By Matthew Shears
Stuck staring at a screen all day, senior Easton Bell needed an outlet.
Easton spent part of his freshman year like many current seniors at home doing school work on his Chromebook day in and day out. He needed an outlet to escape the constant repetition of his everyday life during COVID-19, so he turned to boxing.
“Freshman year sucked so bad for me. I was always frustrated and was always so mad,” Easton said. “But I was always really good at fighting people so my mom said, ‘Why don’t you go try [boxing]?’ My mom, my dad and little brother, we all went [to the gym] one time and I didn’t stop going.”
Easton practices at the Muncie PAL Club on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays for 4-5 hours each evening. He drives 30 minutes from his house to get to the gym each day that he practices. This is a positive in Easton’s eyes because it allows him to warm up if he is headed to the gym or cool off as he is leaving. It also gives him the ability to reflect on his experience at the gym on his drive home.
Easton is going to the gym to prepare for something that happens annually: Indiana Golden Gloves.
“Golden Gloves is a state-sponsored tournament that they have every spring,” Easton said “I’ll probably do that this year.”
He has had one match so far in Golden Gloves in 2023.
He hasn’t been in any other matches so far but he has to stay in shape all year round to stay ready for a fight because amateur fights can happen at any time since it depends on when your coach finds you a match.
Luckily, for Easton to stay in shape for his matches, he didn’t have to cut weight. When you have to cut you have to watch what you both eat and drink the entire time you are cutting.
In Easton’s case, though, to be prepared for matches “it was a lot of sparring and a lot of running, which is terrible,” Easton said. “Fighting people is no big deal, but running is awful. It’s a lot of discipline, a lot of hard work, and a lot of the same stuff every day.”
While there are some similarities between boxing and team sports, such as having a repetitive schedule, Easton is adamantly opposed to playing team sports.
“I know I couldn’t wrestle because I don’t like people grabbing me. I couldn’t do that,” Easton said. “So I went to try [boxing] because solo sports, when you’re doing them by yourself, it’s different, because if you lose you don’t have anyone else to blame. If you lose, it’s your fault. That’s why I like solo sports more than I like team sports.”
Easton’s mom, Ann Bell, believes that individual sports are better for her son anyway.
He played football before switching to boxing.
“Freshman year for Easton was Covid so they did away with the freshmen team and put freshmen and JV together,” his mother recalled. “So freshmen never got to play He went to every summer practice.”
Throughout his years of football Easton didn’t get much playing time so he stopped playing team sports and went to boxing.
Easton does have one team though: his family.
“My mom and dad, they always would rather me do it in a ring than on the street or at school or whatever. They love watching me,” Easton said. “Most people’s moms would have been scared or nervous, but not my mom. She wanted me to do it and my dad coaches me. He trains me so they love it and I love it. So without them it would be a lot harder to do what I love.”
Easton’s brother, Elijah Bell, is another one of Easton’s many supporters.
“There’s nobody to help him or save him so I think he likes that part,” Elijah said.
His dad, Mike Bell, also helps.
“I was coaching him this whole time. I was with him every night,” his father said. “It wasn’t a lot of physical help, it was being there for him emotionally and mentally because it takes a toll on you more than just physically.”
His mother is actually the one who suggested this idea of boxing to Easton.
“Easton was naturally very talented at a lot of sports, but when he was little bit younger he didn’t have to put in a lot of work because he was naturally very good, and so I wanted him to learn that with boxing you kind of rise or fall on how much work ethic he put into it,” Ann said.
Unlike you might think his mom actually doesn’t have an issue with the aspect of boxing where Easton might get hurt.
“I thought it would bother me more him getting hit, but I don’t know … I looked at the sport of it,” Ann said. “But I’ve never seen him get completely pummeled either.”
As for the rest of his family and friends, his grandparents always ask how he is doing when he sees them, his brother will help out by training certain things with him and his girlfriend Savannah Jennings helps him all the time with things like putting his gloves on for him, taking the bag out of the car and getting his drink for him.
