February 18 & 19
Julie Ballou
Because Leonard had to go to Australia for George’s fight, I took Joe Reynosa, Oscar Hernandez, Jorell Reynosa, and Sammy Perez to Bend for the Golden Gloves Tournament. This is a qualifier for the regional tournament in Vegas.
I was mildly, okay, super nervous to take these guys because they are all very, very good boxers and I am fully aware of my abilities as a boxing coach and have never gone without Leonard. But they were good sports and at least sold the idea they were okay with me working their corner.
Bill Mertz, retired Olympian boxing coach and former coach for Oscar and Sammy, had agreed to be at the tournament to help me. Thank goodness, now I could relax and let Bill impose his wisdom while I could sit back and watch these guys go to work.
We made it in to town and to the weigh- ins without much incident. I had a full car going down, in addition to the 4 boxers, Amanda Mercado, Leonard’s niece and Virgil Green came along for moral support. On the drive down, however, I learned Sammy and Jorell ended up in the same weight class. A combination of miscommunications, and I had a slight wave a panic wash over me. Ordinarily, typically teammates don’t fight each other so this was going to be interesting. I thought maybe 3lbs would just melt off of Sammy on the drive down, getting him to the 132 class instead of having to compete at 141 where Jorell was.
Nope. To add to that, I was told Bill had gotten sick and wasn’t going to be able to make it. Just great. Luckily, Richard Miller, the coach from Bend graciously agreed to help me out.
At the coaches meeting I learned Joe had to fight once for the championship. Oscar would fight once for the championship. And as luck would have it, Sammy and Jorell ended up having to fight each other in the first round.
Thanks Leonard, for giving me an easy one for my first one. Luckily for me Jorell and Sammy are professionals and did a great job handling an uncomfortable situation. I ended up working Jorell’s corner with Richard and at the same time felt like a traitor seeing Sammy in the other corner with help from another coach. I hate when judges end up in a draw decision and I don’t know what that would have done for someone to advance, but maternal emotions took over and I didn’t want them to have to pick just one.
It was an exciting fight, and really what I had seen day after day in the gym from these two on sparing days. Sammy won the fight but it was a great loss for Jorell. I know that sounds silly but I was thrilled to see Jorell improve on things from his last fight a couple weeks prior in Tacoma.
Oscar’s fight wasn’t until the next night and Joe brought the night to a close as the last fight. He fought a tough guy from Vegas who he will likely see again. Joe beat him and did a great job keeping the pressure on the guy until the last bell even though they were both spent.
We woke up the next morning to several inches of snow. And snow falling. A lot. By the time we checked out we had about 4 hours to kill. The obvious choice was the Bend Fun Center. We were all hungry and to a bunch of guys who had to cut weight, Izzy’s needed to happen before we got our game on. I should also mention, we didn’t leave the hotel parking lot without Oscar breaking open a huge package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and passing them around. A buffet dinner of pizza and friend chicken could only make this better. Virgil was scoping out the salad dressing, not for a salad of course, but to dip his pizza in, and discovered a new flavor. He asked the guys, “What does Lo-Cal taste like?”
The Fun Center was a good time killer. I learned a few things about the guys when we were there. If boxing doesn’t work out for Virgil, he has a career as a guitarist because he was giving Slash a lesson on Guitar Hero. Jorell likely sneaks off to arcades to get his fix of Dance Dance Revolution, because we had a hard time pulling him off it. And really the only one of us who can play pool is Virgil. Jorell could hold his own. Joe, Amanda, Sammy and I, suck. Big time. Thanks to Sammy who hit a jack pot on a Monopoly game, the guys were able to get a few fun prizes with all the tickets they won. A stuffed snake, a squishy ball with tentacles, and a tiara.
Julie Ballou
Because Leonard had to go to Australia for George’s fight, I took Joe Reynosa, Oscar Hernandez, Jorell Reynosa, and Sammy Perez to Bend for the Golden Gloves Tournament. This is a qualifier for the regional tournament in Vegas.
I was mildly, okay, super nervous to take these guys because they are all very, very good boxers and I am fully aware of my abilities as a boxing coach and have never gone without Leonard. But they were good sports and at least sold the idea they were okay with me working their corner.
Bill Mertz, retired Olympian boxing coach and former coach for Oscar and Sammy, had agreed to be at the tournament to help me. Thank goodness, now I could relax and let Bill impose his wisdom while I could sit back and watch these guys go to work.
We made it in to town and to the weigh- ins without much incident. I had a full car going down, in addition to the 4 boxers, Amanda Mercado, Leonard’s niece and Virgil Green came along for moral support. On the drive down, however, I learned Sammy and Jorell ended up in the same weight class. A combination of miscommunications, and I had a slight wave a panic wash over me. Ordinarily, typically teammates don’t fight each other so this was going to be interesting. I thought maybe 3lbs would just melt off of Sammy on the drive down, getting him to the 132 class instead of having to compete at 141 where Jorell was.
