Family and Friends Remember Jizelle - Pt 3
Pages: 1 : 2 : 3 : 4 : 5
TriniView.com Reporters
Recorded: January 07, 2009
Posted: January 19, 2009
Demetri Stroude, coach and judge from Magic Community Boxing Gym, Carenage:
DEMETRI STROUDE: Words cannot explain the kind of things she did for Trinidad and Tobago that put [us] on the map. I doubt we will ever get another Jizelle Salandy with the kind of talent she possessed. I saw her from amateur days to professional [days]. When I saw Jizelle for the first time, I knew we had a champion. The way she conducted herself is a real role model and it is a great loss. Right now, I am speaking to you and I am getting cold bumps because I feel it. When I heard about the accident, I rushed straight to the General Hospital and I watched her in the morgue just lying down like if she was sleeping. And her face was untouched. To the boxing world, it is a real loss.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What impressed you most about her?
DEMETRI STROUDE: What impressed me most about her was how she conducted herself. Even though she is the world's best in the women's welterweight division she wasn't too big to talk to. She always reached out to you. Every time Jizelle fight, I made sure and say, "Jizelle, come!" and she would come and take a picture with me because it wasn't no big deal. Jizelle Salandy stands out in the boxing world as a boxer and as a human.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think the nation could learn from her life?
DEMETRI STROUDE: The young people of Trinidad and Tobago can take a step in Jizelle's direction. You know how dedicated she was to boxing; boxing was her life. She trained hard and she did everything towards boxing. If you dedicate yourself as a sportsman or a sportswoman in Trinidad and Tobago as how Jizelle did it you are sure to make it to the top.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Any last words?
DEMETRI STROUDE: It's a sad day for Trinidad and Tobago and the boxing community. I am hoping Magic Community Gym can present or produce another Jizelle Salandy.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Molly Boxill, former member of the TT Boxing Board:
MOLLY BOXILL: I knew Jizelle Salandy from a child of eleven years old. I was there when she came into the gym with a fractured hand in a cast. She came in with her adopted brother with her hand in a sling. I forgot his first name but he was Eligon. He started to use the punching bag and when she saw it, she took her right hand and started jabbing at the punching bag. We said, "Waaay! This little girl has potential," and we started to heckle her and we say we will wait until her hand gets better. Her hand took about a year and something to get better and after that, we took her in. She was in the Fitzroy Richards Gym at the Siparia Senior Comprehensive School and she was trained by Fitzroy Richards.
All Jizelle's fights away (abroad) I went with her and I was a judge. Jizelle was a boxer that had a kind of inner potential that anywhere we go, instead of the people backing their people in their homeland they were backing Jizelle and they would tell us, "Keep with that girl, she is going to make it one day. She will make you all proud one day." Some of them were talking in Spanish and I would ask, "What are they saying?" Somebody would explain what they were saying. But they were all in Jizelle's favour. I remembered quite well when we went to either Guatemala or Curacao and she did so well, everybody there lifted her up after the fight. That was where she got her first belt: the IBERO. At fourteen years she got her first belt there and from there we were going on. I went all about with Jizelle. She was a person that you could have traveled with. Sometimes when we got delayed at an airway station she would make us laugh. It was a joy to work with Jizelle.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think the nation can learn from Jizelle?
MOLLY BOXILL: A lot of lessons. The young people could learn from Jizelle. She was an example for the young people. She got some exposure but not as she would have done if she was alive. The young people must learn from Jizelle because Jizelle was an example to the young people of Trinidad and Tobago and I think that the schools and people in sports, like myself, can talk to the young people about Jizelle so that they can follow.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words you would like to share with us?
MOLLY BOXILL: Well I am saddened this morning. The boxing fraternity has lost a boxer. We have lost a good soul and I know that she will be well-received in heaven and I know that her family and her adopted parents are saddened by what happened. What I am telling you here, the young people from Jizelle's death will learn. Trinidad will be a different place to live in with the young people from this death. We are not happy that she died like that but it is a sort of a turning point for the young people. I sympathize with the family and everybody in the boxing fraternity and I want to give them that courage and that God is there to strengthen us. I myself I can't take it. You see how all the young boxers come holding onto me? I need their strength right now. I thank you for this interview.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
RAWLSON DOPWELL: I am a boxing coach of the Golden Fist Boxing Club. My brother Ulric Johnson is Jizelle's main trainer and because of this we have a closeness with Jizelle and nothing else could bring me here today more than Jizelle Salandy.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you think about her contribution to the boxing fraternity?
