It takes a special person to be a special boxer.

Demands on the body are severe. Senses tend to go numb. And denial of the finer things in life is a given.

“Three things help a fighter,” said Jose Santos, former Cleburne High football standout and head coach of the Johnson County Boxing Club in Keene. “You have to be strong mentally and physically, and you have to be disciplined. A lot of people don’t realize how the mental part plays into boxing.”

Just try thinking about throwing your next punch when your brains are being scrambled by a hook off a jab.

“They get hit,” Santos said, “and they think, ‘Wow, this hurts,’ or ‘I’m getting tired.’ I thought I was in good shape when I took up boxing in 1999. I’d just stopped playing football. I stepped in the ring and thought, ‘Oh, man.’

My first trainer was Joe Guzman in Fort Worth. He took it to me pretty good. Here I was thinking I was in the best shape of my life. I could bench press this and squat that and run a good 40 time. But boxing is different.

“One thing [former Cleburne football coach Dennis] Parker used to tell us was, ‘It’s not who hits the hardest that’s going to determine who wins. It’s who hits the longest.’ He also told us, ‘You’re going to want to quit at least one time in your life. You’ll want to quit your family, your work, something. But you can’t give up. You’ve got to keep hitting.’”

That which Parker taught Santos, he tries to teach his young boxers.

“It’s all about what’s in your heart,” Santos said.

In 10 fights over three years as a novice heavyweight, Santos had a 6-4 record, certainly respectable.

“I didn’t feel as though I wanted to be [open heavyweight],” he said. “One year, I fought light-heavyweight, which is 201, and then I fought 201-plus. It was pretty good experience because I was fighting guys who were 250 pounds. I can’t say there was a time I was intimidated.

“I’d look at teammates’ faces, and they’d be like, ‘Look at this guy. [Santos] is going to get creamed.’ But they were all the same size to me when I got in the ring.

“Everything I got from football, I took to boxing. Parker had some of the best motivational speeches, and I had some of the best motivated teammates to play with.”

There was boxing in Santos’ past, and there is supposedly boxing in his blood.

“My mother told me we had a family member who was a professional boxer,” Santos said. “I have family in Mexico that boxes. I boxed in high school under coach [Scott] Ford. We did that for a year in off-season. From that time on, I had a passion for boxing. I remember Paulie Ayala [two-time world champion boxer] coming to Cleburne High and signing autographs. He had a real passion for boxing.. I ran into Ayala last year at one of our spring break tournaments. He asked what part of Johnson Country we were from. We started talking, and he remembered coming to Cleburne.”

Santos and fellow coaches T.J. Terronez, Jason Gonzalez and Joe Reyes hope to nurture good boxers.

But that’s not the main reason they do what they do.

“Our main goal is to get kids off the street,” Santos said. “We want to help them stay out of trouble. T.J. is one of my oldest friends [and a former Yellow Jacket teammate]. Jason is an ex-Junior Olympian and a former bodyguard for the rap singer Fat Joe. Reyes is one of my most dedicated coaches.

“I’m head coach. Murray Cox, a professor at Southwestern Adventist  University, started the club in 2000 and turned it over to me.”

The team trains at Peterson’s Gym in Keene.

“There’s nothing fancy, no ring,” Santos said. “We have headgear and gloves and other equipment.”

Among the fighters are two of Santos’ brothers, Alejandro Santos (201 class) and Eric Duran (125 class).

“They’ll be fighting in the Golden Gloves in February,” Santos said. “Our boxers range in age from 8 to 25. The Gloves will be a 5-day tournament this year. It was 4-day last year.”

After a short break, workouts begin anew in January on Sunday, Monday and Wednesday from 6-8:30 p.m.

Santos will take virtually all ages. Kids work out free. It’s $20 for adults.

“My daughter [Jaslyne Santos] is 6, and she’s already working out with me,” Santos said. “I’m not going to turn anybody down, but there’s a reason I have 10 kids. Boxing is not for everybody, and I want the ones who are going to last. Those 10 are going to get a lot of attention. I treat them like my own kids.”

For more information, call Santos at 817-524-5120.