Nope. To add to that, I was told Bill had gotten sick and wasn’t going to be able to make it. Just great. Luckily, Richard Miller, the coach from Bend graciously agreed to help me out.
At the coaches meeting I learned Joe had to fight once for the championship. Oscar would fight once for the championship. And as luck would have it, Sammy and Jorell ended up having to fight each other in the first round.
Thanks Leonard, for giving me an easy one for my first one. Luckily for me Jorell and Sammy are professionals and did a great job handling an uncomfortable situation. I ended up working Jorell’s corner with Richard and at the same time felt like a traitor seeing Sammy in the other corner with help from another coach. I hate when judges end up in a draw decision and I don’t know what that would have done for someone to advance, but maternal emotions took over and I didn’t want them to have to pick just one.
It was an exciting fight, and really what I had seen day after day in the gym from these two on sparing days. Sammy won the fight but it was a great loss for Jorell. I know that sounds silly but I was thrilled to see Jorell improve on things from his last fight a couple weeks prior in Tacoma.
Oscar’s fight wasn’t until the next night and Joe brought the night to a close as the last fight. He fought a tough guy from Vegas who he will likely see again. Joe beat him and did a great job keeping the pressure on the guy until the last bell even though they were both spent.
We woke up the next morning to several inches of snow. And snow falling. A lot. By the time we checked out we had about 4 hours to kill. The obvious choice was the Bend Fun Center. We were all hungry and to a bunch of guys who had to cut weight, Izzy’s needed to happen before we got our game on. I should also mention, we didn’t leave the hotel parking lot without Oscar breaking open a huge package of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and passing them around. A buffet dinner of pizza and friend chicken could only make this better. Virgil was scoping out the salad dressing, not for a salad of course, but to dip his pizza in, and discovered a new flavor. He asked the guys, “What does Lo-Cal taste like?”
The Fun Center was a good time killer. I learned a few things about the guys when we were there. If boxing doesn’t work out for Virgil, he has a career as a guitarist because he was giving Slash a lesson on Guitar Hero. Jorell likely sneaks off to arcades to get his fix of Dance Dance Revolution, because we had a hard time pulling him off it. And really the only one of us who can play pool is Virgil. Jorell could hold his own. Joe, Amanda, Sammy and I, suck. Big time. Thanks to Sammy who hit a jack pot on a Monopoly game, the guys were able to get a few fun prizes with all the tickets they won. A stuffed snake, a squishy ball with tentacles, and a tiara.
Back to business. Sammy fought a tough kid from Tacoma and in the first round suffered a mean body shot followed by several low blows throughout the fight. Even though Sammy didn’t win he’s still able to advance to Regional’s with Joe. We pulled the gloves off Sammy and right on to Oscar. Oscar was very busy during his fight and put together some scoring combinations. More than the other guy, at least I thought. The judges thought differently. I don’t want to sound like a biased fan, but I really did think Oscar scored more points. That’s boxing I guess.
Once we were out of Bend the roads improved and we were able to make decent time since there was no one on the road at midnight. Apparently, other things aren’t around at midnight either along Hwy 26, like an open gas station. Everyone slept for most of the ride home and I kept to myself about the gas situation. (Aside from the battle between Virgil & Oscar to take candid photos of each other while they slept.) But as the needle inched closer to the dreaded red section, I became anxious. Sammy was quietly sitting in the back seat and in view of the gauges, nervous, but also not wanting to give rise to the rest of the group. I starting imagining the wait along side the road in below freezing temperatures for, I’m not sure who, to come and get us. Luckily fumes got us to Sandy where I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy as I was to see a 24hr AM/PM.
Even though we didn’t get the wins we were hoping for, everyone seemed to have a good time and fought hard. Good job guys! Keep up the training. Updates on future tournaments and the Regional Golden Gloves Tournament to follow. Check out the photos on Facebook!
Once we were out of Bend the roads improved and we were able to make decent time since there was no one on the road at midnight. Apparently, other things aren’t around at midnight either along Hwy 26, like an open gas station. Everyone slept for most of the ride home and I kept to myself about the gas situation. (Aside from the battle between Virgil & Oscar to take candid photos of each other while they slept.) But as the needle inched closer to the dreaded red section, I became anxious. Sammy was quietly sitting in the back seat and in view of the gauges, nervous, but also not wanting to give rise to the rest of the group. I starting imagining the wait along side the road in below freezing temperatures for, I’m not sure who, to come and get us. Luckily fumes got us to Sandy where I’m not sure I’ve ever been as happy as I was to see a 24hr AM/PM.
Even though we didn’t get the wins we were hoping for, everyone seemed to have a good time and fought hard. Good job guys! Keep up the training. Updates on future tournaments and the Regional Golden Gloves Tournament to follow. Check out the photos on Facebook!
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