CRANBERRY TWP — When Tom Yankello talks about family, he speaks of “boxing-oriented people.”

The Cranberry Township resident was always around the sport.

“My grandfather was a boxer, my dad's brother was a boxer ... My dad took me to matches, always had it on TV.

“When the first Rocky movie came out, I was 5 — and I fell in love with it.”

His father turned the family basement into a mini-boxing gym. They bought him a speed bag, a heavy bag, roped off an imaginary ring area.

“My uncle, father and grandfather trained me in the basement when I was a kid,” Yankello, 47, said. “I used to box all of the kids in the neighborhood there.”

Yankello broke into amateur boxing at age 12. He had 24 bouts from age 12 to 18 and won most of them. But he threw out his shoulder in the process, an issue that led to four shoulder surgeries in four years.

While still working out in hopes of resuming his own career, Yankello began helping other fighters. He sparred with (eventual world champion) Paul Spadafora as an amateur.

Yankello wound up assisting Spadafora's trainer in prepping him for fights — and the two became a tightly-knit team.

“I wound up fighting three more times myself and was at the crossroads in terms of my own career,” Yankello said. “Paul wanted me to stay with him. He said he believed he could win the world title if I kept training him.

“He talked me into it. I became a fulltime trainer at that point.”

Yankello has been training boxers — amateur and pro — for 27 years. Spadadora became a world champion. He helped train Roy Jones Jr. when he became a champion.

He runs the Tom Yankello World Class Boxing Gym in Ambridge, where he's working with 30 to 40 boxers at varying skill levels.

“I've got kids in the gym who are 6 years old,” Yankello said.

He's also been at the top of the boxing world.

Yankello trained heavyweight Calvin Brock (31-2) when he took on Wladimir Klitschko for the world heavyweight title in 2006. Two weeks later, he was with Butler's Brian Minto in Germany when Minto derailed German boxing legend Axel Schulz's comeback attempt by knocking him out.

“Both of those fights had 16,000 people in the arena,” Yankello recalled. “But the atmospheres were radically different. Calvin lost by knockout, Klitschko was just so dominant in the ring and the Garden was so loud.

“While Brian was taking it to Schulz, you could hear a pin drop in that place. Those people were shocked. Brian and I had great times together. When he came back to knock out Vinnie Maddalone in the last round, then totally destroyed him a year later ... It shows how progress is made in boxing.”

Yankello began working with Verquan Kimbrough when the latter was 11 years old — and guided him to a national title at age 19.

He began working with Kiante Irving of Beaver Falls at age 16 — and recently led him to a National Golden Gloves championship at age 24. Irving was just the third Western Pa. boxer in the 90-year history of Golden Gloves boxing to win a national crown.

“This stuff doesn't happen overnight. It takesyears of training and hard work,” Yankello said.

Yankello's wife, Tina, has been a guidance counselor at Mars High School for 17 years. He is hoping to open a boxing gym in southern Butler County and she has been helping him look for a building.

“I feel like I can help a lot of kids,” Yankello said. “I run a program at my gym in Ambridge called 'Stay off the Streets.' It introduces amateur boxing to at-risk youths.

“I want to offer the same type of program and opportunities to kids in the Cranberry and Mars areas, too. I'm as passionate about boxing as I've ever been. It's more intensified now than ever.”

Yankello is currently working with a pair of pro boxers in heavyweight Ed Latimore (13-1-1) and super middleweight Morgan Fitch (18-1-1). He also has amateurs Irving, Danny Bodish and Paul Palombo, along with MMA fighter Danillo Villefort, in his stable.

“I've still got big aspirations. I'm not content at all,” Yankello said. “I'm working with a 12-year-old now who reminds me of Verquan when he was 12, a 16-year-old who reminds me of Kiante when he was 16.

“I feel like I can help make it happen for those guys the same way. I enjoy what I've done, but I am by no means satisfied. In some ways, I feel like I'm just getting started.”