In the crowded basement of Shepherd Recreation Center, Damon Allen Jr., 16, drives his fists into a heavy bag, his movements a blur. Sweat darkens his orange T-shirt, as his trainer, his 81-year-old great-grandfather, barks encouragement.

"Come on, Dame," says the gray-haired Mitchell Allen, former fighter and longtime trainer, looking on through his bifocals.

"Rhythm, rhythm. That's it. Jab. Jab. Right."

Nearby, Allen's father, Damon Allen Sr., 35, a former boxer, now trainer - who by day works at the airport fueling planes - guides the punches of a young boy two bags down.

On the other side of the ring, Allen's mother, Rasheeda Gantz, a USA Boxing judge and rec center employee, sits at a table, managing the West Philadelphia gym.

Allen, at 125 pounds, ranked second in the country in the male junior division and known in the ring as "Baby Dame," just returned from the National Junior Olympics in Denver.

After four bouts, the last of which turned into a slugfest, Allen brought home a silver medal.

The event marked Allen's last year in juniors.

"I wanted to win gold," said Allen, who missed the grand prize by just three points. "But it feels good. Most people aren't ranked at all."

Said Gantz of Allen's loss in the gold medal bout, "He cried for hours."

Allen's ultimate goal is to compete in the 2012 Olympics then turn pro.

Soft-spoken and handsome, with sandy brown hair and hazel eyes, Allen has been boxing since he was nine. He was raised in the West Philadelphia gym that bears his great-grandfather's name.

He's one of countless youths Mitchell Allen has mentored through the years.

"Mitch Allen is a legend," said Stuart Greenberg, a program director for the city's recreation department. He called Allen's boxing program one of the city's elite.

"He's provided a safe haven for thousands of youth through boxing," Greenberg said. "He's taught these kids discipline, which makes them work hard."

In 1943, when Mitchell Allen was 15, to help his mother get by, he dropped out of school and borrowed a birth certificate to work at the Navy Yard as a shipfitter's helper.

Before long, like three of his five brothers, he found his way to the boxing ring.

Mitchell Allen remembers standing at ringside, asking his brother Buster: "That's the one I'm going to fight? The one on the floor?"

"No," Buster said, "the one standing up."

Mitchell Allen lost. But he was encouraged by meeting new people and seeing the country via the ring. Also, back then, he said, amateur boxers fighting six rounds made a handsome $30 a fight.

"And we were clamoring," Mitchell Allen said. "It was a nice amateur career. But there weren't a lot of opportunities if you weren't with the gangsters. They might give you a draw, but that was about it."

At 21, Mitchell Allen became a trainer.

Above the ring at his gym, posters of Ray Robinson, "the only 'Sugar,' " he cautions, and Joe Louis, the man "who saved America," hang from the rafters.

Hanging near them is a large banner celebrating Damon Allen Jr. as the Ringside world champion, a National Golden Gloves state champion, and a Junior Olympics bronze medal winner for 2008.

"Damon has surpassed us all," Mitchell Allen said. "The way he listens, I have no problem with him about training and no problems about the girls."

Damon Allen discovered his love for boxing by accident. Hanging out in the gym every day after school, he played basketball like his grandfather, Mitchell Allen Jr., a longtime middle school coach.

"But I wasn't really good at it," he said.

One day, he told his father and great-grandfather he wanted to box.

They dismissed him as too pretty.

"He would spar and get beat, bloody-nosed," remembers Damon Allen Sr., "but he'd come back in the gym every day, no matter what, and he got better and better."

"It was no stopping him," Mitchell Allen said. "He just amazes me with some of the things he does."

Allen's boxing record is 60-7.

Allen, no relation to former amateur light welterweight champ Rock Allen, likens his quickness to undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather Jr.

A senior-to-be and honor roll student at Communication Technical High School, Allen trains at the gym five days a week, four hours at a time, with his family - his two sisters giggling nearby.

"It's like I come here, and that's the gym - and I go home, and that's the gym," he said rolling his eyes playfully.

At the family's Southwest Philadelphia home, there's more training; lectures from his father and, sometimes, homework such as shadowboxing.

Allen welcomes the added instruction.

"When everybody else is not training, we're still training," he said.

After Allen graduates high school, he said he plans to attend the Art Institute of Philadelphia to study visual effects and motion graphics.

Eventually, he sees a career in movies.

But for now, he'll box.

Next month, he'll head to Las Vegas for the National Junior Golden Gloves.

In August, it's Kansas City, Mo., for the Ringside World Championships.

And he dreams of winning an Olympic gold medal in London in 2012.

"That's every boxer's dream," Allen said. "I've come this far. There's no point in turning back now."

On this path, Mitchell Allen offers simple yet sage advice: "He just has to keep on winning," he said with a wide grin.

Contact staff writer Kia Gregory at 215-854-2601 or kgregory@phillynews.com.