West River Eagle

Boxing club provides direction, consistency for local youth




Brett Brings Plenty punches a training bag last week as he prepares for a fight this past weekend in Montana. Brett, at 16 years old, is the oldest member of the club.

Brett Brings Plenty punches a training bag last week as he prepares for a fight this past weekend in Montana. Brett, at 16 years old, is the oldest member of the club.

each punch of the bag. Only on a couple instances, Clark gets ahead of his punches momentarily breaking up the rhythm before pausing and starting the process over until he gets the desired result.

In another corner 16-year-old Brett Brings Plenty, the club’s oldest member, dances around a punching bag striking it with fury in each punch.

On the other side of the building, inside the boxing ring, club members break a sweat as they run in place and drop to the ground performing up/downs or burpees. Yet in another corner, the swish and whirl of a jump rope can be heard as the young girl attached to both ends hops in unison.

Across the room, boxers, of different ages and talent levels are there, each with their own sense of purpose.

The Wolves Den Boxing Club, started in 2000 by Joe Brings Plenty, a police officer with the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, provides youth in the area an opportunity to participate in a activity and a place to belong.

Although Joe was no stranger to boxing, he never expected it to go to the level that it has today.

“I wasn’t really expecting to be a boxing coach,” smiled Brings Plenty.

Brings Plenty said his dad and uncles were his first coaches.

“One of my uncles in Porcupine coached out of his basement, I started when I was eight-years old, we used to hit up smokers,”.

After starting with the police department, he put on some boxing gloves once again.

“ I got back into it when they started doing boxing matches between the Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Police Department’s. I knocked out a few of their fighters,” chuckled Brings Plenty.

Following those matches, he caught the attention of Dean Schrempp with the Cheyenne River Boxing Club who asked Joe to box with them. He won a few matches with the club. His son started coming with him and got into it himself. At that point he was 32 and was starting to get too old to compete.

He began coaching, and other kids started coming around, it all took off from there.

“The reason why I started the club, some of the parents in the area asked me to work with their kids. I think it was because I had good rapport with them,” said Brings Plenty.

“Some of the kids I worked with were no different than I was when I was a kid, we are all from the rez, life is kinda tough.  We connect on that level.”

Because of that background, Joe said he believes the kids can relate to him and in doing so they listen and follow directions pretty well.

“These are a bunch of good kids, you know, everybody has their own issues, we all got our own stuff to deal with, for them boxing was like therapy.”

In the last 17 years, the club has evolved with some ups and downs. From starting in a basement, the club moved to the Boys and Girls Club building and back again to his basement.

“We’ve had some makeshift equipment over the years,” he said. “Clinton Simon made a bag stand for us, a lot of old bags were donated, and we utilized all of it.”

Last year, with the help of a $200,000 Tribal Equitable Compensation Act (TECA) grant, the club has been able to do some equipment upgrades and is located in their own building.

The club is located in the former tribal dialysis building behind the movie theater.

Although that location has been accommodating for the club, Brings Plenty is hoping to maybe find a larger space.

“We do have a lot of kids come, some come and feel it’s a little too crowded and they’ll walk off. We are hoping to maybe upgrade to a bigger spot. We could easily pull in 25-50 kids if we have the space, right now we consistently have 16 or 17, with only nine or ten competing.”

With the grant, the club was also able to purchase a new van to travel to matches. 

Prior to the club receiving the TECA grant, Joe ran the club out of pocket and by donations.

“I drove my past two Durangos into the ground traveling and taking kids to bouts. TECA has really helped us out. We’ve had people donate in the past, but the past year and a half things really picked up for us.” said Brings Plenty.


He is also putting in for a new boxing ring. The club’s current ring is 60 years ago. It was bought from Eddie Martinez in Rapid City. Although fairly sturdy it has started to show its wear and tear. Before the Junior Olympic bout last weekend, a few boards had to be repaired.


“Hopefully, we are looking at a custom Wolves Den boxing ring, with full logo all black and white,” said Joe.


With the club, Brings Plenty just doesn’t teach boxing, but cultural identity.


