Move to Add Nappi to Staff Fails : Boxing: Letter signed by boxers is ruled invalid by USA Boxing board.

Pat Nappi’s Olympic coaching career appeared to expire during a two-hour USA Boxing board meeting Saturday.

Nappi, 73, whose U.S. Olympic teams in 1976 and 1984 won 13 gold medals, had sought to become an “adviser” to the Olympic staff of Coach Joe Byrd and assistants Roosevelt Sanders and Osmar Alaniz.

At the closed meeting, after the second day of the Olympic team boxoffs, USA Boxing president and Nappi ally Billy Dove presented a letter signed by 18 national-class boxers, 10 of whom made the Olympic team this weekend.

The letter asked that Olympic team manager Buzz Buzalsky either resign or be replaced, and that Nappi be given a coaching role in Barcelona.

Oscar De La Hoya of East Los Angeles and Pepe Reilly of Glendale, both of whom made the Olympic team, signed the letter.

During the meeting, the two athletes’ representatives on the 11-person board, Teddy Randolph and Larry Nicholson, were sent to ask boxers who had signed the letter if they had known what they were signing, or if they were coerced.

“It came back to us that it was a combination of them thinking this was just one more sheet of paper they had to sign while they were here, but there was also some coercion,” Buzalsky said.

Whatever, the move to add Nappi to the staff failed.

“The board voted for a resolution to support the coaching staff and the team manager,” said Jim Fox, USA Boxing executive director.