Building Better Athletes Through Social Work

In the 2023-2024 season, the USC Trojan Boxing Club had five athletes on the winner’s podium at the U.S. Intercollegiate Boxing Association (USIBA) National Championships, including the award for Best Male Boxer of the Tournament. It also produced USC’s first ever National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) champion, Jordan King, a business administration major at USC Marshall School of Business. King received The John J. Fitzpatrick 2024 Most Outstanding Boxer Male award for his performance at the NCBA championships. Even one of the coaches for the club earned a national championship from USA Boxing, contributing to what the group has defined as a “Cinderella season.”

What is even more impressive is that the boxing club is only in its third year of competition after being revived by a group of student athletes and coaches under the leadership of head coach Omar López, professor of practicum education and assistant dean at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. López and others have grown the club from eight competing team members to 30 strong, with an overall student membership of 120+ at its peak and five volunteer coaches. López weaves elements of his social work training into his coaching style, emphasizing the practices of assessing person in environment, motivational interviewing, well-being and sportsmanship.

López, a certified USA Boxing coach and instructor who is also known as “El Profe” in the master’s division of amateur boxing, feels very strongly about being a role model for his student athletes. More than 20 years ago, López found boxing as a way to deal with his own stress. 

At age 24, half way through a two-year stipend program commitment working for Child Welfare Services in San Diego after earning his Master of Social Work (MSW), he was feeling burned out. He turned to a mentor, one of his former MSW professors, who walked him through the process of thinking about what he could do to help himself. López remembered the fun he had in high school when boxing with his friends, so he went to a local boxing gym and signed up. 

“It literally changed my career — my life,” López said. “It really allowed me to decompress and be more focused. Not only that, I got lucky with the coaches — they taught me what it took to compete.” 

He quickly realized some of the same principles found in competitive boxing were what he needed to succeed as a social worker. López began translating what he was learning at the gym into his career at child welfare services. After four official bouts, he stopped competing in boxing due to the demands of his job, but continued to train for himself. In 2010, he joined the faculty at USC, but by 2016, he started to notice the same symptoms associated with a high-stress environment following an administrative appointment and decided to revisit his competition-level training as a preventative step against burnout. López began competing in the master’s division of USA Boxing, winning several tournaments, including some at the national level, with 30 bouts at different weights ranging from 139 to 165 lbs.

Incorporating social work skills into boxing?

In 2022, López agreed to lead the Trojan Boxing Club, which was struggling after the pandemic. As young students navigating their world at USC, his boxing athletes needed much more than just a coach. 

“It became very apparent, and it was a big surprise to me, that I didn't sign up just to do boxing,” López said. “I realized I needed to do emotional development, mentorship, I was a proctor for their exams — so it required a lot more.” 

From the start, López noted that his student athletes were showing signs of depression, anxiety and stress while adjusting to their new undergraduate university environment, and he could see how it was impacting their training. 

“They were expressing trauma that they had experienced,” López said. “They really opened up, so I had to put on my social work hat to process some of the things that may have been preventing their ability to perform a particular task or particular exercise or to just get in the ring.”

After the first year, López decided to forego his coaching stipend to help the club’s budget, and now volunteers as the head coach as part of his service to the university. He began coaching his boxers to be intentional about what they needed to do to succeed at boxing and in life. He starts with a “boxer-in-environment” approach — based on the fundamental social work practice of assessing person-in-environment — helping the boxers understand how everything around them impacts who they are and their intrinsic motivation to achieve something. 

At the start of each season, López requires his boxers to read sections of “The Six-Minute Fraternity: The Rise and Fall of NCAA Tournament Boxing, 1932-1960.” Then, he asks them to answer three prompts: 1) Collegiate Boxing is… 2) I practice collegiate boxing because… and 3) I hope to gain _____ as a result of my participation in collegiate boxing. 

“I have used these responses to find out what drives each of these students, and together we have worked on defining a purpose for their boxing,” López said. “In turn, I am making the connections with other aspects of their personal, academic and professional lives, which seems to be a winning formula. I continue to witness their growth, not only in the ring but, most importantly, out of the ring in their lives as students.”

In line with his social work training and practice, López does not dictate or profess to his athletes, but rather lets them talk and then offers his reflections on what he has heard. During these sessions, usually at the end of practice, the athletes break down everything they learned, felt and their reasons for being there through a community “round-table” approach inside a boxing ring. Often López will ask them to repeat their thoughts so they can listen to themselves again and fully articulate their feelings. He says it helps them find their own words and reasons for why they get up at 5:30 in the morning to run two to six miles, or figure out to change where they hold their hands if they are repeatedly getting hit in the nose!

“These are amazing students who are performing well in the ring because they are understanding how to transfer the skills that led them to a top university like ours,” López said. “They are understanding the idea of reflection to improve their athletic performance.”

Learning leadership by example

Parker Chang, an electrical and computer engineering major at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, is the current president of the Trojan Boxing Club. Chang had no background in boxing before joining, but was looking for a community.

“I was kind of a weird kid, had a chip on my shoulder,” Chang said. “I had confidence issues, especially coming out of COVID, and my social skills were definitely crippled.” 

After two years of boxing in the club, Chang says he has learned how to open up, be more friendly, talk to people and manage himself better. And this season he became a national champion. 

“My confidence is totally different,” Chang said. “I feel that my world view is a lot more mature and I'm just happier in general.”

Chang praises López’ emphasis on community within the club. He says López acknowledges that boxing is a combat sport with many big personalities on the professional level who do a lot of trash talking. But at USC, they are there to make each other better and support each other as students and as people. 

“He’s not just an athletic coach, but he also serves as a life coach,” Chang said. 

Being part of the boxing club significantly changed the overall well-being and academic journey of Jade Brewer, a real estate development major at the USC Price School of Public Policy. It also provided the sense of belonging that she was searching for at the university.

“Boxing motivated me to complete my degree,” Brewer said. “Without the support of the USC Trojan Boxing Club coaching staff I wouldn't be on track to finish my degree. Nor would I have the honor of being a national collegiate champion!”

Jordan King, captain of the competition team within the club, says López has shown him how to be a leader. Unlike most club boxers, King has been boxing his whole life and hopes to compete professionally. King credits López with teaching him how to balance all his responsibilities and to have healthy communication.

“He [López] goes out of his way, he’s always there for me,” King said. “He helped build the team from essentially nothing and allowed me to help. He’s a real mentor to me. We have high team morale and it’s all due to him.”

López says the foundation he has stressed for his athletes involves a solid understanding of sportsmanship. For him, that means they carry themselves with integrity and let values be their guide. The students know they are representing themselves, their teammates, their coaches and the university.

“This is not only going to get us some championships — hopefully, more of that — but most importantly, it’s going to affect how they carry themselves in professional settings out in their communities,” López said. “That's the main principle that I'm trying to instill.”
 

Omar López served as a consultant for the development of The Transformative Power of Social Work in Sports (SOWK 603), a new course open to all USC students beginning in January 2025.