FEATURE: Reese Johnson Providing Guidance for Kids in Boxing, and Life

When Reese Johnson made his first appearance at The Bloc, a boxing gym for young students on the West Side of Chicago, he thought he would put on a pair of boxing gloves and work with some students on their jabbing skills. However, that wasn't the case, as he and other members of the Blackhawks staff painted classrooms as part of the organization's city-wide day of service to kick off the 2022-23 season.
From there, Johnson knew he wanted to be apart of something more.

As an avid fighter throughout his hockey career, the Canadian forward found boxing interesting, and wanted to become more involved with it. By now volunteering his time at the nonprofit gym, he has the opportunity to only not train with students ranging from second grade to seniors in high school, but to also give them advice on being an athlete.
"[I got] to know some of the kids and kind of be involved that way," Johnson said. "It went awesome and was super cool to get to know some of the kids, but you get to know a couple of them more personally and kind of their story and how long they've been here and stuff like that. It's been unbelievable getting to know some of the kids and it's pretty special what [Founder] Jamyle [Cannon] has done and how he's built it and continuing to grow it."
The Bloc is one of the inaugural cohort members for the Blackhawks' and A Better Chicago's One West Side initiative, supported by United Airlines, that helps serve youths on Chicago's West Side. Jamyle Cannon founded the group as an space to provide a meaningful physical outlet for youth through boxing, and using the sport's hook to provide academic coaching and mentoring.
A class on Wednesday marked Johnson's third visit this season, where he continued to break a sweat after the team's practice in various activities such as shadow boxing, boxing tag and even faced a few punches from some students while wearing a body protector.
For Cannon, this opportunity allows Johnson to not only give advice but learn from the students as well.

"He's just been showing up and putting in good work and he's connecting with young people," Cannon said. "They have a ton of questions about what it's like to be him as a professional athlete and it's just been a really exciting thing for everybody involved because they get to work out with a professional athlete. He's learning from them and they're learning from him and it's just a great exchange."
One of Johnson's partners during the group session this week was Jayden Williams, who attends classes at The Bloc on a daily basis. Cannon chose Williams to work alongside the Blackhawks forward after all the hard work and dedication that he has put in over the last few weeks, knowing how much he could learn from the NHLer.
By the end of the class, Williams enjoyed being able to take some jabs at the 6-foot-1 forward that kept pushing him to keep going, but also giving Johnson some advice to help his boxing abilities as well.
"I feel pretty good," Williams said. "He put in the energy to keep me ready while boxing and he told me to keep going while I was tired. I think me and him did a really good job together."

As a class of younger participants ended and the next of older students began to walk in, Johnson sat down and caught up with some of the high schoolers he worked with in other visits.
In his sessions at The Bloc, Johnson has learned more about the students and their future goals in life, whether they wanted to continue in boxing or apply to different colleges.
"I was also telling them that it's fun to come and train a bit here," Johnson said. "But also, just to be able to chat and hang out for a bit and kind of have good conversation and kind of get to know them is more important to me, honestly."
By building personal relationships, it also allows the students to ask him questions on the best ways to train and how to stay healthy all while being a professional athlete.
"We have young people with some real athletic aspiration, so to have a chance to ask somebody what's it like to wake up in the morning and train or to talk about diet or things of that nature," Cannon said. "It gives them that opportunity and lets them know that you have to wake up and work every single day to get to the to the things that you're doing."

Even though health and fitness are always important, Johnson tries to emphasize to the kids that even though they are putting in hard work, they also need to have fun with it. When days are tough to handle, they still need to be able to push through it because they truly want to be there.
"It's very important to be able to have fun in what you're doing, especially if you're going to have a career out of it," Johnson said. "I mean, it's your job, but you want to be able to have fun with that and try to get better every day. Some days aren't going to be your best, but if you kind of take it day by day and take it as one day at a time is really important."
Heading into the second half of the season, Johnson looks forward to continuing his involvement with The Bloc while still connecting with the students as they continue to grow with the program.
After three visits, the 24 year old knows the students take in the values that they learn and also show the drive that they have every time he walks in through the door. Whether he is giving advice or learning from them, it is something he will always cherish.
"I think every kid's so unique that comes through here," Johnson said. "It's actually super cool to see because some of them I know [didn't have] the greatest upbringing in childhood, so to see the respect they have for people coming in, and the passion they have to actually teach you is so cool. So that was one thing that kind of stuck out."