After winning a Silver Gloves national title, Spokane Boxing’s Levy Scheidt, 9, ‘looking forward to more’

The large, plated white belt draped over Levy Scheidt’s shoulder isn’t something you expect to see accessorizing your average 9-year-old. Especially a 9-year-old girl walking through an airport.

But Levy Scheidt isn’t your average 9-year-old.

She had just won the 2025 National Silver Gloves boxing championship for her age group at its tournament in Independence, Missouri, and she and her family were heading home. As champions do, she carried her trophy belt draped over a shoulder.

“People kept asking me ‘Oh, what’s that?’ ” she explained. “I told them I had just won a national championship and they thought that was pretty cool. When we got on board the plane the stewardess told everyone who I was and what I had just done when she made her announcements. Everyone on the plane applauded and congratulated me.

“I was a little embarrassed by it all, but it was pretty cool, too.”

The fact that she stopped her opponent in her championship match in the first round was pretty cool, too.

Levy opened the first round landing a flurry of combinations and the referee stopped the fight to administer a standing eight-count. She used another flurry once he restarted the bout and that resulted in a second standing eight-count. In amateur boxing, two standing eight-counts end the bout and this one ended after 30 seconds.

She will get used to the attention, because she’s definitely not done boxing.

“I’m looking forward to more tournaments and fighting more,” she said in the quietly confident way she has of talking about the sport she adopted as a 6-year-old and has honed at Spokane Boxing Gym. “Right now I’m going to concentrate on improving my technique. I know that has to get better. I will grow and I will get stronger, but my technique has to improve.”

Gym owner Rick Welliver saw her potential the day he met the then-6-year-old.

“I told her she was going to be our first national champion,” he said. “And she is.”

Antonio Tessitore, the gym’s head coach, has worked with Levy and her younger sister, Kawela.

“What is really impressive about Levy is that she listens,” he explained. “She listens closely to what you tell her and she gets it the first time. She’s impressive that way.

“And her little sister is just as good.”

Levy comes from an athletic family. Her dad, Conrad Scheidt, was an inside linebacker and her mom, Karlene Hurrel, an All-WAC second-team sprinter, both at the University of Idaho.

“That girl hit the genetic lottery,” Tessitore laughed.

Levy and her sister tagged along when her dad, who boxed a little in high school, began working out at Spokane Boxing.

“She watched us and got interested,” her dad said. “My sister wrestled in college and that’s where she got interested in that sport. (My sister) does MMA and lives in Las Vegas. Levy went down there and worked out with her and I think that’s where it really started.”

There is a maturity to Levy’s approach to the sport that is wise beyond her years.

Just watching her workout in the ring with coach Tony shows you much about what makes Levy a gifted young boxer. Her punches have a snap to them that young fighters don’t master right away and she has a ring awareness that allows her to slip punches like a seasoned veteran.

“That’s the thing about Levy,” Tessitore says. “She gets what you tell her the first time. She watches. She studies other fighters. She takes it all in and uses it.”

There are more tournaments in Levy’s future. Both Welliver and Tessitore have an eye out for more chances for their young boxer. And her dad has his eye on another big opportunity.

“The Junior Olympics are in Las Vegas this year,” he said. “The whole family is going to go down there for it.”