UF’s collegiate boxing team will step into the ring for its first intercollegiate national competition since becoming a sports club in 2012.
Students from 22 universities from around the country will fight for a belt at the National Championships of Men’s and Women’s College Boxing through Saturday in Miami.
J.C. Papaleo, the team’s coach and a former boxer, said the team has three men and one woman, and they will all be competing in the tournament.
Papaleo said his athletes don’t know what to expect, but they are determined and committed.
“It might sound a little bit too greedy, but I want all my guys to win,” he said. “I don’t want to just put up a good fight and compete. I want my guys to come back with the belt.”
Vance Vielot, a 23-year-old UF political science sophomore and member of the team, said he has been boxing for two to three years on and off. He said the team has been training for this competition for about three to four months, and it has been tough.
“You just have to be really disciplined in this sport,” he said. “That’s the only way to balance it out.”
This tournament will be the first for Justin Sage, a 19-year-old UF linguistics sophomore and member of the team, who has been boxing for about four months.
The team practiced two hours daily to prepare.
He said he hopes all the hard work will pay off by winning the tournament.
“It would mean everything to me. It’s one of the greatest accomplishments you can have, you know, just knowing that you trained every day super hard,” Sage said. “Stepping in a ring, knowing you can get hurt and coming out on top. It’s the greatest feeling you can have.”
[A version of this story ran on page 4 on 4/3/2014 under the headline "UF club boxing team to compete against other colleges"]
