And ye shall reap what ye sow...

[bigpicture]

First, what I am about to say is NOT about the boxers on the US Olympic Team, except to say that they deserve our thanks and congratulations for an exceptional effort in the face of absolutely unreasonable odds. They are, were and will be great boxers. Keep your hands up and your heads up higher and go on.

This IS about two organizations. About how they both failed to do their jobs and how they let those great athletes and thousands more just like them down repeatedly. It is about the systemic collusion to abandon the competitive Olympic ideas in favor of negotiated personal desires for power and the need of individuals to be ‘right’ rather than good custodians of great traditions and greater ideas. It is about how they abandoned their responsibilities and abandoned those that tried their best to do the right thing as boxers, coaches and parents for themselves, their peers and competitors, their country and the sport they have committed to living within.

The organizations are the US Olympic Committee and USA Boxing. Both should be ashamed of their actions, their incompetence, and their co-dependent commitment to politics rather than excellence of purpose.

It is about their joint failure of management, leadership and coaching.

First, the USOC. They have known for years that USA Boxing was in big trouble. Through Executive Directors after Executive Director to CEO jim Millman, in last eight years they sat in the USA Boxing Board of Directors meetings and monitoring and endorsed the actions of USA Boxing.

Granted, they took actions. They sanctioned, they cut funds, they complained. But, what they did was ultimately ineffective. It was a failure of leadership and commitment. They must bear some responsibility for the outcome they helped create.

For over a year, they sat by and watched as dozens of knowledgeable participants pleaded that there was a train wreck coming. Parents, personal coaches, athletes, ministers and even professional promoters and managers all warned of the impending collapse of the USA Boxing program for months. They heard it both in public forums and in private warnings. They had every opportunity to examine these complaints and accusations and act. They did nothing effective. Their passiveness permitted the USA Boxing situation to exist. It is through their support (while ignoring other great boxing programs) that forces the best boxers to deal with the arrogant, ignorance and political chummery that defines the failure of USA Boxing and this year’s Olympic effort.

Then the real problem. USA Boxing and their failure of leadership, failure of management, and the worst failure of coaching in the history of US Olympic Boxing.
They demanded that boxers go into a resident program in Colorado. There they had complete control, the best nutritionists, the best facilities, the best physical trainers in multiple areas of development: speed, stamina, nutrition and more. So, how can they possibly justify the poorly conditioned athletes that arrived in Beijing.

The recently installed CEO must accept the blame for the steps he did not take. Granted, he inherited Dan Campbell as the coach when he arrived. But for over a year he has heard the same public and private warnings. He watched when we got destroyed in a meet in Great Britain a few months ago and did nothing. He watched the mixed results from the other preliminary international events and did nothing. He allowed Campbell to exile the best and brightest athletes, personal coaches and parents. He ignored the possibility that the brackets in the US Olympic Trials and US National Championships were manipulated to enable favored athletes to end up on the team. He allowed Campbell to publicly lobby to keep specific athletes off the team, even those who had defeated the Olympians. He ignore information from experienced and highly qualified coaches that the team was being ill prepared: that Campbell was ignoring policy and required procedures for discipline and management of the team; that Campbell could not relate or communicate with the team; that Campbell lacked the National and International experience and successes necessary to prepare the team; that Campbell had other skeletons in the closet that may or may not be impacting the team. He DID NOTHING. He did not examine or investigate. His mantra was: “Dan is the best coach we have, it’s his team.” when clearly the facts were not there to support that and the issues were too significant to ignore under any conditions.

He and he alone had the responsibility to set the management of the entire organization right: to establish integrity, set the tone for finding the facts, examining the ramifications of what was discovered and for acting in the best interests of the team, the program and the future of the sport. Any experienced manager could see these issues as needing immediate attention and potentially disastrous management flaws. He failed, period.

Then, the greatest measurement of failure in US Boxing history: Dan Campbell. He told everybody this was his team. And ultimately and unfortunately, it was. A coach’s role is not only to coach, but to establish the integrity and leadership tone of the team.

As we got closer to Beijing, the cracks began to show. Of the eleven weight classes, he could only coach eight boxers into the trip to Beijing. In Beijing, each night, more of Dan’s team is eliminated. We hear about confusion, lack of communication between coaches and boxers and we see poorly conditioned and poorly motivate boxers who are all capable of so much more, being sent down session after session. A coach HAS to be about integrity, communication, management of the athlete and total trust; particularly in boxing. In each of these areas, he is a total failure.

In Colorado, at training camp, Campbell was seen to be the most distant, hands off, and blame deflecting individual ever given this level of responsibility. He blamed everybody but himself for the situations as they became public. And there were more situations than ever reached the public. “This kids a liar”... “that kid ignored me”......”we told him to lose weight”....”he got robbed”.... etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. His actions and excuses are not hard to trace.

