The sound of athletic activities can be heard from all directions in the University at Buffalo’s Clark Hall. Following the faint sound of a boxing ring bell, the growing sound of boxing gloves landing different combinations against the bags become more distinct as you travel into the old hall’s basement.
Whack-whack…whack-whack, go the gloves against the suspended speed bag.
“Watch this,” tips Dean as he turns to show how far his boxer has come along. “Double jab, hook off the jab, and then back with a right. Land them right after each other; I want you to speed up your combinations. Don’t step back either; bump or pivot if you have to.”
Whack-whack-whack, whack.
“Impressive, isn’t it?” Coach Dean Eoannou asks a visitor. “Did you ever try to hit that bag? You should try and hit that bag when she’s done. It’s not easy to do. It takes a lot of time to build up to that.”
Entering the UB’s Boxing Club gym, the first sight in focus is a square pillar covered in writing that details the club’s short boxing history. Every fight ever won by a UB boxer is listed in black Sharpie on the side facing the entrance way and other various wall sections throughout room. Considering the ratio of males to females both in the sport and in the club, some might find it surprising that the name Wendy Casey appears nine times out of a total 11.
One Step at a Time
Wendy, a junior math major at UB, upped her record to 8-2 recently at this year’s Western New York Golden Gloves Championship on March 24 and 25. Wendy won the WNY Golden Gloves in the open class, sending her on her way to the New York State Golden Gloves. Wendy beat out around twenty boxers, mostly males, and took home the Fighter of the Night trophy, given to the best boxer of the night—no small accomplishment for a fighter who has only been training for a couple of years.
This will be Wendy’s second appearance in the NYS Golden Gloves finals, and she’s hoping to take it one step farther this year. “Last year I kind of went in and went for it. Now, I know so many more punches,” explains Wendy. “I can watch my opponent and watch what they are doing wrong and play off that with counter punches. There is a lot more to [boxing] than just beating them up.” Last year, she lost in the championship, but to a fighter who had a lot more experience then her. At the time, Wendy only had one other fight under her belt before the championship bout.
Wendy is a different fighter now with eight more matches under her belt. “She has more experience now. She fought for the gloves last year in her second fight,” explains Eoannou, the UB Club Boxing Coach. “She’s fought ten fights now. She’s fought southpaws [boxers who lead with their left hand], sluggers [fighters who deliver strong punches], and boxers [boxers]. Wendy has a better taste of what to expect. It’s intimidating going to the Golden Gloves your second fight.”
‘I’ll See Where It Takes Me’
Now that Wendy is progressing along quite nicely in her amateur boxing career, both she and her coach have a lot to look forward to. Wendy’s first time in the Gloves, she fought in the sub-novice class, which is two or fewer fights. Now Wendy is walking out of the WNY Golden Gloves having a chance to fight for the NYS championship in the open class, the most prestigious in the competition. By skipping the novice class (ten fights or fewer), Wendy now fights four-round bouts and is eligible to fight for the National Golden Gloves in Florida this July.
“Our short term goal for this year is to win the gloves,” states Eoannou. “I also see her winning the regionals in the National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA), the collegiate level, and if she wins that she’ll be fighting in Reno for the national title. I see it all happening this year, and she’s only a year into the sport.”
With the opportunity for fast progress through the amateur ranks, a major question that any boxer ponders is: how far do they want to take the sport? “I would not see myself taking it too much farther. I mean there are nationals, Olympics, and then pro. I’m not going pro, I know that,” explains Wendy. “Coach Eoannou and I already talked about that. I really don’t want to get hit without headgear on. Besides that, I’ll just see where it takes me.”
“It’s a shock the first time you get hit in the face, let alone hard. The idea of not wearing headgear seems a lot more dangerous to me,” says Wendy. “I’ve been hit by the boys pretty hard where it rattles me; I can only imagine what it feels like without headgear on. That’s something I never want to experience.”
A Girl in the Game
When it comes to winning, Wendy feels that her hard work and sparring with the guys is what set her apart from the other girls. “A lot of girls don’t know what it’s like to get punched in the face until they get in the ring. Then having someone like me come at them and really hit them hard shocks them, and they don’t know what to expect,” Wendy says, attributing her success to a harsh training regimen. “I mean, I go in there, and I get hit by all those guys.”
“Pound for pound, she hits as hard the guys. She is a complete boxer,” states Eoannou. “For a woman to be boxing, it has only been accepted as of late. A woman is still crossing the line when she takes up the sport, so she wants to do it right. The last thing she wants to do is go out there and embarrass herself. And [doing it right] is exactly what Wendy is doing.”
Wendy, who does not consider herself a complete tomboy, still realizes she is not the average girl. Standing at about 5’6” with long, reddish brown hair, trendy thick-framed eyeglasses, and a belly button ring, it might be hard to peg her at first glance as an extremely physical and competitive athlete. But do not let that fool you. Back home in Binghamton during her high school years, she was on the boys’ varsity wrestling team, winning about 50 percent of her matches against guys. And when it came to wrestling girls, she went all the way to the nationals and came back number one in the country.
“I grew up on a street with a lot of kids, and my sister and I were the only females. So I kind of grew up playing rough sports and wrestling around with my friends,” Wendy explains. “It just seemed natural to want to [box], it was another way to push myself and test myself.”
A Harsh Lifestyle
For Wendy, boxing does more then just teach her how to kick ass in a fight.
“It really does affect the way you live. It teaches you to be dedicated to something, how to carry yourself. It gives you confidence, and you make friends through it all,” says Wendy. “It’s also my stress reliever that I can do just for myself.”
Dedicating at least ten hours a week to boxing might not seem like that big of a sacrifice for some. However, going to school full time, working 30 hours a week, and waiting tables does not make it easy to devote a couple hours daily during the week. For Wendy, the problem of time is just one of the issues she treats with a light heart.
“The hardest thing about boxing is probably finding time to train or managing my weight,” Wendy chuckles as she eats a cupcake with vanilla frosting. “I like to eat, and I have a bad sweet tooth if you couldn’t tell.”
Looking Beyond the Ring
“Actually, I’m going into math education. I want to teach in high school,” says Wendy. “I like the idea of helping people, and I’ve always been good at tutoring people.”
One might not necessarily expect a Golden Glove boxer to have career goals that involve teaching and helping others. It also might be a surprise hear that a boxer is a math major, but that is just what makes Wendy who she is. From wrestling on a guy’s team to taking up the manly sport of boxing while balancing math studies, she has never been the average girl.
“Math is one of those things that came naturally to me. I always had to think more about writing; it takes a lot for me to read too, and history is just kind of memorization,” Wendy explains. “I could have done one of the sciences, but math gives you more of a broad area to do—different grades and subjects. If you major in physics, you can only teach physics.”
For Wendy Casey, boxing has taken her a lot of places, given her lots of memories, and taught her important values in life. Whether or not she continues up the amateur ranks to nationals in a plotline worthy of Hollywood, she has certainly had her moments along the way. At a benefit fight in Richmond, Virginia around 500 businessmen filled the seats to see Wendy face off in the main event. Hundred-dollar bills were being passed around and bet on the UB girl everyone was talking about. At the end of the fight, Wendy stood victorious and about 30 men in suits waited outside her locker room for their chance to talk to the hundred-dollar baby.
