President's Report 2023

2023 was an extremely challenging, busy, and exciting year. The Boxing SA Committees focus for 2023 was to try our best to provide competition and support to or boxing community, continue with lifting the profile of the sport of amateur boxing in SA and to become a more competitive State at the highest level. We have seen a successful year for boxing, focusing on increasing participation, the introduction of new clubs, increasing the Boxing SA membership base and making our boxing tournaments throughout the year more exciting. BSA also focused on securing and increasing Sponsors for our State.

BSA has been busy with adopting new policies that came in from a national level and the integrity unit and we still have a few to come this year such as the new constitution to be aligned with BAL and world boxing, new coaching accreditation policy, complaints policy and the new medical regulations and guidelines. BSA had funding obligations to meet, with attending planning sessions and funding reports to complete for office recreation and sport. BSA has continued to engage with Social Punch to assist with our promotions, sponsors and the BSA Instagram page which has taken off well.

Boxing SA sanctioned 11 tournaments in 2023. Some highlights were hosting in Adelaide the Australian Club Championships in which we had 2 international clubs in attendance, U19 Elite Australian Championships and the Australian Master Games.

Throughout the year, Boxing SA has contributed funds for boxers, coaches, and officials to attend competitions and programs plus interstate competition and officials to come to SA to participate within Boxing SA competitions. We subsidized teams and athletes to attend events such as King of the Ring NSW, Super 8 series in WA, Elite Australian Championships WA which was the first Olympic qualifications and SA v WA in Perth. Golden Gloves – BSA did not send a team this year due to an extreme amount of activity that BSA had planned. We made the choice to go to King of the Ring instead of Golden Gloves in early in the year in preparation for the U19 Nationals in July. Golden Gloves was in August.

There have been 3 National camps at the AIS this year, a Junior, a female, an Elites. There have been 12 athletes, 3 coaches and 1 RJ selected. The cost per person was around the $1500 mark and BSA only asked each person for $400. BSA contributed the remainder, which was $16, 800 for these camps. The next camp, which will be early 2024 is a National Youth Camp.

BSA is always thinking about opportunities and the development of all of our athletes and what we can plan. At the beginning of each year all the MA Presidents meet, and we plan our yearly calendar and work out events/camps we can support each other with.

Callum Peters was accepted as a SASI athlete for 2023 which enables him to use the facilities and get a small amount of funding. At the beginning of this year I also put a grant application in with ORS for Ronin Beaumont and Brandon Pepper to become SASI athletes, but unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. BSA will continue to strive to get more SA athletes into SASI.

Boxing SA athletes had an impressive year. The improvement and depth in our State is just increasing every year and it’s very exciting to see especially with the SA athletes getting opportunities at National level to compete overseas. At the Elite Australian Championships 2023 we won 3 Gold medals in Callum Peters, Fred Zziwa, Genaro Colangelo and a silver medal to Eddie Coumi. Callum Peters is currently about to compete at the Oceania Olympic qualifying event. Eddie Coumi has been overseas at camp with the Australian team and heads to USA to compete in the Gene Lewis Tournament. We also had some great success in our u19 State Team at Australian Championships we won 2 Gold Jay Jones and Lainesia Touati and 5 silver medals Joel Mlacic, Hadi Ali Bakshu, Sunny Beaumont, Ruby Darcy, Aymen Al-aaraji from a very young team. Jay Jones and Lainesia Toutai were selected in the Australian Team to go to the USA to compete in the Gene Lewis Tournament.

Boxing SA coaching structure in 2023 has continued on well since Phillip Goodes was appointed President of Boxing Australia and had to resign his State coaching coordinator role. Charlie Coumi has stepped up with assisting all the State coaches as well as his own role as Elite State Coach, Owen Hems was selected as the SA Futures Coach, Matt Arthurs as U19 State Coach and we introduced a State U15 coach this year Mercedes Taaffe Cooper who works alongside Matt Arthur. Rebecca Moss State Female coach and Damien Barrett State Masters Coach. It has been great to watch and see the state work together for the greatest outcomes. The State coaches held multiple state training days and worked closely with our athletes. BSA thanks them all for volunteering their time at a State Level.

This is Owen Hems first year as the SA National Futures Coach under the Boxing Australia Futures Program with Jamie Pitman. It was impressive to see the athletes selected in the future Program and to watch their growth and development. There has been 9 Futures training and camps held so far this year with 2 more remaining.

Boxing SA has conducted 3 Level 1 coaches’ courses in 2023 with another one still to come in November. There so far have been 40 people sit the course with 30 new coaches getting accredited. I would like to acknowledge and thank Adam Nahal who presented and Heather Hughes for organizing the coaches’ courses for their service.

As part of the Boxing Australia Australian Womens Committee it has been great to see its growth since forming last year. Over the last 12 months we have been focusing on promoting women in the sport, we initiated the AWB tee to assist with raising some funds and to promote at a national level and they have sold well. Elena from Social Punch was engaged by Boxing Australia to assist with sponsors and to establish the AWB social media pages. There was the National female come and try day which was support very well in SA- big thanks to Bec Moss for hosting this. We have the first all-female event Queen of the ring Tournament happening in November in WA, this is also a fundraiser for the Jane McGrath Foundation, nominations have been good with a couple of international teams coming in. We look forward to seeing the growth in 2024.

In November 2022 at the Boxing Australia AGM Phillip Goodes was elected as the new Boxing Australia President and there has been quite a few changes at a National Level, with the main one of Boxing Australia leaving AIBA and joining the new World Boxing. This has been a great move, with the aim of keeping boxing in the Olympics and we look forward to the next 12 months.

The plans and development of Boxing SA is very exciting, and I am looking forward to the year ahead especially with the Australian Club Championships which keeps growing every year and possible a new adventure which is in the pipeline.

An increase in New Clubs, coaches and athletes throughout SA has boost the profile of amateur boxing in SA. It’s exciting to see the growth. BSA sponsors have been amazing, and we are appreciative of their support and the opportunities our sponsors allow BSA to give to our boxing community. Live steaming of events has been great, bringing a wider range of audience to sport.

Finally, I would like to thank our BSA Sponsors, the Boxing SA Committee, State Coaches, Members, Coaches, Athletes, Officials, Matchmaker Phil Miller, Supporters, Families, and any other volunteer who have contributed to a successful 2023 year. A lot of the above jobs take up people’s valuable time during the weekends and weekdays. Boxing SA very much appreciate this, without these sorts of sacrifices our sport cannot run.

Allison Goodes, President of Boxing SA Inc.