Montville Woman Wins Gold Gloves Tournament

Connecticut Hall of Fame boxer Roland “Rollie” Pier is in his 70s now, but he still goes to Strike Zone gym in New London every weekday to help train aspiring fighters. While he loves boxing, the attitude of students is making it harder and harder for him to keep showing up.

“They wear their hats sideways and their pants pulled down, and they don’t want to listen,” Pier said. “And they want to get in the ring on the first day, and you just can’t do that. It grinds on me, you know.”

And while there are “quite a few kids who are all right, and (Stike Zone owner) Kent Ward is one of the best trainers around,” there is one person who keeps him coming more than any other: Kelsey Kaiser.

The 112-pound Montville resident with “one of the best right hands I’ve seen for somebody that size” is his little spot of sunshine, even so much so that he calls her that.

“I really love her as a person,” Pier said. “I’ve been (training boxers) for a long time, you know, and for some guys it is new and exciting. But for me, it is old hat. It can be a tiring, repetitious thing. But she makes it worth it.”

And now, Peir’s “sunshine” is a champion. Kaiser, 24, won the New England Golden Gloves tournament this month, for the second year in a row.

Kaiser

Kasier graduated from Waterford High School in 2006, and went off to Eastern Connecticut State University. A person who requires a lot of stimulation, Kaiser partied hard, and wound up at Mitchell College in New London, still unsure of what she wanted to do with her life.

Three years ago, one of her friends told her to go to Strike Zone. Despite some concern from her parents, and the usual trepidation of trying something new, she fell in love, not just with boxing but with Pier, as well.

“I love staying active, working out, and I’ve always been aggressive, so boxing was a good fit,” she said. “And I love Rollie, he just got me hooked… He is like another father for me.”

Ever since, Kaiser has trained three hours every weekday. She also got a job she loves as a paraprofessional at Clark Lane Middle School, working with the same autistic child for three years in a row.

“That gym changes you,” Kaiser said. “I used to just like to party, and have fun, and you know. But not anymore. No point.”

The Champion

For the finals of the New England Golden Gloves 2012 tournament, Kaiser went to Lowell, Mass. Despite only one other person from the New London gym fighting that night, the entire Strike Zone team went with her.

“We are like a family,” Kaiser said.

She was nervous, as she is before every fight, but prepared.

“I’m thinking of all the things that my coaches taught me,” Kaiser said. “You want to use everything you learn, you want to put it in action. I want to make my coaches happy.”

She did, winning her three-round fight by unanimous decision. After losing her first match, Kaiser has won five in a row, including two Golden Gloves championships and a PAL championship belt.

“It felt really good," Kaiser said. "I could have definitely been better, I still need to work on some stuff. But it was really good."

Kaiser wants to improve enough to go pro, although she also wants to go back to school to become a gym teacher. She is thinking of going to school at night, while still boxing when she can.

Whatever she chooses, she'll have Pier in her corner. The New London resident said he has a "great-grandfather" type relationship with her.

“She is a tremendous person, and I’ve grown close to her as a great-grandfather type of guy," Pier said. “She makes me want to go to the gym."