Boxers make Saskatchewan winter games team

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A boxing training camp may not be the place most people expect to be during the holidays, but for Jesse Derocher, a member of Team Saskatchewan, it was part of his journey to the 1999 Canada Winter Games.

Derocher, 16, and his six teammates will be in Cornerbrook, Nfld. on Feb. 27 to compete in the intermediate boxing events. In the meantime, it will be training camps and a dedicated workout schedule for Derocher who is from the Flying Dust First Nation in Saskatchewan.

"I feel happy for getting picked to the team. Everything happened so fast," said Derocher.

He started training and had several fights at a small club in Meadow Lake about two years ago. When the club shut down, Derocher stopped fighting for a while. A surprise came in August last year when he received a invitation to come down to a training camp in Lodgepole, Alta. with about 90 other young boxers.

"I guess someone had seen me fight before and I was invited to this camp," said Derocher.

At the camp, a total of 11 boxers were selected for Team Saskatchewan.

A September move to Saskatoon to continue his training with the Saskatchewan Aboriginal Boxing Club was a big thing, he said.

As part of his training, Derocher travels around Alberta and Manitoba with the team, appearing on a variety of boxing cards. The hectic schedule is part of the team's training plan to gear up its members for the Winter Games.

Derocher said he trains three days a week and on his days off it's jogging and sprinting for at least three miles. Classified as a welterweight at 67 kg. (147 lb.), Derocher stands about six feet tall. The young boxer is attending Grade 10 at a local high school in Saskatoon and took a short break to be home for Christmas. After Boxing Day (Dec. 26, that is) it was right back to work in Saskatoon.

"I've always been supported by my mother. She has always been there," said Derocher.

His mother and brother will be going to Cornerbrook to support him. It will be the first time he has flown and his first visit to Newfoundland, which he said makes it even more exciting.

"We're looking for good things for these guys," said Kevin Howard, head coach for Team Saskatchewan.

The training camp will be for three days and the team will be sparring, shadow boxing and attending seminars to prepare them for the games. One of the seminars will be on drug and alcohol abuse, which is mandatory for all boxers going to the games.

"I just want them to go and experience it and I do expect all our guys to medal, I'm optimistic about that," said Howard.

The games' official rules for the boxing events are straightforward, he said. Each competitor will draw another name in the same class from another team, but that also means it could be the best boxer from that team, said Howard. The fights are structured so that when a boxer is knocked out by his opponent he is out of the competition. Judges use a computerized system to score punches that basically consists of three judges marking a hit by pushing a button within one second of each other,said Howard.

Another member of Team Saskatchewan is Brian Whitstone from Onion Lake First Nation. At age 17, he has more than two years of boxing experience under his belt and several accomplishments. Whitstone was the 1997 Alberta Golden Gloves champ and he's classified as a light welterweight at 62 kg. (137 lb.)

"He has a very good chance getting the gold at the games," said Gord Blanchard, team manager.

Whitstone already has two gold medals, one at the Saskatchewan Aboriginal games in 1997 and the other at the North American Indigenous Games.

When Whitstone began boxing he was classified as a welterweight, but lost some weight last year after being sick for a while, said Blanchard.