RAWLSON DOPWELL: What I must say is that Jizelle really brought life back to boxing in Trinidad and Tobago and not because Jizelle did it fast and furious, and go. I hope that the boxing fraternity continues to grow for Jizelle's sake.
TRINIVIEW.COM: How do you think the nation could remember her best?
RAWLSON DOPWELL: Remembering her best for me, I am always going to remember Jizelle because of boxing. I am a boxing fan, a boxing lover and I used to box. I will always remember Jizelle, the way she raised the standard of boxing in Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the Caribbean and the world. What I would like to see is that they do good things. All that she wanted, I wish it could be done.
TRINIVIEW.COM: You deal with a lot of young people. What lessons do you think young people could learn from her life?
RAWLSON DOPWELL: They have a lot to learn from Jizelle's life. My club on the whole; we followed Jizelle a lot and they take Jizelle as their main role model in life. Most of the girls want to be another Jizelle Salandy. The boys have their own way about going about things and I as the coach with the motivation, I feel that we will reach there some day.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Kim Quashie: you were very close to Jizelle, what can you tell us about the life of Jizelle Salandy?
KIM QUASHIE: As I said earlier in an interview, humble child. She tried to please everyone and in pleasing everybody I said, "Jizelle, there are times when you got to do what you have to do. Some may get hurt, but you do what you feel, whatever your heart tells you, you do it. Be yourself, nobody cannot change who you are and along the way one or two people will get hurt." Things like that will happen when you are dealing with a person like Jizelle Salandy.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you think are some of the lessons we can learn from her life?
KIM QUASHIE: Being humble. Jizelle is a child anybody could have disciplined, speak to her, rough her, she comes down to being humble and any child you can get being humble right about now will take this society very, very far.
TRINIVIEW.COM: How do you think the nation could best remember her?
KIM QUASHIE: The same type of person that she was. As I said to you, humble. She tried to please everyone and for a person at that young and tender age to try and please everyone is so unique because at times like these you don't get people trying to please everyone. She was the type that will try to please everybody so that it wouldn't have any animosity or any stuff like that.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words you would like to share with us?
KIM QUASHIE: That child will be sadly missed by me because we had a bond that many people didn't know about. That bond that Jizelle and I had was different. Like I was placed in her life at that point in time to guide her through and I am only saying, wherever she is, may she rest in peace because she was a peaceful person. She tried as I said to everyone, to be humble, to please everyone and in doing that some may get hurt no matter what she did. Jizelle, wherever you are, in time we will meet. I love you and I will always continue to love you.
I found Jizelle around the age of twelve or thirteen when her mother died. We grew so close and she was everywhere with me. Her mother was a sort of a big person like me so I don't know if when she lost her mother she felt that she had one who she could hug; so I gave her that because I know a child around that age losing a parent is very difficult to cope. She was always on my shoulder playing with my ear, playing with my bosom, making me feel comfortable and I had loved that and the loving type of person that she was. People who weren't very much involved in this kind of thing wouldn't know what I am going through. She said to me, "Kim, I am tired. I am tired of the fighting; I am tired of everybody; just no love." I said, "Baby you hold out, make this your last fight." This fight that is coming up here in April was going to be her last fight. She said she just wanted to just disappear from here and maybe she was sending a sign to me that I didn't know because using the term "We will disappear from here," it catch me now as she said disappear. She said, "We will just lock off we phone and nobody can't call and bother we."
A lot of people had envied the relationship that child and I had. I always say God knows best. She is an individual and many of us might not know what she was going through at certain points in time by trying to please everyone. She was a humble child and along the way she had to hurt somebody. Jizelle tried very hard in the boxing fraternity to knit them together. Jizelle came to the gym when she had a broken hand and my former trainer was showing me how to throw the jab and she was just punching the bag and he said to me, "Kim watch the little girl with the bandage on her hand." He said she is going to be a world champion and that is what he made her to this day. She was about thirteen years old at the time. She is a world champion and may her soul rest in peace. Until we meet again. At such a young tender age what did Jizelle do? I wouldn't say she was robbed of life because I would be throwing that in God's face.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Chimere Taylor, what inspired you about Jizelle Salandy?
CHIMERE TAYLOR: She was a person who was determined. She had 'bad mind' in the ring. Whether she was going to be weak or whether she was going to drop, she always pushed herself. She was a person who pushed herself a lot and that is good. She had very good technical work on the whole. She was really good at that.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you think is the importance of sport in a person's life?
