San Bernardino's 'Terrible Terry' Washington qualifies for US Olympic boxing trials
Wearing a red T-shirt with white cursive "Terrible" across the front, 19-year-old Terry Washington turned out to be not so terrible after all.
The young San Bernardino athlete is now an eight-time boxing national champion and just qualified for the 2024 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for boxing. His coach Ian Franklin thinks the sky's the limit.
Washington's life story up to this point is partially told by his coach, as he's watched the boy evolve into a young man while in his Project Fighting Chance program over the past 11 years.
"We've had six or seven thousand kids come through our program and we've had the pleasure of having 14 national champions and this is our third Olympic trial participant," Franklin said.
"Terrible Terry'" Washington has a record of 65 and six and has already won a gold medal at the USA Boxing National Junior.
Admittedly, Washington says he wasn't easy to deal with at first, at 8-years-old.
Franklin spotted the young Washington on a day when he was recruiting kids, trying to get them off the streets and into the gym.
"I remember the first meeting. I remember it like it was yesterday. I seen Terry and he was tiny. I'll never forget, he had like a little hat sideways. I asked him if he ever boxed, he said 'no but I know how to fight,'" Franklin said.
"We took him home a few times from the gym and said, let's try again tomorrow." And so came the nickname, "Terrible' Terry" Washington.
And when he finally did put the youngster in the ring, he easily took out three other kids his age, or size. "In the first 30 seconds he was too much for them, so I stopped it, put another one in there and same thing happened and after the third one I said, 'okay go work out' I gotta figure out something to deal with this tornado," Franklin said.
Washington attributes his fighting spirit partially to the toughness of San Bernardino. "It's not easy to grow up around here. You gotta have tough skin. You gotta stay focused to be able to want to get out of here," Washington said.
Part of that toughness has been refined through the Project Fighting Chance Program, targeting the community's at-risk youth.
"Since I started boxing, Project Fighting Chance has taught me how to be a man and it changed my character and it changed the way I talk and how I respect people," Washington said.
"Terrible Terry" Washington has a record of 65 and six and has already won a gold medal at the USA Boxing National Junior. He says he can't wait until December for the Olympic trials.
Aside from the goal of winning Olympic gold, no losses and making history, Washington says he wants to be a source of pride for San Bernardino. He wants the community to be proud of "Terrible Terry" Washington.
Project Fighting Chance was started by Franklin 24 years ago as an after-school program for the community's at-risk youth. "Boxing is what we do, community is who we are," Franklin said. "We're a safe place for kids. We're a place where kids want to be."