U.S. Boxers to Take First Step on Road to Seoul

All sharing the Olympic dream, 249 United States amateur boxers embark upon the first step on the road to Seoul, South Korea, today at the 100th U.S. national amateur boxing championships.

Nine defending national champions in the 12 weight classes, one champion from last summer’s Pan American Games and two winners from the 1986 World Championships at Reno are intent on nailing down automatic berths in the July 5-10 Olympic trials tournament at Concord, Calif.

As the talent level for the 1988 U.S. Olympic boxing team comes into sharper focus this week, no one is ready to predict that the talent pool for this year’s Olympic team will match the 1984 team, which won nine gold medals in Los Angeles. But at least one USA Amateur Boxing Federation official believes there’s more talent here this week than most suspect.

“I wasn’t really hopeful about the ’88 team either, but in the last month or so, I’m hearing about a lot of talent coming out of the woodwork,” said Wylie Farrier, a USA/ABF Ohio district chief.

This tournament’s only true star, and one of its two world champions, is featherweight (125) Kelcie Banks of Houston.

Banks was one of three American world champions at Reno two summers ago. And he was the United States’ only Pan American Games gold medalist last summer in Indianapolis.

But some wonder if Banks might be ring rusty. Since the Pan American Games last August, he has boxed only once, and lost to Cuban Arnaldo Mesa.

The other world champion here is welterweight Kenneth Gould, from Rockford, Ill. The United States had three world champions at Reno. The third, middleweight Darin Allen of Columbus, Ohio, was upset on a decision at the Ohio-Michigan-Illinois regional, failing to qualify for the nationals.

Winners and runners-up here become automatics for the Concord Olympic Trials, which will have eight boxers in each of the 12 weight classes. The remainder will be champions from the military (2), Golden Gloves (1), Eastern and Western Olympic Trials (2), and the last berth will be “special cases,” chosen by the USA/ABF.

Preliminary rounds this week will be held at the U.S. Olympic Training Center gym, with the finals scheduled for the Broadmoor Hotel Friday night.

For most, the challenge this week is formidable. But longshots, too, dream of the Olympics, gold medals, and rich pro contracts. Here’s a look at some of them:

--DERRICK ISAMON is an Ohio State football player who is red-shirting this year, on the gamble he can be the Olympic team’s heavyweight. Isamon tried this as an Ohio prep football star in 1984, but it didn’t work out. He lost to a 17-year-old prospect named Mike Tyson.

--SKIPPER KELP is a 17-year-old welterweight from Colorado Springs, born in Vietnam. He was the starting quarterback at Sierra High in Colorado Springs last fall when he wanted time off to box in an amateur tournament. “Decide between football and boxing,” the football coach told him. So long, Coach.

--ROBERT ARGUELLO, another Colorado Springs welterweight, has to keep a stiff, upper lip when the jibes start, which happens every time he walks into the gym. No wonder this guy can fight. His mother is his coach.

--JAMES ERNST, a super-heavyweight originally from Hawaii but now an Atlantic City lifeguard, is head of an organization known as SAD--Surfers Against Drugs.

--MICHAEL FELDE is a lightweight from Missoula, Mont., on the comeback trail. Felde, 28, was the national champion in 1978, but hasn’t boxed since 1980.

--JAMES HARRIS ought not to be here at all. And if this guy makes it, get him an agent and call the screenwriters. A light-flyweight from Washington, Harris was nearly killed in a 1985 motorcycle accident. His pelvis was crushed and both legs were broken. At first, they said he wouldn’t walk again. He walked. And this week, he fights.