Champion for Charity Paige Pye has little Rylee in mind as the London cop jumps into the ring
By Jeff Hicks
LONDON —
There’s a little lady with a dash of light brown hair.
Her name is Rylee.
She’s got a six-week old smile that melts Paige Pye’s heart and makes the 40-minute drive home from Pye’s gruelling Champions for Charity training in Kitchener seem like the happiest return trip.
“Every time I come home, Rylee is always smiling away,” said Pye, whose wife Emily delivered nine-pound Rylee at exactly 11 o’clock on a Tuesday morning in January.
“It brightens up my day after a hard morning of training.”
Usually, when Pye comes home, Emily and Rylee are just getting up.
A police offer. A nurse. A newborn.
Yawns. Sighs. Big smiles.
“She’s been pretty good,” Pye, a London police officer working on her sociology degree through Western University, said of daughter Rylee.
“A little bit of sleepless nights. It makes training a bit harder. We’re figuring it out.”
Training is almost over for the Forest City cop with Family tattooed above her left elbow.
The Brawl at Tapestry Hall is coming up fast, on April 12th.
Twenty first-time charity fighters, including Pye, are poised to step into the boxing ring to raise funds — $259,000 and counting — for McMaster Children’s Hospital Foundation.
Ten bouts. Three or four tables for the Pye entourage. One great cause.
“Just thinking about Rylee,”Pye said. “The thought of her and other kids needing those services at McMaster was a real motivating factor for me.”
Pye’s cousin Clayton is an inspiration too. He just turned pro as a mixed martial arts fighter.
“After watching some of his fights live, I thought it would be cool to try to do something like that myself,” Pye said.
Further motivation may come from Rylee’s wide-eyed glance.
There’s a chance Tuesday’s Child, full of cheerful grace and cheeky grins, may make an appearance on Fight Night. Emily’s mom is on baby-sitting duty and will watch Rylee’s mood.
“It depends how the night goes, how fussy she is,” Pye said.
Either way, Pye plans to float around the ring with family in mind.
Her tattoo sleeve has a hummingbird for the hovering nectar-slurpers her dad Scott loves to feed. There are roses for mom Judy. There’s a Pi symbol for 3.14 generations of family heritage.
Of course, Lady Justice stands blindfolded the middle of the muscular ink montage.
Appearance means nothing in the unbiased boxing ring. It’s about connecting with punches. And controlling the ring. And points. And who is still standing.
Emily shakes her head at Paige’s courageous foolhardiness for such intimidating endeavours.
Paige the cop. Paige the armed forces reservist. Paige the fighter.
To Emily, it never seems to end.
“I think she’s excited about it,” Pye said of Emily’s reaction to her boxing foray.
“I think she thinks I’m a little bit unhinged too.”
Team sports like hockey, soccer and baseball seem behind Pye now like so many abandoned balls and pucks. Boxing has her smitten and hittin’ for a solo cause.
Sure, she’s part of the Red Team on Fight Night, determined to outbox the Blue Team.
In the ring, however, she says she’s by herself.
Yet, a new parent is never alone.
Emily is beside her.
And a little lady with a dash of light brown hair — and a big smile — fuels every punch.
“There is nothing I wouldn’t do for her.”
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