TRAVERSE CITY — The fight is not over.
It’s just that the next round inside the ropes will be in a different location.
Trigger Boxing is moving to The Kaliseum in Kalkaska, ending a 32-year run at various locations in and around Traverse City. Owners Bill and Robbin Bustance said they will continue their “mission” of helping the community, especially at-risk kids.
They’ll just be doing it 24 miles to the east, starting on April 16.
Even though he admits to feeling melancholy about leaving, Bill Bustance said relocating to a county that was 77th among the state’s 83 counties in terms of Overall Child Well-Being in the 2017 Kids Count in Michigan Data Book squarely fits inside the ring of what Trigger strives to accomplish.
“Boxing is kind of a poor sport sometimes,” said the 66-year-old Bill. “It was always a place where poor people could raise themselves up and this will give them an opportunity to rise up in Kalkaska.”
“It truly feels like a next chapter,” added Robbin Bustance, 57. “I think it’s another opportunity for us.”
Trigger Boxing has been located at 1220 Woodmere Ave. for the last 13 years.
After the building was paid off a couple of years ago, the Bustances were exploring other locations around Traverse City that would be more affordable. Bill Bustance said similar boxing clubs downstate often are located in vacant former government buildings or churches, sometimes rent-free.
“We tried to stay,” he said. “We really tried to stay.”
“We’ve exhausted all efforts to look for a place in Grand Traverse County,” Robbin Bustance added.
Trigger Boxing’s at-risk youth program was subsidized for years by the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and other grants. The facilitation of that grant through Grand Traverse County was on the ropes in June of 2012 before a compromise was reached to continue.
A previous working relationship with Kaliseum director Krzysztof Oliwa eventually led to a one-year contract to move Trigger Boxing to Kalkaska. Trigger also has worked with SEEDS at the facility.
Robbin Bustance said it was easy to look forward to the new union.
“They want us there, they need us there, they’re happy to have us there,” she said. “It’s really hard to be sad because we can continue to do what we do here.”
Oliwa also is looking forward to Trigger’s arrival.
“Adding them to our programs here at the Kaliseum will have amazing benefits for Kalkaska County and beyond,” Oliwa said. “It’s very exciting.”
Oliwa said a lot of the details still need to be worked out. But Oliwa remembers the “huge health benefits” of boxing when he played in the NHL.
Known as a physical player, Oliwa had 1,447 penalty minutes during 410 regular season games. He said an hour of boxing often felt like getting hit by a semi truck, but was “a tremendous workout if you want to stay in shape.”
Oliwa added the professionalism of the Bustances and their 30-plus years of experience will contribute to his vision of making The Kaliseum one of the best places in northern Michigan.
“Me as the director of The Kaliseum, the members and the people I’ve spoken to in the community are very excited that he’s coming,” said Oliwa, the only Polish player to get his name on the Stanley Cup.
Plans are for Trigger Boxing to have all its equipment out of the building by Sunday for the move to Kalkaska. The new boxing club will be located above the hockey rink in the Kaliseum.
“It’s going to be beautiful,” Robbin Bustance said.
The boxing ring again will be at the center of the new space in Kalkaska.
Inflatable boxing gloves that hang above the ring in Traverse City from a Toughman contest also will make the move, in addition to an American flag, a gift from a former pupil. Bill Bustance said the former Trigger Boxing Club member remembered an expression while in a particularly harried moment as a jet pilot in Iraq.
“You can do anything out there for two minutes,” Bill Bustance recalls his former pupil telling him. “Go out there and finish.”
Trigger Boxing also will take lots of memories from working with an Olympic champion, three national and nine state champions. But there’s also working with “lots and lots of kids,” Bill Bustance said.
“Boxing is a small little pond once you get to know people,” he said.
After the club gets settled in Kalkaska, Robbin Bustance said they want to hold an alumni picnic, “invite anyone who’s ever come through this place” and share stories as Trigger Boxing Club goes into the next round of its saga.
Since the Bustances live in Williamsburg, moving to Kalkaska should be seamless for the couple.
“You go to (M-72) and its 20 minutes right, it’s 20 minutes left,” Robin joked.
http://www.record-eagle.com/news/business/trigger-boxing-club-moving-from-traverse-city-to-kalkaska/article_762300a0-1876-5204-ab1c-d51d19c56980.html
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