Running, biking, and playing basketball are some common ways to stay active and in shape, but not for sophomore Lizzie Zemanek who turned to boxing as her exercise outlet.
“I started out just going there and working out,” Lizzie said. “They then wanted me to start amateur fighting, so I tried it out and ended up liking it.”
Besides just doing it for exercise, amateur fighting helped Lizzie learn how to protect herself from her older brothers who love to rough house with her.
“I have two older brothers who like to pick on me and I find myself having to protect myself,” Lizzie said. “So I thought boxing would be a good way to do that.”
Whether it’s her brothers or attackers Lizzie feels more comfortable that she can handle her own in situations that would require her to fight.
“It has given me much more confidence in myself,” Lizzie said. “If I’m in a situation I can more easily take control of the situation and if anything goes wrong I know how to defend myself.”
Although boxing taught her how to defend herself, some of the struggles she faced along the way, like injuries, were inevitable.
“I wasn’t mad that I was hurt it’s just something everyone who boxes goes through,” Lizzie said. You have to remember you’re not the only one who is hurt.”
Lizzie’s mom wasn’t too worried about her daughter when she found out she wanted to fight because she knew she could hold her own.
“Liz knew when to stop,” Lizzie’s mom, Corinnia Zemanek said. “For example, if she got hit in the ribs, it impacted her fighting so she knew that she needed to rest. So, I never really needed to fear because she knew when it began to be too much for her.”
Although boxing brings pain, Lizzie overcame it and fought through it to get her favorite knockout of her career.
“Halfway into my fighting career I had a really good technical knockout,” Lizzie said. “She gave up but the first round was really hard, she was beating the mess out of me but when I got mad and I got all the adrenaline I just kind of went all out and she stopped.”
Zemanek’s mom had faith in her daughter throughout her fighting.
“She’s strong so I never doubted her or thought she would lose a fight,” Corinnia said. “When she gets mad, she gets the strength to keep fighting.”
Though she never doubted her daughter, it was still hard for her to watch her daughter fight in the ring.
“As a parent, you never want to see your child in a fight,” Corinnia said. “It was hard for me to see her getting hit. It was almost like I could feel the pain just as much as she could.”
Boxing wasn’t the only sport Lizzie was doing at the time, she had to balance her schedule between school, track and spending time in the ring.
“[Girls track coach Ryan] Banta was really flexible with it I’d have to leave practice early three times a week and go practice at my gym,” Lizzie said. “I had to practice on weekends and just all of my coaches were really flexible.”
Banta willingly shares his athletes with coaches from other sports for he feels the girls gain more from doing other sports besides just doing track.
“They get more physical fitness from their other sports,” Banta said. “So for my sport it is much easier where as if it was a team sport if would be much harder to share kids.”
Once Lizzie started boxing she soon became the only girl in her gym, which helped her become the fighter she was.
“There was one girl in my gym but I sparred with her once and she didn’t come back so I had to spar with guys,” Lizzie said. “The guys were much stronger than I was so I think that helped me a lot and gave me the mind set that I have to get stronger so I can make an impact on them.”
With having to fight guys stronger then her, it helped her achieve things such as competing in Golden Gloves.
“I did Golden Gloves twice,” Lizzie said. “It’s where all the best fighters in different gyms come together and fight.It’s just a fight to see who is the better fighter and whoever gets the knockout, or has the most overall points for their gym, wins.”