Even casual observers hear that over the last two years he privately maneuvered and lobbied to keep to keep specific boxers OFF the team, instead of setting the competitive tone and integrity that the boxers deserved: allowing the best boxers to earn their spots. Then, strange alterations of the draws and/or brackets in two major tournaments occurred and he said nothing. While according to at least one coach, this practice seems to be considered normal at USA Boxing, it can’t improve the competitive environment or strengthen the boxers desire to improve to win. “It’s just more of USA Boxing’s typical BS.”

Campbell also ignored procedures and policies by removing individuals without proper hearings. He threatened to strip medals from those he bullied if they did not shut up. He sought to intimidate boxers. How can two kids be charged with a curfew infraction at 11:00 PM and be packed and be at the airport and on an airplane by 7:00AM if they got a mandatory hearing to determine their fate? How could they be let back in weeks later without a hearing?

Some dared to speak out. When that happened, USA Boxing closed ranks behind their Dan. They ignored it.

Coaches knew. Boxers came home heavier than when they went into training camp. They were at 75% of the conditioning they took to Colorado. There were almost NO distance runs, no stamina training, in Colorado. No substantial consuling and no management of the athletes training behaviors and progress. There was no effort to improve or enhance the possibilities of each boxer. Everybody in Colorado, including Campbell knew about weight problems early on and failed to take adequate steps when they should have been taken, in the gym, in preparation and for months before leaving for Beijing. Dan is famous for coming into the workouts, writing a set of practice drills on a bulletin board while assistants with even less experience then he has ran the drills and while he sat in a chair with the boxers schooling themselves and each other.

When they complained, he outlawed the best personal coaches instead of listening and considering their issues and suggestions. He told at least one personal coach that “This is MY team and I’ll do it MY way. YOU don’t even come around here to watch. I’ll have you barred from the complex.” He sought to intimidate or punish boxers for listening to their personal coaches. He didn’t want them asking him why what he demanded they do was different so that they could understand why he wanted something different from the coaches that made them successful.

Then he chose two assistants that also had no substantial National or International competitive experience training boxers. This is not to fault them. They didn’t have the experience to know what was needed and they worked for him. They could still mature into important coaching assets in the future, if they learn from this. Even so, he should not have done it and USA Boxing should not have allowed it.

The boxers knew. Over half of the team is on record as NOT trusting him. Who can win with a coach that they can’t trust? Every boxer saw how he dealt with their peers and how USA Boxing supported him. There were whispers about Dan’s personal behavior on trips caused many involved to lose respect for him. Even if there was nothing illegal about his personal habits, it impacted the morale of the team and their respect for him as a mentor. If that many boxers went public in the face of the power and control Dan had over their lives and careers, how bad must it have been? And how many others stayed silent rather than be branded as a liar by a person of authority and power? Seeing how he bullied others, some chose silence and it played out in Beijing.

Campbell kept playing one boxer off of another to manipulate the outcome he wanted. To keep people in the program, Campbell suggested he would send them to box in the second or third hemispheric qualifier when the Trials’ winner would fail to qualify for Beijing at an early one. “The Trials winners are only guaranteed a trip to the first qualifier, if he looks bad there, we’ll send you to the next one” he told them. Then he broke that promise. He abandoned policy and procedures to intimidate boxers by actions he took against others. His enforcement of rules was erratic and unbalanced, favoring certain boxers and pressuring others. The boxers never knew what to expect from him. Who can follow and inconsistent coach?

Back to USA Boxings management and leadership failures. They are responsible for the behavior of Campbell, as their employee. This litany of issues ignores the other rumors about his personal habits that USA Boxing certainly had to hear. Even if untrue, they needed to be investigated and perhaps a meeting with Dan to alter them should have happened. Nobody knows if any of that happened. But with just what related to boxing specifically, USA Boxing failed to manage, set the leadership tone and procedure apparatus to manage Campbell, their employee properly.

And, as said, this is the greatest moment that Dan and USA Boxing could muster being the people they are. Olympic Committee, it’s your job to FIX IT!

There are at least a dozen great Level 4 coaches that could have made you proud. There are thousands of athletes that depend on you to set a tone of fairness, discipline and ethical striving for greatness. Stand up and make it right.

Big

[a87star]

Dan Campbell is an utter failure and never accepts responsibility for his own mistakes. He's definitely one of the biggest culprits as to why US may bring home no medals in boxing.

Everyone on the boxing team fought bravely and stared adversity in the face. They deserve all the respect in the world for that.

[boxmel]

He ignored the possibility that the brackets in the US Olympic Trials and US National Championships were manipulated to enable favored athletes to end up on the team.

Blind draw done on the computer. I was at the Trials. No monkey business there. The only "manipulating" done at the U.S. Championships was to seed every one who had won the qualifiers automatically into the quarterfinals. I totally disagree with that method.

