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Bailey Hiser

Jayson Scott in training

When sophomore Jayson Scott talks about a smoker, he’s not referring to someone who uses cigarettes and vape pens, he’s talking about a boxing match. Scott, a 15-year-old North Platte High School student, has been boxing for about three years. He also competes in wrestling, taekwondo, and jujitsu. “It was scary the first time I punched someone, I always felt bad in wrestling if I accidentally hit them,” Scott said. After six matches and a lot of sparring, Scott says he has grown more accustomed to it. “We usually talk afterward,” he said. “I know that my opponent is trying to win too, and he’s trying to knock me out; you can’t take it personally. Some people have ignored me if I won when I tried to talk to them, but we’ve never actually fought after the match.”

Living in the middle of Nebraska hasn’t made competitive fighting any easier for the young boxer. Scott said the biggest obstacle for him right now is finding people to fight. A challenge for him was when he had to move up a weight division at a smoker in North Platte. He said fighting someone bigger was intimidating, but it made him better. “I try not to think about my opponent before the match because I overthink it and can get scared, so I will talk to different people like my friends and my dad to refocus,” said Scott.

This pre-match mentality proved effective for Scott at the Silver Gloves Boxing Championship held in Fremont, Nebraska on November 7. Jayson entered the competition with a 3-2 record and faced off against an experienced opponent from a different division that already had 15 fights. The match lasted three rounds and ended in a split decision that handed Jayson his fourth win. “[My opponent] was super technical and quick, I couldn’t even see his punches coming. It was a tough match and it taught me that I need improve my speed, so we’ve been working hard at that during training,” said Scott.

Alan Scott, Jayson’s dad, is a big part of his success. “Anything Jayson wants to do, I will push him in that sport, but I won’t push him towards anything. Boxing was his idea. I always say he can have a day off from training if he needs it, but he always wants to come,” said Alan Scott.

He says that people would be surprised by how much running goes into Jayson’s training. “Throwing punches at someone for 10 minutes may look easy but it takes a lot. It’s about breathing,” Alan Scott said. “Training is the hardest thing about this sport,” said Jayson Scott. When preparing for a match, Scott will train six days a week. Some of this training involves sparring MMA (mixed martial arts) fighters while his dad coaches him through it.

“At school, he eats the chicken sandwiches with no buns to avoid the starch,” Alan Scott said, “Jayson has to want it for himself, I can’t go to school with him and make him not eat the bread, it’s about doing it [training] on the days you don’t want to.” Jayson Scott said that his meals consist mostly of chicken and rice the week before a bout. “He’s practicing discipline and developing a good work ethic that will help him push himself later in life, in all aspects,” his father said.

You might think that someone with mad fighting skills would show them off whenever they could, but Scott says that the discipline practiced in boxing has the opposite effect. “Boxing has taught Jayson that he doesn’t have to fight anyone at school to prove anything. It’s given him confidence,” said Alan Scott, “and people don’t pick on the confident kid.”

Where will Jayson Scott apply his fighting skills in the future? He hopes to use them as an MMA fighter post-graduation. “He’s really well rounded for MMA, if that’s what he wants to do,” said Alan Scott. “I’m just gonna keep training throughout high school,” Jayson Scott said. “I’m not really interested in the money or fame, I just love the sport.”