Everything about the club comes down to meaning, from the clubs colors to the name. Brings Plenty said the black and white colors comes from an old story, it’s a warrior color. Black is the color of danger and also devotion to protect the Oyate or whatever it may be. He explained that the color of white is that of healing and also of strength from our relatives, the buffalo nation. 


“Warriors a long time ago used to wear these colors.”


When kicking around an idea for a club name, Brings Plenty said people would ask me, look at your boxers what does that remind you of?


“To me, they reminded me of a bunch of little wolves,” said Joe. “Wolves Den was based on a society of a wolf pack, from the youngest to the oldest, everybody serves their purpose, but it’s all for helping each other.”


“That’s what these kids do, they look out for each other. They’ve grown from really angry kids, to well mannered gentlemen and ladies.”


“I started incorporating cultural aspects of Lakota into what we do, I think all the kids like that, they like knowing about themselves, the history of the Lakota people and we try to instill that into them so they can be proud of who they are.”


Many of the bouts the club travels to are out of state, where they meet people from all walks of life.


“When we go to different places out there, people look at us right away, they understand we are from the reservation and right away they look, maybe they are judgmental in a way.  I think through boxing we are starting to change that idea of our clubs coming off the reservation, these kids are pretty tough and they are slick in the ring, they’re changing minds.”


For the young boxers, the club is not just a boxing club but also a safe haven.


“Immediately it’s a safe place for them to be, unfortunately with a lot of things here on the reservation, there is not a lot of consistency, it’s not the kids’ fault, it’s just their environment. They way I look at it, it’s important to interact, but to also open that door at 4:30 so those kids have a place to be. They’ll stay there til about 7. By the time they are done with the boxing club, they don’t have any energy to go out and mess around. Gives them something to do, keeps them away from the bad element,” explained Brings Plenty.


“Reservation life is hard. Some of us don’t really understand from a child’s perspective what they are going through in their own homes or wherever they may be. Unrealistically we have expectations of them to be there at school to function, to snap to it, even though they are resilient they are real strong, they snap back from things. Things that us as grown ups would take us a couple days to recover from. We still have those expectations of them but they don’t complain.”


“Those younger ones they have this boxing club to come to and band together as brothers and sisters, makes it a bit easier for them to face those dangers out there, unfortunately right here on our reservation or anywhere in the world.”


The former CRST chairman believes the club has been a positive force for those that have come through the door.


“I’ve seen some kids grow up in that boxing club, they’ve turned into fine young men and woman. Some are off to college and doing good stuff or working. To me it’s instilling that self discipline, or helping them understand what those limitations are, to push past them, or to make themselves better in certain areas of their lives. It’s all about opportunities out there, and going out and seeing the world and meeting people, Hard work is a big part of it, if they can do that, they can pretty much hold down a job consistently and really do well for their families.”


He hasn’t had to do it alone, over the years parent volunteers have stepped up and helped. More recently parent Beau Maynard whose daughter Layla competes and Ike Halfred whose son Isaac boxes come and help in the corner. Roberta Tiger, whose daughter Sapphire competes, comes and helps with officiating.


Brings Plenty is appreciative to all those in the community who have helped out and supported the club.“


I want to express my appreciation to those that have supported the club, especially


Chief of Police Joe Wicks who allows me to be at the clubhouse at four everyday, the Chairman’s office, Tribal Council, Eagle Butte 20-1 Superintendent Carol Veit for allowing us to use the Upper Elementary Gym, and the TECA board.”


The club will be hosting a Memorial Boxing match on Saturday, May 27 in memory of former boxing club members Austin Miner, JC Garreaux, Jake Longbrake, and Tanner O’Leary.


The Wolves Den Boxing Club sign greets those entering the club house, the former dialysis building behind the movie theater.

The Wolves Den Boxing Club sign greets those entering the club house, the former dialysis building behind the movie theater.

Nine year old Keenon Clark works on his speed and rhthym as he hits the speed bag last Wednesday night at the Wolves Den Boxing Club.

Nine year old Keenon Clark works on his speed and rhthym as he hits the speed bag last Wednesday night at the Wolves Den Boxing Club.

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