Beloved boxing coach in Prince George, B.C., taught punches and changed lives

Betty Clark was only about five feet tall, but she knew how to throw a mean hook. 

She was, after all, a level-five certified boxing coach, the top credential for instructors. For 25 years, Clark trained hundreds of students at her inner-city boxing club in Prince George, B.C.

But it's Clark's work outside the boxing ring that family, friends and students are remembering after her death earlier this month during emergency surgery.

Clark, who died at 69, was a youth care worker and tireless advocate for kids at risk. They came to her classes at Shaolin Boxing Club to escape life on the streets, and she helped them build confidence and set goals. 

"She taught me so much discipline and to work hard," said Calvin Tedesco, one of her former students. 

"It was no question whether or not I could do it. She would just say, 'OK, we're doing this workout today and you just do it.'"

Turning lives around

Betty had been involved in martial arts for years as her own kids learned kung fu. 

A young man she was working with ran into trouble at the boxing club he was training at. Clark tried to get him registered elsewhere but had no luck. 

So, she opened her own club in 1993 at the Connaught Youth Centre. All were welcome, she told CBC News in 2013.

"Everybody's treated the same. It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from."

Tedesco, her former student, is a testament to that. He joined the boxing club in 2013 after he was released from custody in Surrey, B.C., over an assault.

Clark issued him a strict regimen: a half-hour of running every morning for six days a week, plus boxing training three evenings a week and lifting weights. 

"I didn't have time to mess around with any other stuff or people who might throw me off my game," Tedesco said.

'She was my rock'

The community has been rallying since Clark's unexpected death. People have donated to help cover funeral costs. Comments have also poured in online about the legacy she left behind.

Clark could "calm a grizzly and turn a lion into a scared kitty," a former student wrote. There have also been calls to add Clark to the Prince George Sports Hall of Fame.

"She was my rock," said daughter Candice Clark. "She was a lot of people's rock."