Post by omarh on Mar 21, 2007 14:17:36 GMT -7
Golden Gloves gathers diverse group of fighters
Kevin Lynch, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
The 76th annual Northern California Golden Gloves Tournament at Kezar Pavilion will bring together its usual crowd of eclectic participants. The event starts tonight and will be held over the next four nights.
Boxing has been a salvation for a recovering-alcoholic carpenter, an Afghan American Muslim connecting with his warrior past, and an apprentice sheet-metal worker who escaped a life on the streets by dedicating himself to the fight game.
Travis Wilkins, 41, has risen at 5 a.m. every day for the last three months and gone running. He then spends eight hours as a union carpenter, framing houses. After work, he's off to the gym for another four hours of workouts.
"I used to box in the '80s," the wiry Wilkins from King's Gym in Oakland said. "But then I had some trouble with alcohol."
Now sober, Wilkins will try to recapture a lost opportunity by fighting in the masters division of the Golden Gloves.
Alex Paracha, a favorite in the welterweight division, is the son of Afghan parents who fled the war with the Soviet Union in the 1980s.
"If it wasn't boxing, I don't know what I'd be doing," said Paracha, a devout Muslim.
He has noticed more Afghan kids coming to the gym.
"I think it's the warrior mentality," Paracha said of his Afghan history. "It's in our blood."
As he gained notice in boxing, he was asked to compete for the Afghan Olympic team next summer.
Paracha will make his first visit to Afghanistan this summer, and admits to being nervous about visiting the war-torn country, which he says is misunderstood by Americans.
Paracha also admitted he gets ridiculed about his faith.
"I was in the weigh-in for the USA championships (earlier this month) and an official said, 'You're not going to kill your neighbors?' I hear stuff like that all the time," Paracha said. "They think it's a joke. I don't think it's a joke."
Fellow welterweight Gabriel Holland found boxing by running afoul with the law as a San Francisco teenager.
"I got into trouble and I had three choices: the Marines, job corps and you know the third," Holland, 21, said. He chose job corps, passed his GED exam and now is an apprentice sheet-metal worker. At about the same time, Holland's parole officer introduced him to San Francisco boxing coach Ben Bautista, and Holland took to the ring.
Now he spends five hours a day training and works full time in the apprentice program.
In the heavyweight division, fitness trainer Jasper McCargo III has spent two years training for the Golden Gloves. The Richmond native was ready to fight in last year's event when he broke his hand sparring.
"My family said since I was 4 years old, all I talked about was boxing," McCargo said.
Now the 19-year-old will get his chance.
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Golden Gloves
What: 2007 Northern California Golden Gloves
Where: Kezar Pavilion, San Francisco
When: 6:30 p.m. today through Friday, 6 p.m. Saturday
Cost: $15
