Faith-based boxing club proposed in Leetsdale

Amateur boxer Jaryd Boyer hopes to expand his mentorship program and develop a faith-based boxing club in Leetsdale.

The Sewickley resident and founder of the Premier Youth & Community Center has his eyes set on an old meat market along Broad Street.

Boyer said he is working with the property owner to clear out some space by mid-May and move in his ring and some equipment by the end of the month.

Additional renovations are expected in June for a possible launch of the Premier Fight Club in late July or early August.

“It’s like a blank canvas where I can build something,” Boyer said April 22. “This will be my fifth building, and each building I turned nothing into something.”

He still needs to acquire permits and possibly other approvals from the borough before he can sound the ring’s bell.

Brief club history

Boyer opened his first Premier Fight Club on New York Avenue in Rochester in 2015 with former world lightweight champion Paul Spadafora.

Within a few years, it evolved into Premier Fitness & Boxing Club as a way to help get Beaver County youths off the streets.

He then moved programs to a spot in Ambridge and rebranded following an expansion into Hopewell in 2018.

Now called Premier Youth & Community Center, Boyer had a bigger capacity and reached more people at the Hopewell Shopping Center.

A member of Revival Today Church in Coraopolis, Boyer instills a message of faith into his programs.

Officials at the Sewickley Community Center along Chadwick Street learned about Boyer’s initiatives and welcomed him and PYCC into the fold in 2022.

PYCC hosts all-day sports camps, youth and family bowling leagues and youth and family boxing programs among other activities. About 150 to 200 kids participate in the camps.

Boyer is assisted by his wife, Melanie. More than 600 youths and young adults have stepped through the Sewickley Community Center’s doors since their arrival.

The Sewickley board recently hired him as the center’s program director.

“The community as a whole has been significantly benefited and enhanced with Jaryd’s presence,” Sewickley Community Center Vice President Stratton Nash said April 22.

“We have someone that is initiating and directing programs at the community center for the first time in a couple decades.”

Nash said he supports Boyer’s plans to set up a club in Leetsdale.

“That’s a good deal because he’s still in the community,” Nash said. “It adds a boxing component, which is his background, and the community really benefits in a two-prong way.”

Mentorship expansion

One of PYCC’s defining programs is its Mindset of a Leader mentorship initiative.

It is an engaging eight-week program two days a week in June and July that focuses on physical, mental, spiritual and emotional development for teens at no cost to participating families.

Boyer’s team and guest mentors talk about their lives, goals and advise on managing situations.

About 30 youths signed up and 24 made it through the entire curriculum last year.

A graduation celebration took place Aug. 1 at War Memorial Park in Sewickley.

Boyer said he plans to offer that program again in some form this year and expand upon its principles at the Leetsdale property.

“We’re building people that build people,” Boyer said. “There’s no greater investment to make than in the future, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Borough introduction

Boyer, 42, made his pitch to open a boxing club in Leetsdale at a council meeting April 10.

It would be open to all ages and skill levels.

Boyer said he looked at other Sewickley locations, including one by the Scoops ice cream shop along Beaver Street, and ultimately decided Leetsdale had the space to suit his needs.

“Boxing is my thing, and at all my other facilities (besides Sewickley) I’ve had a ring,” he said. “I’ve been searching this whole time for a place to bring my ring with me. … I can really be like neighbors with the community. It will be great.”

Council did not take any action related to the proposed boxing club at the meeting.

Council President Maria Napolitano said she spoke with Sewickley Community Center officials since that evening and liked what she heard.

“I have heard many good things about Jared from the Sewickley Community Center,” Napolitano said April 23.

“They have a very good program there. His colleagues there are speaking very highly of him. They praised his work.

“I look forward to seeing what Jaryd is planning in Leetsdale. We haven’t had anything like this in my memory. He will need to comply with all current and future zoning and building requirements.”

Napolitano said about 24% of borough residents have young children, and having a boxing club in a highly walkable community may bring more young families to the area.