“Boxing has made me a better teacher and helps me as I’m working in this leadership role because of the independence I have gained from it. You have to make on-the-spot decisions, and the practice of that has made me a more decisive person. I’ve learned to take up space in a positive way,” said Melissa Boviero, Hackley’s Head of Science and, more recently, the East Coast female boxing champion.

Ms. Boviero has been a science teacher at Hackley for many years, but her love for boxing quickly took flight after the first time her daughter asked her to join her in trying out boxing for fitness. With other physical activities, she never felt as motivated to do them, but as soon as she tried boxing, she was energized, and it became an activity that she looked forward to from the beginning.

In 2018, she started to try out boxing with other people and quickly became motivated to compete in tournaments. She went to a coach, who told her to train more and build up her strength until she was finally ready to compete in her first fight in 2019.

From there, she continued to do fights on and off, but it did not come as easily as some may think. With boxing being a very male-dominated sport, finding matches with other women to compete against was a hard task. Also, Ms. Boviero started out boxing later in her years than most, and it being a weight class-based sport were other reasons why finding fights took longer to do. Even with these obstacles, she didn’t let this deter her and continued to train both her mind and body for any fights coming her way.

When a tournament opened in 2020, she was quick to take the opportunity, but she had to withdraw due to a torn ACL. During this time, COVID-19 had also started to become a problem, so she had time to heal and recover before boxing later in the future.

“I was super heartbroken when I found out I couldn’t go. I didn’t even know that I wanted to win this tournament, but then I got so close to it, and all I wanted to do was fight for the first time in a tournament,” said Ms. Boviero.

She quickly bounced back in 2022 when she re-entered another tournament and won her first national title at the Louisiana Southern State Tournament. After her win, she had another bad fall that left her needing surgery, but instead of quitting, she decided to focus on coaching for a while. She became a certified coach through USA Boxing and a cut woman for pro fighting as well.

“Becoming a coach was something that I was super excited about. It was a chance to mix teaching with fighting, and there aren’t many female coaches out there, so it was important for me to try this out,” said Ms. Boviero.

After coaching for a while, an opportunity arose for her to fight one final time before she decided to go into retirement. After USA Boxing decided not to host a women’s tournament this year, a group of women coaches banded together to create an East Coast Women’s Tournament.

In preparation for her final tournament, she participated in “fight camp,” where she trained intensely until she was finally at the championship, where she quickly defeated her opponents with ease. When she made it to the final fight, the night of she heard that her opponent had not made weight to be able to fight in the last competition. With boxing being a weight-based sport, they waited until the next day to see if her opponent would make weight again, but she did not end up doing so.

Even though she didn’t get to fight against the last person, her win was not diminished. Ms. Boviero had fought hard to get to the last round, where she was already sporting a black eye, and being both a coach and fighter was an incredible achievement. When they presented her with her belt, they gave a nice speech, and it was a great way to end her boxing career.

Ms. Boviero continues to spread her love of boxing all across campus, where she runs a middle school boxing club and teaches boxing for Hackley faculty at the gym. She also continues to coach and inspire all those around her.