Legendary Waipahu boxer and coach Al "Quick" Silva is a happy man again.

The beloved boxing gym at Waipahu District Park, where he coached thousands of youths including boxing champions Andy Ganigan, Jesus Salud and Brian Viloria over a span of 70 years, was back in business yesterday.

The gym had been closed since December after a part-time city employee and coach left the Waipahu Boxing Club, said are City Councilman Nestor Garcia. At the time, the city required that the vacancy be filled by someone who is a city employee and who is licensed by the state Boxing Commission. Garcia worked with the city Parks and Recreation Department to change that rule, allowing boxing clubs to use city gyms without city support so long as they have someone licensed by the commission.

About half of the 30 boxers, ages 9 to 17, who last trained there were on hand, punching bags and sparring yesterday.

Ben Vilaflor, another Hawai'i champion who trained at Kalakaua Gym but is a close friend of Silva's, was on hand yesterday to offer tips to some of the young boxers.

Silva, 90, was born and raised in Waipahu, which he describes as "God's country." A champion during World War II, he lives in an elderly housing complex nearby that overlooks the gym. "From December until now, I would look out and tears would come from my eyes," Silva said. "Boxing is my life."

Most youths who train at the gym come from disadvantaged families, he said. "We want to keep them off the streets. That's my main concern."

"A lot of the kids that come here, they don't have anyplace else to go to," said club president Joanne Adric, a Waipahu Intermediate School teacher.

The potential students of tomorrow include several girls. "We don't bar nobody, but they have to follow our rules," Silva said.

One of the rules is that every participant shakes everyone's hands when they enter the gym and when they leave.

"Al's not just a coach. He teaches these kids respect," Adric said.

When the gym shut down, "the kids in the program were just devastated," Adric said. "They trained every day, that was their life."

No one pays any fees, and all the coaches are volunteers.

But while the city once helped pay for equipment at the gym, a new nonprofit group will raise funds for future replacement purchases, Adric said. The nonprofit was set up with the help of Garcia, a Waipahu native who is a former student of Adric's and who, according to Silva, came around the gym as a youth "just to fool around."

Garcia, in remarks delivered at a ceremony yesterday, said: "It goes to show you that we in Waipahu can accomplish much by getting involved in the solution, rather than standing on the side complaining about the problem."

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.