interested in becoming serious boxers. Practices were held in Golden Gate Park or Koret. A few of his protégés went on to compete, and one became semi-pro. Merino is not interested, however, in coaching professionals.
“I focus on the amateurs because there’s no money involved,” he said. “It’s for the competition, as a sport, a character-builder, and a form of self-defense.”
Recently, wearing a full suit of pads, Merino took punches from a small group of his serious trainees, including two female USF students. Raising baseball mitt-size pads on his hands, he instructed his boxers to make right and left jabs and upper cuts.
“He’s the only teacher who gives me all the attention I need,” said Alex Fontilas, a junior at USF who has trained with Merino since September. “[The training] has helped me focus better in the classroom.”
Fontilas is not the only student who has progressed as much outside Koret’s combatives room as he has inside of it. Merino demands that his USF students keep their grades up, and will not let them compete if their classroom performance slips.
“I’m not lenient in my training, I’m not kind. I push them,” Merino said. “But it’s for them so they won’t get hurt.”
His biggest hindrance, he said, is finding a place to practice. He has to make do with a few precious hours at Koret or War Memorial Gym.
“My dream is to make this alive, to get a ring and equipment,” he said. USF had a boxing team, the Grey Fog, from 1930 to 1960. At its height, intramural matches attracted thousands of spectators. With a master’s degree in sports and fitness management from USF and certification from the United States Amateur Boxing association, Merino has proposed adding a boxing class to USF’s physical education department but he said people are wary of a sport with a violent reputation. “It’s hard to convince people it’s pure. That it’s not a matter of knocking somebody out,” he said.
Currently, his core group of serious trainees—which includes eight USF students and one USF staff member—has a lot of potential. Roberto Graves, a sophomore, showed impressive agility on the floor. Sophomores Alicia Forbrich and Jaki Bergstrom, who are also boxercise instructors, said they are considering entering competition. “There’s no question the girls can compete,” Merino said, explaining that female boxing currently is a money-making sport. But then he sighs and shakes his head, adding that it’s also corrupt.
“I look at boxing from an economic perspective, that it can give someone an opportunity to do better for themselves,” Merino said. “I see it as something you dedicate your life to. When you step into the ring, and you have training and you’ve worked hard, you’re equal to the guy across from you. Whether you win or lose, that kind of self esteem you carry into all parts of your life.” 
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