2007 Emerald Gloves Update

On Friday, March 16, my boxing club sponsored our second annual Emerald Gloves boxing tournament. It was a great time. We had a team comprised of amateur boxers from Ireland and England competing with a local team of champions. The bouts were excellent and, except for one, demonstrated a high level of sportsmanship. As far as I can tell, the event was an even bigger success than last year's tournament, so I'm happy about that, even though I was a lot less involved in the planning this year.

Three of our boxers boxed on Friday evening. Bill and Kevin boxed in an entertaining exhibition bout, while Matt competed against one of the Irish boxers whose opponent pulled out at the last minute. It was Matt's first bout and he did well, too. It was great to see my friends in the ring and doing so well. I hope to have a link to photos of the event in the next day or two.

I sat out the tournament this year. In fact, I watched the bouts with my friend Tim, who was my opponent in last year's Emerald Gloves, after enjoying a great dinner of Irish cuisine with Tim's friendly and charming wife.

Although I did not box this year, it was nice to see my bout mentioned in this year's program. There was a section called, "2006 Emerald Gloves Recap" which gave the following summary of my bout with Tim:

"2 attorneys and everyday friends, battled it out in the ring rather than the courtroom. They took the audience by surprise with their skill and all out effort. The roaring crowd declared a tie."

I certainly did not expect any additional recognition a year later, but it was nice to be mentioned. Here is a link to the rest of the 2006 recap:

http://www.chicagoathletic.com/Files/Library/EmeraldGlovesRecap.pdf

I wrote my own account of my experience at last year's event:

http://www.steveimparl.info/wiki/index.php?title=Emerald_Gloves_Report

Finally, there are some additional photos of my bout with Tim at the following page:

http://www.steveimparl.info/photos/thumbnails.php?album=1

Enjoy!