Hill Street Boxing Set To Open New Location in Riverhead Where Emphasis Will Be Putting on the Gloves and Pushing the Action

Hill Street Boxing is ready to get serious with the latter part of its name.

When it opened its doors on May 5, 2018, at 33 Hill Street in Southampton Village, co-founders Avery Crocker and Thomas Haynia envisioned a space where the boxing wasn’t so much the focus as it was the workouts that are included in the sport — and anyone could come in and not feel intimidated to work out in a family-like atmosphere. Over five years later, that business model has worked seamlessly and, well, business is booming.

From the very start of their business venture, though, Crocker, the founding trainer and manager, and Haynia, the owner, have always envisioned opening an additional location that focused solely on the boxing. The time for that appears to be now.

Hill Street Boxing is set to open its second location at 1074 Pulaski Street in Riverhead where Crocker, Haynia and their team plan to spread their wings in boxing. They feel the location, which is across the street from Stotzky Memorial Park and right where Columbus Avenue and Pulaski Street come to a head, in the same area where Safari Adventure and various other business lie, was something they couldn’t pass up and one they were tipped off by a new partner and addition to their team, Justin Mattera.

“Riverhead has been a vision of me and Tommy’s since we opened up and have always looked to expand farther west,” Crocker said. “We always wanted to expand from Southampton up island a little bit to build up our brand name and reach out to a wider demographic. We’re excited to reach this goal of a second gym and kind of redo what we already do while also bring in that fight team that Tommy and I always wanted.”

Haynia, a Quogue resident, said in terms of whether this fit his timeline of expanding, it’s probably the perfect time. The group that he leads had been looking for an additional space, but was having a hard time coming up with something that fit their needs. Mattera, a special education teacher at Westhampton Beach High School, where Haynia’s sons Max, who just graduated, and Marcus attend, gave Haynia the tip that the particular location was becoming available. Mattera just so happens to be heavily involved in boxing also, and will be a part of the team at the new location.

“I was actually looking to build a building but that still was a ways away from happening, so when we fell into this, Justin Mattera was interested in making a fight team and he was the one who found the spot and brought it to our attention, so it all just worked out,” Haynia explained. “It wasn’t really the right time personally with my son graduating and going into the Army, but I would say business-wise it was the right time.”

Grant Keelan, a manager at the Southampton location who will still be there from time to time but will be helping getting the Riverhead location on the straight and narrow, is excited about the new team he’ll have there. Jess Capurso, who recently qualified for the Olympic Trials and reached the finals of the Golden Glove Nationals, will be part of the team there, as will be Kevin Eras, Martin Hopwood, Sam Iadicicco, Savannah McDonald, Doug Milano and Alexus Suydam, some of whom are familiar names, having worked in Southampton, and some of whom are new and are bringing strong boxing backgrounds with them.

One thing that Crocker and Haynia want to do with the new location is to really connect with the local community, especially the local youth in the area, and introduce them to the sport of boxing, even if that means giving them free classes and/or possibly getting one of the many numerous businesses in the area to sponsor them. They also want to continue to work with local law enforcement and volunteers, as they do in Southampton, to give back to them and offer whatever discounts they can to make sure they have the skills they need to defend themselves, if need be.

“It’s a better location than Southampton in regards to working with more kids,” Haynia said. “I did this more so that kids in the area can come in and learn how to protect themselves. We weren’t really getting that in Southampton. It was more of the fitness aspect, and that’s fine and that will continue over there. But we also think we’ll have more of a connection to many other school districts, whether its Riverhead, Manorville, Hampton Bays, Moriches. A lot of our clients come from Hampton Bays and getting to Southampton right now takes them an hour or more. So Riverhead is more of a great central location.

“But the biggest thing is giving back to the Riverhead students and the kids,” he reiterated. “I think the kids will want to be there. And if they can’t afford it, we’ll find ways to be able to keep them there, [like] going around to the big businesses and asking them to sponsor a kid for a year. We’ll do some fundraising for them, anything we can do, we’ll do.”

Crocker, a 2002 Southampton High School graduate, wanted to make it clear that Southampton is not going anywhere and that location is here to stay. If anything, he said, the hope is that the Riverhead location will help bring business back to Southampton, but as was previously mentioned, most classes are already full.

The new location in Riverhead will be hosting an open house this Saturday, July 15, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to introduce itself to the community and so people can check out the new space and meet the trainers. Families are welcome and the plan is to officially open on Monday.

“Riverhead has been always something we wanted and we’re excited with what we built in a new town, a new place and to meet new people in the community,” Crocker said. “We’re going to be shifting pieces here and there. I feel like I’m always going to want to be in two places at once, which is impossible I know, but Riverhead is really a phenomenal facility. The location is top notch. For Southampton, it’s going to be business as usual.”