If you ask Anaheim boxer Antonio Garcia what he’s grateful for this Thanksgiving, his answer will be the City of Anaheim Police Department Cops 4 Kids (C4K) program.

A 2013 Anaheim High graduate, Garcia has been boxing since age 15, when he joined the Anaheim Boxing Club, a joint program of the Anaheim Community Services Department and Cops 4 Kids. He credits the mentors he’s met through the program for shaping him into the man he is today, a 165-pound super middleweight boxer who recently earned a spot in the Olympic Team Trials.

2019 has been a very good year for Garcia. Along with earning a place in the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Boxing, scheduled for Dec. 7-15, in Lake Charles, Louisiana, he also won the 2019 State Golden Gloves Championship and he placed No. 2 at the 2019 National Golden Gloves.

Currently ranked No. 4 in the nation by USA Boxing, the 24-year-old elite boxer has come a long way from the teenage boy who joined the C4K Anaheim Boxing Club to defend himself from bullies.

“The program taught me the skills on how to defend myself if I was ever put in that situation. Thankfully, I have not had to use those skills,” Garcia conveyed via email.

“This program has kept me off the streets and into a productive environment where I have flourished. In the program, my health has improved tremendously,” he said. “I used to eat terribly and was a little heavier. Now, I am in control of my diet and have come down to a healthy weight.”

He’ll take a day off for Thanksgiving, but then Garcia will at the Downtown Anaheim Youth Center boxing ring training for the tryouts in Louisiana, where he will compete against “the best of the best” for a spot on Team USA Boxing at the Tokyo Olympics

“The Cops 4 Kids boxing program has impacted me greatly,” said Garcia. “I am truly grateful to have had this program in my life.”