Tucked in the corner of a warehouse in Waipio is the area’s latest offering for young, restless bodies: 94Box, a keiki boxing and training gym with ambitions far bigger than the humble space it currently occupies.

The boxing ring fits snugly, wall to wall, in the back of the warehouse unit; the rest of the area is filled with training paraphernalia and a tall wooden frame adorned with 94Box’s six core values: education, knowledge, discipline, integrity, respect and courage. When kids (and adults too, during open gym) come to train, the two values overlooking their workouts are education and knowledge.

It might not have been intentional, but it fits the vision of gym co-owners Vince Longboy and Gee Viloria. They want to, as Viloria said a week after 94Box opened, “create a legacy for the kids” in their hometown and beyond.

That hometown is Waipahu, and if you’re putting “Viloria” and “Waipahu” and “boxing” together — you’re not wrong. But 94Box isn’t directly affiliated with Brian Viloria, the former world champion and 2000 Olympian who now works as a trainer in California, and younger brother Gee said he doesn’t want the gym to be “a Viloria gym.”

(Brian did come out for 94Box’s grand opening on the Fourth of July, and Gee said he offers advice and mentoring. But in-depth participation isn’t in the cards.)

The Vilorias and Longboy came up together working out at Waipahu Boxing Club, and for a time Gee Viloria and Longboy were angling to take over coaching there. They said their experience with the city’s parks department was a “waiting game” in which they waited … and waited … and waited for nearly two years.

In the meantime, Viloria and Longboy were training kids out of their home garages — a tricky prospect in the last year and half amid the pandemic. Viloria said doing so “sparked us to really think about opening up a private gym,” where they could welcome more youth and have, as Longboy said, the freedom to do what they wanted to do.

What the pair wants to do reaches beyond boxing. Longboy emphasized the gym’s position as a place where they as well as the other coaches, Mike Pacheco and Marvin Martinez, can offer guidance and mentorship to their young students.

“I always had a thought” about working with kids both in and outside the boxing ring, said Longboy, who noted his experience at the Youth Challenge Academy helped him after being a “wild child” himself and inspired him to want to give back and provide the same kind of guidance he received.

“It was meant for me to focus on the kids,” he said. He began looking into making his ideas a reality after returning home from the Marine Corps, which he joined after Youth Challenge.

Viloria agreed that “it’s time for our kids to shine,” and to that effect the 94Box team works with keiki of all ages. The gym offers a couple of ways to train, including a formal program for kids starting around age 8 and open gym time for both students and adults. It plans to field a competitive team and also, Longboy said, eventually will strive to add programs for other groups such as veterans, women and the elderly.

Longboy added that a nonprofit venture is in the works, too.

94Box’s first days open were long and busy, as Viloria and Longboy expected. But it was a positive experience, and the 94Box team looks forward to bigger things to come.

Viloria and Longboy have taken what they know and love — the sport of boxing — and are using it to give back to the community they know and love. It’s a winning formula, especially because kids get the most benefit of all.