Ready to rumble
Reprinted from the Saratogian, February 7, 2007
By Nicholas Fabiani
SARATOGA SPRINGS - Nine fighters from the Saratoga Youth Boxing Association are looking
for a fight - this Friday night, to be exact.
The S.Y.B.A. is preparing for the Northeast Regional New York State Golden Gloves,
which will be hosted by the Saratoga Holiday Inn on Broadway. The first bout is scheduled
for 7 p.m.
Other clubs from the region that will be attending the event will be from Albany,
Troy, Watertown, Altona, and several cadets from the West Point Military Academy.
The fighters who prevail this Friday night will move on to square off against the
central and western regions in Syracuse. Winners of that round will be crowned New
York state champions, and will move on to the national regionals in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Those winners will advance to the national box-off for the right to fight for the
United States Olympic Boxing Team.
With several different clubs scheduled to participate in the Northeast Regionals,
the boxers don't know who their opponents will be, or if there will be an opponent
at all.
The fighters from the S.Y.B.A. who will arrive looking for a match are Alex Design,
Sarah Berheide, Josh Dulmer, Rockey Carey, Erich Schwalbach, Mike Siska, Jackie Trivilino,
Mike Pryor, and Greg Moore.
Three of the fighters - Berheide, Schwalbach, and Dulmer - will be donning the gloves
in a real competition for the first time in their careers.
One of the first-timers for Saratoga is Berheide, fighting at 150 pounds.
Berheide's sports career has been well documented, first at Saratoga High, then at
Skidmore College, where she excelled in lacrosse and field hockey. Berheide is now
an assistant coach for the Siena women's lacrosse team.
Berheide was introduced to the sport of boxing by a friend last September.
"My friend told me that it was a really good workout, as I knew it was," said Berheide.
"I was searching for something fun to do since I'm no longer a collegiate athlete,
and I came here and I started doing this and I really enjoyed it and a lot of the
coaches here were willing to help me learn and they told me 'You should consider fighting,
because you look competitive and seem pretty strong.' So I said 'OK,' because I'm
used to competing, I need to be doing something active, and playing a sport. Now that
college sports are no longer for me, this is kind of a new thing to start."
When asked how her boyfriend was handling the transition of watching his girlfriend
enter a sport that was all about hard contact, Berheide said that his reaction was
both supportive and funny.
Berheide still has close ties with Skidmore College, and she should have quite a turnout of fans to see her first bout.
"My boyfriend still has one year left at Skidmore and he's the captain of the frisbee team," said Berheide. "I'm friends with a lot of the members of the team and they're all excited and looking forward to seeing my first fight."
Another fighter entering the ring for the first time is Dulmer.
Dulmer will be Saratoga's heavyweight, weighing in at 210 pounds. A 24-year-old from
Greenwich, Dulmer holds a 10-2 record in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, and he's been studying boxing for the past six months. He's also looking forward to his first boxing match.
"I thought I'd switch it over, do some boxing, get my full game rounded out a little more, and I'm making a run right now in amateur boxing. I want to string together some wins, hopefully people will see me fight and they'll want to see me fighting again ... put on a good show, maybe knock somebody out, we'll see."
In a small club, such as the S.Y.B.A., there aren't many opportunities for the heavyweight to spar, so to get in his rounds in the ring, Dulmer has to do some traveling.
"We go to a lot of different places to spar, a lot of different people," Dulmer said. "People taller than me, shorter than me, heavyweights, maybe some lighter guys, with speed, just to try to fight as many people as you can. We went to Albany, we went to Amsterdam, we went up to Plattsburgh, to Bill Miller's club, just to spar.
"But every week I'm also in here, with Gary Wilcox, a heavyweight that comes in and helps me out, looks up on me. We spar about once a week ... everybody's just been really great in Saratoga. I'm having a blast and hopefully you'll be seeing my name winning a lot."
Miller, father of pro boxer Shannon Miller, runs Uncle Sam's boxing club in Altona, near Plattsburgh, and he has been training fighters for years. Former Super-middleweight champion Eric Lucas and cruiser-weight Dale Brown are just two of the pupils that have fallen under his tutelage.
Schwalbach, fighting at 165 pounds, will also be seeking his first match.
Pryor, also hailing from Greenwich and a neighbor of Dulmer's, last fought for Saratoga in October 2006 in Amsterdam, and when he enrolled as a student at Plattsburgh State, S.Y.B.A. coach Dave Wojcicki introduced him to Miller, and Pryor has been training there ever since. Pryor weighs in at 160 pounds.
Representing the 128-pound class is Design, the son of former Saratoga amateur boxer Sam Design. Alex Design is looking to improve on his 1-2 record. His last fight was approximately four months ago, when he suffered his second career loss to a fighter from Yonkers.
The younger Design does most of his training in Albany, and is looking forward to this year's Golden Gloves card, and also has aspirations of fighting for the U.S. Olympic boxing team.
Cody Design, Alex's younger brother, has also been hanging around the gym and training, and figures to eventually be in the ring himself. Watching his older brother has inspired him to put in the gloves, as well.
The brothers both attributed their interest in the sport to their father's career.
Carey will be fighting at 125 pounds. At a first glance at her name, in light of the new motion picture, you might be thinking, "A smaller, lighter Rocky Balboa?" Well, this Rockey is different from the Philadelphia phenom in more than one way. Not only is Rockey Carey in a different weight class, but Carey is in another division altogether - she's a woman.
Training in various forms of mixed martial arts since she was three-years old, the now 34-year-old Amsterdam native and current Ballston Spa resident has been boxing for five years.
"Since the cutoff age for amateur boxing is 35, I have to get these fights in quick!" said Carey.
Carey has not only entered boxing as a competitor, but she has also acquired her level-five certificate for boxing training, which covers both the amateur and professional ranks. She's also looking to turn pro in the ring.
"I love it," said Carey. "I'm in this for the long haul."
Trivilino will be the third female slugger on the card, weighing in at 125. With so few women yet involved in the sport, there is a chance that the only way that Trivilino and Carey have a bout is if they fight each other.
The coaching staff includes Dave Wojcicki, who has been helping to run the club since 1976. Wojcicki is also excited about the upcoming card.
"We have three or four guys from the region that should go to the nationals and then maybe the regionals, said Wojcicki.
To go along with Sam Design, who can be seen helping one fighter on the heavy bag one minute, and then shadow boxing with another the next, there has been a recent addition.
Ray "Ray Ray" Daniels, who had a fine amateur career back when the S.Y.B.A . was upstairs in City Hall, has been giving back to the club that gave him so much in his teen years for about the last five months.
"I try to be here as much as I can," said Daniels. "I try to help all of them, because they all need help, no matter who's training them. I try not to spend too much time with just one guy. When a fighter needs help, he needs help. But a fighter's got to get it out of himself. I can only do so much."
This year's version of the Golden Gloves promises to be a good one, perhaps the best in years with the new fighters and coaching staff that are all excited about the event. Beer, soft drinks, and other refreshments will be available.
The first match is scheduled for 7 p.m., and tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Tickets can be purchased at Mohr's West Ave. Mobil at West Ave. and Washington Street, or at Mohr's Service Station. Tickets can also be obtained by calling Jack Nichols at 587-5158.
©2007 the Saratogian
