2 Club Boxers Win Silver Gloves Titles

Two youngsters from the Anaheim Boxing Club now rank as best in the West in their amateur divisions.

Raul Pacheco, 15, and Dominic Gonzales, 11, both won Western U.S. National Championships at the Silver Gloves Tournament over the weekend in Norwalk.

“We’ve got some national champions now,” Boxing Club manager Ed Kostiuk said. “It’s a great honor for us.”

Kostiuk said this is the first time in the club’s 25-year history that its members have achieved Silver Gloves titles.

Each youngster vied in two matches at the Silver Gloves Tournament and came out with the Western national title in his weight class--Pacheco in the 178-pound division and Gonzales in the 98-pound division.

Pacheco, an Anaheim High School sophomore, has been boxing about a year. Gonzales, a Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School sixth-grader, has a 3.75 grade point average and puts his grades before boxing, Kostiuk said.

The Silver Gloves tournament is open to youngsters aged 17 and under. Kostiuk said the Western U.S. National Championships brought together junior boxers from states west of the Mississippi River.

Both Pacheco and Gonzales won Southern California regional titles in November, then captured the state championship titles in December, making them eligible for the Western U.S. National.

The next matches for the youngsters are Feb. 5 when they box for National Championship Silver Gloves titles in Kansas City.

Kostiuk said the club is seeking community donations to send the boxers to the national match.

Information: (714) 999-1402.