Napier Dodgers Boxing Academy: Super Dean’s dream to improve young lives through boxing

Dean Moss has opened the Napier Dodgers Boxing Academy. Photo / Paul Taylor

“If you want to lift yourself up, lift someone else up.”

Those are words Dean Moss lives his life by, and regularly reminds his young charges of, at the Napier Dodgers Boxing Academy.

Moss came to boxing in his late teens. It wasn’t a sport he was particularly drawn to or passionate about.

But he quickly saw it making him a better person and giving him a community of people to be part of and answerable to.

Moss doesn’t box himself anymore. He eventually found coaching was his forte and it’s helping others achieve their dreams that fulfils him now.

Moss was a little boy when his father built a garage for him and his brother to use with their Matchbox cars. Moss Bros Motors it was called, igniting a dream.

Boxing made that dream a reality for Moss.

After years working as a mechanic for high-profile Hawke’s Bay dealerships, Moss is in his own premises.

On one side of the building sits Mossy Motors. Walk through the door and you’re transported to the boxing academy.

“I’m not an airy-fairy person, but I’m a big believer - only because I’ve experienced it - that things will come to you if you’ve got your mind set on that path,” Moss said.

There were times over the years when Moss might’ve given up on the idea of Mossy Motors. And every time, someone from his boxing life reminded him he could do it.

It was under the tutelage of Craig McDougall, at the Flaxmere Boxing Academy, that Moss began to understand what the sport can do for people.

By the time the Hawke’s Bay Youth Trust got involved in 2015 - and the name changed to the Hastings Giants Boxing Academy - Moss was coaching.

“Super Dean” is what McDougall calls Moss, for his commitment to giving kids a collegial environment in which to make more of themselves.

The pair wanted to deliver a similar youth-targeted programme in Napier and Dodgers is now two school terms into its existence and has already had to put people on a waiting list, given demand has outstripped Moss’ supply of time.

“The only problem of running something that people love coming to is once they’re here, they’re hooked and they stay here,” said Moss.

“Once I get an employee in the workshop to help me out, I’ll get another coach to help me in here.”

Mechanic by day, Dean Moss is a boxing coach by night. Photo / Paul Taylor

Leasing a building that could accommodate a gym and garage was always Moss’ priority. Not just for his own convenience, but because of the synergies between the two.

“It was 20 years of hard work to get to that point,” Moss said.

“Things just don’t fall in your lap, you’ve got to go out and earn it. That’s what I’d like to think we can show the kids.

“If you back yourself career-wise, like you do in the ring, there are opportunities out there for you.’’

But it all starts with good manners, respect and a commitment to inclusivity from the moment each shy, confused, sometimes angry boy walks in the door for the first time.

“People see boxing as an individual sport and it is. You’ve got to get in there and back yourself and there’s nowhere to escape those ropes,” said Moss.

“But to get there you need a whole team of good people around you. When you want to give up and you don’t want to do that last burst on the bag, you need people there to give you encouragement.

“That translates into everyday life as well and, for us and Giants, you’ve got a group of people backing you and pushing you to do what you want to with your life.

“Whether that’s getting in the ring or starting your own workshop, you’ve got people holding you accountable and that’s sometimes what you need.”