OLYMPIC FESTIVAL : Navarro Impresses Everybody Except Demanding Father : Boxing: Bantamweight good-naturedly shrugs off his hectoring dad after decisive victory. Vargas and Whitaker also advance.

Carlos Navarro was giving Carlos Navarro a stern scolding, much to the surprise of curious witnesses in the vicinity.

Only moments before, Navarro Jr. had his hand raised in victory after easily handling his semifinal opponent in the 119-pound class of the U.S. Olympic Festival boxing tournament Saturday at the Air Force Academy’s Clune Arena.

Yet there was Navarro Sr. in his son’s face, gesturing with his hands and clucking away in Spanish.

“He didn’t think I could see [in the ring] because it looked like my headgear was too low,” Navarro Jr. later explained with a shrug. “My headgear was fine.”

To everyone else, that seemed rather obvious. Navarro, a stylish southpaw, outclassed Jason Pires by a score of 28-4.

Pires, from New Bedford, Mass., might as well have tugged his headgear completely over his eyes. His chances of hitting Navarro would have only been slightly worse.

It may be small consolation to Pires, but better fighters have experienced similar frustration.

For one, Gabriel Ruelas.

Until a year ago, before his own professional career became too time consuming, Ruelas, the World Boxing Assn. junior lightweight champion, was one of Navarro’s trainers.

They were introduced by Ruelas’ older brother, Juan, who worked for the same company as Navarro’s father.

“The first time I saw him box I said, ‘He’s got it,’ ” Ruelas said by telephone Saturday from his home in Los Angeles. “Right then I said to him, ‘Someday you will be a world champion.’ ”

Nothing that has happened since has changed that opinion.

Navarro was the U.S. flyweight champion in 1994 and won the bantamweight title this year. In his weight class, the 18-year-old from South-Central Los Angeles is ranked third in the world.

Ruelas showed Navarro the ropes the same way former world middleweight champion Michael Nunn took Ruelas and his brother, Rafael, under his wing when Nunn was the star of the Ten Goose Boxing stable.

Whether he was training in Big Bear or at the Ten Goose Gym in Van Nuys, Ruelas brought along his protege.

“Michael used to bring us when he went to [training] camp,” Ruelas said. “What I did was kind of a pay-back. I thought I should do the same thing with someone who has talent and was willing to work hard.”

Shortly after they met, Ruelas said, he went to the Navarro’s home and sparred in the family’s back yard.

“He was very fast,” Ruelas said. “I was having trouble hitting him.”

Pires, ranked second in the United States, experienced the same frustration.

Boxing at an altitude of more than 7,000 feet, Navarro showed no signs of fatigue, crisply peppering his opponent in the first two rounds, then flashing polished defensive skills in the final three-minute set.

Navarro says Ruelas made him a stronger and smarter boxer.

Professional traits are apparent in his style. Instead of attacking from the opening bell, Navarro prefers to be patient, scouting for a weakness before aggressively pursuing his opponent.

Against Pires, he spent most of the first round counter-punching and scoring with his left hand.

Ruelas, despite his absence in the gym and at ringside, continues to motivate Navarro.

“I remember he used to look at me and say how he liked my nice cars,” Ruelas said. “I’d say, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing and you will have them.’ ”

Indeed, some people think Navarro might emerge from the 1996 Olympics the way Oscar De La Hoya sprang from the ’92 Games.

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Fernando Vargas of Oxnard and Lance Whitaker of Granada Hills also reached Tuesday’s finals.

Vargas, the 1994 U.S. amateur champion at 132 pounds, defeated DeMarcus Corley of Washington, D.C., 20-5, in a 139-pound bout. Vargas, 17, will meet David Diaz of Chicago in the final.

Whitaker, a 6-foot-8 former San Fernando High basketball player, downed Charles Shufford of Las Vegas, 12-5. Whitaker, who weighed 247 pounds, will meet Thomas Martin of Miami in the heavyweight gold medal bout.