By the time the U.S. Air Force Academy boxing team captain entered the ring for the finale in the annual service academy showdown, the night had disappointed the crowd that packed the Cadet Gym Boxing Room on the eve of the Air Force-Army football game. U.S. Military Academy at West Point boxers had taken five of the first seven bouts, but by the time the bell rang at the end of the third round of his 177-pound matchup with Army’s Zoar Morales, Mike McLain had the crowd on their feet.
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Head coach Edward Weichers and assistant coaches Maj. Mike Clifford and Capt. Blake Baldi used McLain’s performance as inspiration for the rest of the AFA boxers as they continue to prepare for the 2012 National Collegiate Boxing Association Championships at the Academy in April.
“We need the tenacity our team captain showed in our last bout,” Clifford told the team in the locker room after the team lost 5-3 in the dual competition. “Six minutes of pure hell is what you will all need for nationals.”
Minutes after his decision victory, McLain seemed proud of the emphasis his coaches gave to his performance, but said the team’s results before his bout didn’t give him any additional inspiration for one reason. He didn’t see his teammates’ matches because he was busy preparing for his own. He had spent the time visualizing how he would fight Morales and preparing exactly as he does in practice every day.
McLain learned his lessons from more experienced teammates in his first three years in the program. Now that he’s a senior, he prefers to lead by his actions, as he did in the highly competitive third round. He was named the team’s most outstanding boxer for the second consecutive week. The 2011 All-American boxer won the award a week earlier for his decision victory over Army’s Jon Maddux at the Service Academy Classic in Detroit on Oct. 28, when the Air Force team won five of six bouts against Army and Navy competition.
“I take what Coach said to heart, but when it comes down to it, I’m usually not watching the fights because it gets your adrenaline going up and down. You don’t need that before a fight,” McLain said. “You’ve got to focus on what you need to do. When it comes down to it, it’s just you out there. It was all about what I needed to do with my internal motivation.
“I’m a little disappointed because I didn’t bring the fight I wanted to bring tonight. I’m proud, though, knowing that when it comes down to it, if I fall into his game with the non-stopping style coming at me, I could take what’s coming for six minutes. We had a game plan, but when it comes down to it, you do what you’ve got to do to win. I’m glad to know that’s there in me to do it.”
Steve Bittner and Will Peterson also won their bouts in the 125 and 134-pound divisions against Army’s Ceon Harris and Jeremias Ortiz, respectively. But before those two Air Force victories, Army boxers had taken the first three bouts of the competition. Most of the crowd that packed the gymnasium was hungry to see Air Force boxers do well, especially on the night before the Falcon football team captured its record 18th Commander’s-in-Chief Trophy with a 24-14 victory over Army.
The coaches hope the night provided some needed experience for some of the less experienced boxers, along with the lesson their team captain gave them in the finale, especially with all eyes on nationals in the spring.
Weichers, who has led the Academy to 18 national collegiate boxing championships in his 35 years as head coach, has a goal for each of his boxers to win a title before they graduate from the Academy.
“If we don’t learn and improve from this, it was all for naught because we will see Army and Navy three or four times in the fall semester,” Weichers said. “The bottom line is it’s not the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy by any means. It’s your sister services, but in April, when the nationals are held, that’s our Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. That’s our national championship. All of this leading up to it is experience, learning and growing.
“Our seniors are very good leaders, and they’re the ones setting the example. The leadership with the senior class, with Mike being at the top of the food chain, is good. But they have to be the ones to go out there and perform like Mike in a very rough environment, a hostile environment, so to speak, and say if you want to be the man, this is what you’ve got to do.”
Upcoming competition for the team includes the NCBA Showcase in Seattle and Reno, Nev., in January and February, followed by wing open championships at AFA, leading up to the nationals.
“Don’t get used to losing,” Weichers told them afterward, although he has a policy not to talk specifics about an athlete’s performance until at least 24 hours later, when they are less emotional about the outcome and more receptive to hearing how they can improve.
“If somebody asks me, ‘How did I do, Coach?’” Weichers said, “I just say, ‘You did just fine.’ We’ll talk to them on Monday after all the emotions and anxiety has passed.”
Whether they won or lost, two days later, each boxer was back in the gym intent on raising his performance to the level of their team captain’s effort.
“He stepped up and showed the younger guys how to get it done,” Baldi said.