COACHES CORNER

UNSUNG HEROES, Assistant coaches and Trainers: By Brian Zelley

photos, Alan Brown and Dan Wright

Looking through the pages of old boxing programs or the list of
clubs on an old BOXING BC annual report will seldom
include the many names of all of the coaches and trainers
many of which are the key reasons boxers become skilled.

Looking back to the Sixties for instance one of the coaches
was ex-boxer BILL SELFRIDGE but his name would not
appear on any Provincial tournament programs.

Take the Seventies and Eighties an the names of most
of the coaches and trainers of the Vancouver Island boxing clubs
were not high profile names on a Provincial basis such as
JOE PRESTON and CLARK MCLELLAN, DAN WRIGHT,
JACK SNAITH and active boxer ALAN BROWN and others.

In Victoria in the Seventies and Eighties, how many will
remember names such as GORDIE MCGAW and
LARRY MONTGOMERY. coach LOU BUJDOSO had to quit
the Victoria Athletic Association and form his own club
the VICTORIA JAYCEES before he was recognized.
Then there was IAN WEIR in the Nineties.

2010/2011 BC REGISTERED COACHES

some of the registered coaches that are often invisible in
publications include names such as Todd Alain, Steve Bailey,
Andre Mavros and many others,

PAST COACHES and TRAINERS
Difficult to select specific coaches for top ten rankings
because we all judge them by different yardsticks. But,
one overlooked coach was BOB DECKER. Maybe that was
because he did not coach long enough in British Columbia.
However, if we consider his performance in the Sixties in
Seattle with boxers like Gary Ferrari and Neil Knight
then our whole evaluation of him in BC would change. But, I am
sure some of the boxers that trained at the Shamrock Boxing Club
at the Main Street Gym would have to credit Decker with above
average coaching skills. Another name that is not likely to
receive wide spread ratings would be former Chemainus boxer
SKIMP WILLIAMS. When he coached, he did not try to
teach boxers his own style of boxing but was flexible. And,
for me on a personal level he was the best dude to have working
your corner. He only worked two of my fights in 1964, but those
two times cemented his standing as one of the best cornermen in
BC Amateur Boxing. He demonstrated his skills in the dressing room
and then before the opening bell and aced the corner work by knowing
what to say, how to say it and when to say it. Great timing in the
verbal corner work and the ability to get the boxer to take control
and keep it throughout the bout. I will not try to compare the others
that I had from 1964 to 1973, but if I had him in 1967 and 1968 who knows
what could of happened.

FEB. 9, 1961, Chemainus-Ladysmith Chronicle
"SKIMP WILLIMS WINS DECISION OVER DANNY MACDONALD"
The event was a boxing card hosted by the Salt Spring Island
Boxing club. Danny was from the PPCLI Boxing Club.