Working to develop the next generation of boxing talent

The Olympics can have a powerful hold on a nation's sporting persuasion. Many people who would never normally entertain the thought of watching dressage, sailing, or badminton, have recently found themselves glued to the TV due to Irish involvement in these disciplines. However, for the second successive Olympics, the profile of Irish amateur boxing in particular has risen as we have watched a talented team of six boxers compete for medals. The strength and skill of the Irish Olympic fighters didn't come as any surprise to Athlone Boxing Club coach Rory Parkes. "With the high performance set-up that we've had in place for several years, Irish boxers are now up there with the very best in the world," he said. "There are 325 Irish boxing clubs all competing under the banner of one association (the IABA) so the amount of talent and the level of competition in the sport here is huge. Boxers need to have a very high level of technical ability if they are to succeed. That's what we try to teach, and we love it." Six years ago, Rory started the Athlone Boxing Club, revitalising a sport which had been dormant in the town for a long number of years. In its short history, the club has already achieved a number of successes at Leinster and All-Ireland level. Rory recently spoke to this newspaper about the Irish boxers' medal prospects in London and discussed his hopes of developing more boxing champions from Athlone in the years to come. His own sporting background was in martial arts but Rory "eventually reached a stage where I felt there was nothing more in it for me," and it was at this stage that he began to take courses in coaching boxing. While Moate had an active boxing club and a tradition of producing champions such as Denis Galvin and, more recently, Joe Ward, Athlone had no boxing club before Rory established one at the community hall in Battery Heights in 2006. Canon Liam Devine subsequently offered the club use of the basement of Ss Peter and Paul's Church, and the gym which was set up there was officially opened by RTÉ's boxing commentator Jimmy Magee in October 2007. "We're now part of the furniture (at Ss Peter and Paul's Church) so hopefully we'll be there for a while yet," he said. "The first year or two was difficult because we were just getting set up, but we've been very fortunate in that we've had a huge amount of success in a relatively short period of time. At the moment, we have people coming through who you just know will be successful. They have that drive and dedication, which is needed because if you want to be a champion you have to train like a champion." While the amateur boxing season doesn't begin in earnest until September, Rory said that during the season the Athlone club would generally have "15 to 20 kids" training on a regular basis. "You're better off keeping the classes small because it's a very technical sport - timing and speed are crucial - and with smaller classes you can devote more attention to each individual boxer." Among the prospects at the gym is Mikey Stokes - a ten-year-old who, because of his young age, has only been boxing in exhibitions thus far. "He's been training with us since he was seven, and he's a fantastic young boxer who's moving up to 'Boy 1' (the youngest competitive age category) this year." In addition, fifteen-year-old Cheyanne O'Neill is rated as "top class... a fantastic talent" by Rory. The Batteries resident won an All-Ireland cadets title in 2011 and has enthusiasm to match her ability. "I train three times a week and I'm out running on the days when I'm not in (the gym), so it's practically an everyday thing. I love it," Cheyanne said recently. When asked what fuels his own involvement in training young boxers, Rory replied: "My motivation is to see more young boxers motivated - to help them get to a stage where they have the drive and they want to win. For a coach, working with a boxer who has that motivation is great because you can feed off it as well." * For more, including Rory's thoughts on the Irish Olympic boxers, see this week's edition of the Westmeath Independent.