Sheffield school which taught two world champion boxers hopes to inspire students

After getting expelled from his last school, it was the beginning of a journey alongside the world famous Ingle boxing gym to use sport as a way to stay out of trouble and not to give up on education.

Now, 18 years later, Barry – better known as World Featherweight Champion Kid Galahad – returned to the Shiregreen school to show off his championship belt.

In an assembly for the academy’s Year 11 students, the 31-year-old conqueror told the teens the visit had brought back memories and he felt like he was back in school – and that the only way up was through hard work.

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Barry told the students: “It takes a lot of hard work, dedication and commitment.

“When I was 13 I had been kicked out of two schools already. I went to Ingle’s gym and said ‘I want to be a champ’.

“But my coach, my mentor, Brendan Ingle, realised I wasn’t in school. So he dragged me to Hinde House and I met the teachers and he made sure I stayed.

“So I stayed in education, I did the work and the rest is history.”

Kid Galahad’s win in August makes Hinde House the only school in the world with two boxing world title champions in its alumni.

The other is Naseem Hamed, known in the ring as Prince Naseem and who went on to win multiple world championships.

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Of course, he is also the fifth to come out of Wincobank’s Ingle Gym, the world famous coaching club formed by the late Brendan Ingle MBE with a history of using the sport to set troubled youngsters back on the right path.

Coach Dom Ingle told the assembly that every time young Barry strayed, one of the team would set him straight again –but it was up to the teenager to put the work in.

Dom said: “The difference between getting there and not getting there is sticking with it. Whatever you want to be, commit 110 per cent.

“Barry didn’t get here by himself. No one does. Everyone likes to think they do but they don’t.

“And once you realise your teachers are here to help you you’re going to do well in life.”

For the students of Hinde House, Barry, Dom and the team from the gym are practically older brothers. Before and after the assembly, pupils called out to them and ran up to grip hands and get selfies. The champion even let one lad wear the belt.

Also in attendance was Amer ‘Killa’ Khan, another of Ingle’s champions and a standout favourite among the teenagers of the Shiregreen school, which he also attended in his youth.

Barry told The Star: “Whether you want to be a basketballer or a dentist or a doctor, don’t be half-hearted.

“You need to have an education or else someone else will always control your life. If you read and educate yourself, then you can form your own opinions.

“Reading and writing and adding up are the basics of life.”