CHIMERE TAYLOR: Mostly discipline. It helps you in your work, how to speak to people and a lot of ways in life.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Winston Cox, Trinidad and Tobago national coach of the men's boxing team:
WINSTON COX: I am here today to pay tribute to the loss of Jizelle Salandy who was one of our greatest female boxers in history at a young age. I am sad to know that she had to go so tenderly by an accident that took place. All the people of Trinidad and Tobago are mourning right now because of a great loss. We have to try to bring back somebody like Jizelle Salandy. It will take us some time and it is heartbreaking.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What do you think about her contributions to Trinidad and Tobago?
WINSTON COX: Her contributions were great because she fought very well to put a little dot like Trinidad on the world map. I don't think any other female boxer in the world has achieved like Jizelle Salandy. She was the greatest from a tender age. It's so hard to know that we lost her at this tender age. She would have been twenty-two on the 25th of this month. She was genuine and polite and the things that she wanted to do for the young female boxers who are coming up we just lost it and it cannot be done again but I know that someone will come and put it out because we have boxers like Chimere Taylor who is also a great boxer. We have Jamila Jones and a lot of good women boxers who will come to fit in. It will take time and it's a lot of hard work. I pay all tribute to Mr. Buxo Potts who guided Jizelle Salandy, also the Ministry of Sports, Mrs. Joan Yuille-Williams and everybody who took part in getting Jizelle Salandy to where she is today.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think we could learn from her life?
WINSTON COX: The lessons I say we could learn from that, and I am putting this to the youths who just got their drivers license, is to take their time and drive on the road because a lack of experience is going to put them into a lot of trouble. Speeding is not driving, it is 'gallerying'. I am saying that they should learn this lesson from what happened to Jizelle Salandy and also our great hero Richard Thompson who got away by the skin of his teeth. He has a lot to praise God for and many others who were there with Jizelle Salandy and Richard Thompson got away like the footballer Tamar Watson. She should be able to sit down now and say, "Thank you Lord for sparing me to see the world once more."
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President, Jack Warner:
JACK WARNER: This is one of the times I am at a loss for words. As I said before, she is an icon; she was one of a kind. Just like how we have one Sparrow, one Sobers, one Mohammed Ali, we have one Jizelle Salandy and my only hope is, of course, the legacy that she would have left in boxing can be carried on.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think the nation could learn from her life?
JACK WARNER: First of all that you are never too young to be an achiever and, of course, the success from the dedication and the commitment which she had for her profession is one that should be emulated by all young people.
TRINIVIEW.COM: How do you think the nation could best remember her?
JACK WARNER: They can best remember her for what she did in the ring and for the success which she never allowed to get to her head. She remained a simple and humble person and for me that is the greatest achievement. She was never arrogant, successes never went to her head and she is a role model for young people.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words to share with us?
JACK WARNER: All I can say is that I hope the family and the boxing fraternity could quickly find the means whereby they could, of course, keep her memory alive. I don't know if it will be a street, an academy or whatever they can do to keep her memory alive.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
Professional boxer, Ria Ramnarine:
RIA RAMNARINE: I have known Jizelle Salandy since she made her debut. We both made our debut on the same night which was on December 3rd 1999. Throughout her career she always showed her talent in the ring and always giving excellent performances in the ring and out of the ring. She was a nice person. Around 2005 or so we didn't see each other all that often but whenever we did, we were always pleasant with each other. It is really a sad thing that has happened and a tragic loss that we all have to come to terms with. But as I keep saying, let us celebrate the life of Jizelle. There is much to celebrate and let us be kind enough to let her go peacefully. Jizelle, this is the eleventh round, the last bell has rung and you go on and continue looking down on us.
TRINIVIEW.COM: What lessons do you think the nation could learn from her life?
RIA RAMNARINE: There is so much to learn in terms of motivation. She always did have the spirit to excel and everything. I think one of her mottos was to excel or die and she always excelled. I think if we do not learn anything from her death, more importantly, she would have served no purpose; so we as a people have to learn. The young drivers out on the road, let us learn from this, be more cognizant, be more considerate to ourselves and to the other drivers.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Do you have any last words to share with us?
RIA RAMNARINE: I just want to say to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and to the boxing fraternity worldwide, we have lost a great boxer and a great person but make no mistake about it, her legacy will always live on.
TRINIVIEW.COM: Thank you.
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