UNLV boxers find home with transformation of bunker

It's inconspicuous, a bunker built into a side of a hill.

For years it served as a storage shed of sorts, primarily for the UNLV baseball team. It was a dark and curious building jammed with junk.

That was before its transformation. Now it's spruced up, freshly painted and redesigned.

Now it's home to the new UNLV club boxing team.

"This is something, isn't it?" said an enthusiastic Skip Kelp, a former professional boxer who's coaching the still-developing team. "I've trained in garages and basements, and this easily supersedes anything like that."

Actually, Kelp and his 42-person team have an attractive, quaint gym. Inside the bunker, which is tucked into a small hill near UNLV's old track, is a ring donated by Buffalo Bill's in Primm and a number of heavy bags. Lined up on the ring apron is an assortment of boxing gloves and protective gear, everything still looking clean and relatively unmarked.

These are the early days, the infancy, of a program its backers feel is earmarked for success.

"Skip is so good," said a beaming Bruce Kobrin, the program's unofficial godfather and chief fund-raiser. "I feel very comfortable with him and with the direction we're heading. Everyone I've talked to thinks this is a good idea."

Boxing at the NCAA level is on a club basis only, which means the university offers only tacit support. When UNLV launched its program last fall, it became the 23rd school with a club boxing team.

Today that team formally moves into its new gym, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the occasion.

"The biggest obstacle we faced was getting our own gym," Kelp said. "When we were able to get this, it was, like, incredible. I never thought we'd have our own place this soon."

Before converting the bunker into a gym, the UNLV team trained at Nevada Partners. But that facility is overstocked with professionals, and, while they were accommodated, the novices from UNLV were out of place.

Some behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Kobrin and others led to the university relinquishing the bunker.

"We're in a position where we can't ask for too much," Kelp said. "Maybe once we get going and show people in the community what we have to offer, we can get a few more things. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, because just a few months ago I never even fathomed having a team."

Kelp, once a promising welterweight, has lived in Las Vegas throughout the 1990s and was teaching martial arts and self-defense when Kobrin came upon the club boxing idea. "He said it would be fantastic if I was the coach," Kelp recalled, and after the surprise wore off he accepted the job offer.

Kelp, 28, was 24-4 as a pro boxer and was linked to Kobrin via Coors of Las Vegas, which employs Kobrin and once sponsored Kelp as a fighter. Kelp still teaches self-defense classes, although now his days are "consumed" by his UNLV team.

"I didn't anticipate this good of a response from the students," he said. "I never thought we'd have 42 registered team members in just our first year.

"And what I like about everybody is they're self-motivated. I'm not a cheerleader for them and I don't have to push them.

"If I did have to, we never would have gotten off the ground."

By NCAA edict, none of the team members has much experience with the sport. Anyone with more than five amateur fights before their 16th birthday is not allowed to compete.

"Everyone we have is green," Kelp said. "They're true novices and they'll be matched against other novices in competition. I won't let someone fight above his level."

Four of Kelp's team members will be participating in the Penn State Invitational this Saturday, which will be UNLV's first official competition. Aside from UNLV and Penn State, teams representing Navy, Virginia Military and Lock Haven will take part in the tournament.

UNLV sent four men to an earlier sparring session with Nevada-Reno last November at the Eldorado casino in Reno. "That was very unofficial but it gave us a good guide as to where we're at," Kelp said.

He also has four women on the team.

"We're open to any UNLV student who's interested," Kelp said. "If they just want to use boxing as a workout, that's fine. I let them determine how much they want to be involved."

The team practices daily in its new facility and hopes to host at least one invitational per year. Of course it takes a few dollars to support the program, and that's where Kobrin comes in.

"We still need a major sponsor," he said. "The community has been great to us and all the money we've raised is $500 here and $1,000 there. We'd take a casino as a sponsor if one would see fit."

In what will likely become an annual event, a fund-raising dinner was held late last year and some $20,000 was donated to the team. But it took $32,000 to renovate the bunker, plus there are expenses like travel, insurance and Kelp's salary.

"We'll see how the community responds to us," he said. "Who knows what will happen, but I'm enjoying it as it comes. We have the advantage of being in the boxing capital of the world and that sort of adds to our mystique.

"I think once we win a national championship, someone here in town will really want to adopt us."

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