Great overview, Big - and I mean that. I hope you're going to send this to Jim Schere at the USOC and Jim Millman at USA Boxing. I don't think they will respond in this forum.

[Dennis]

Great info! I hope someone is listening.

[bigpicture]

Box,
You may have been there, but I would respectfully suggest that you do not know everything that happened.
I know of at least one boxer that had their blind draw by computer in hand who hours later was informed of a 'mistake' in the draw and had their opponent changed.
I have heard that two people complained and nothing happened.

Also, I have heard that the brackets were 'flipped' in the middle of one tournament. Never heard of that in ANY other sport.

Big

[boxmel]

You may have been there, but I would respectfully suggest that you do not know everything that happened.

I did know.

I know of at least one boxer that had their blind draw by computer in hand who hours later was informed of a 'mistake' in the draw and had their opponent changed.

I don't remember the exact situation, but the coaches caught a problem that demanded a redraw and got it.

I have heard that two people complained and nothing happened.

See above.

Also, I have heard that the brackets were 'flipped' in the middle of one tournament. Never heard of that in ANY other sport.

Please don't believe everything you hear. I don't know what you mean by "flipped." There have been instances in the past when brackets have been redrawn because a boxer can't get a bye in the first prelims and a "walkover" in the second or two consecutive "walkovers" if either the bye or "walkover" occurs in a medal round. This happens if a boxer who is scheduled to compete is out of the tournament due to not making weight or being medically unfit.

[debc]

Also, I have heard that the brackets were 'flipped' in the middle of one tournament. Never heard of that in ANY other sport.

I know of at least one boxer that had their blind draw by computer in hand who hours later was informed of a 'mistake' in the draw and had their opponent changed.


I know of a boxer this happened to!! I knew then that something smelled in the KITCHEN!!

[Dennis]

Mel - USAB doesn't always abide by those rules regarding the redraw. So when they finally do follow the procedure it seems like they are cheating.

[Dennis]

See the new thread I started about Millman's statements.

[bigpicture]

At the Olympic Trials:
At the public draw the coaches DID report a mistake. What was read off was not what was printed out. They complained. The computer operator agreed there was an error and a redraw was needed. Jeff (USA Boxing) said: "I'd rather have one guy mad at me than everybody. We won't redraw."

Later that coach was called by Jeff to come down to their hotel room to get a different opponent. What was questionable was that the rematches were done in private without anybody in attendance and it impacted several boxers. Coincidentally(?) it favored certain individuals far more favorably than the original draw.

I believe that Mike Wilson's mom has spoken publicly about this some time ago.

While I laud your loyalty, I believe that it is safe to say that you were not there for the re-matching done in the hotel room by USA Boxing officials. If you were, I would be VERY interested in how it was done and why at that late hour and who else was there in the room and any other information you can provide and if the authority Jeff displayed was within his authority level at USA Boxing.

[bigpicture]

Also, I have heard that the brackets were 'flipped' in the middle of one tournament. Never heard of that in ANY other sport.

I don't know what you call it when a boxer from one bracket is moved to another, so I called it "flipping'. I do know that when Guerrero was move at the Olympic Trials from one bracket to another, none of what you suggested was appropriate reason for doing so had occurred.

Big

[boxmel]

While I laud your loyalty, I believe that it is safe to say that you were not there for the re-matching done in the hotel room by USA Boxing officials. If you were, I would be VERY interested in how it was done and why at that late hour and who else was there in the room and any other information you can provide and if the authority Jeff displayed was within his authority level at USA Boxing.

I don't know if I would call it "loyalty" as much as stating what I was told. I know the coaches were very upset over what seemed to be a "manipulation." After all was said and done, I was told that everything was straightend out. I can only go by what was said to me. I was not there as the computer techs did not do the draw.

I don't know what you call it when a boxer from one bracket is moved to another, so I called it "flipping'.

Probably "moving."

[Dennis]

USAB needs to not only avoid "conflicts of interest" and "manipulation" it needs to avoid even the "appearance of impropriety". It is a lofty goal, but one it should strive to achieve.

[squarering]

I do remember the change, but don't remember the reason why it happened. Both sides of the
bracket had tough guys. Guerrero, Nelson, and Rodrigiez and Wade one one side and Porter, Jacobs
Estrada on the other.

[Dennis]

Guerrero tough? Come on Hal! Congrats on his recent win. 9-0 with 9 KO's is a good start for a 21 year old pro. Is he going to get #10 before he turns 22? Hal, are you just training him or are you managing him too? Did he sign with a promoter and if so which promoter? If the Q's are too personal for a public forum, you know my e-mail/phone #.

[boxmel]

I do remember the change, but don't remember the reason why it happened. Both sides of the bracket had tough guys. Guerrero, Nelson, and Rodrigiez and Wade one one side and Porter, Jacobs
Estrada on the other.

Ummm - wasn't David Clark also involved in an opponent change?