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Club Boxing’s Dave Griffin

Name: Dave GriffinSport: Club Boxing

Position: President

Hometown: Ridgefield, Conn.

School/Year: MSB ’09

ajor: Finance/Management

When did you start boxing? I started in high school as a fun thing with me and my friends, just messing around. When I came to Georgetown, I wasn’t fast enough to make track, and it really wasn’t my thing, so I thought, `Hey, why not try boxing?’ I really got into it my sophomore year, which is when we were trying to start the club.

How hard was it to start the boxing club? The school was not too hot on it my sophomore year. And then last year, we just kept pushing. We got a good group of guys together; we got a great coach and a gym. It all kind of came together. Then we brought it to the school, and we kind of made it so they couldn’t say no. . That’s kind of how it started. So last year, the school approved us, and this year we got approved by the National Collegiate Boxing Association.

How do you manage to balance classes and boxing? By senior year, you know learn what you gotta do for class and learn how to balance it. We have practice Tuesday morning at 6:30, which can be brutal, and a Saturday morning practice at 10. No one wants anything to do with Saturday morning practices. But yeah, you kind of learn to balance it out.

What is the makeup of the team? We just brought eight guys to play last weekend . and we have seven more guys that are starting to play second semester who have been training with us. We’ve got all sizes; I’m the smallest – lightweight, at 137 – and we have a guy who’s 205 but fought a 230-pound guy. Our first girl just joined two weeks ago, so we have her, and we have one or two more coming out in the next couple of weeks and trying to start second semester up. So we’ve got all sizes, big and small, young and old, from freshmen to seniors, guys and girls, everyone.

Who’s the coach? Our coach is a professional boxer, Bruce Babashan. He fought the other day on HBO.

What is the team camaraderie like? There’s definitely team camaraderie. Whether you win or lose, or get knocked around, the team is always there to support each other. You learn a lot about someone when you get in the ring and fight them, and we’re all friends at the end of it.

Tell us something funny that’s happened on a trip. Last weekend, a bunch of us had to make weight so we had to cut weight. We were all in the locker room, weighing in with the guys from the other school. So we all get up, we all make weight – just enough – and immediately after, everyone gets in the car and we drive off to Subway. Everyone gets, like, three sandwiches. We were stocking up; it was like a Thanksgiving dinner. We went to town.

What are some things you guys are looking forward to? We’re fighting at West Virginia on Dec. 6, and then second semester, we’re going to have a bunch of fights around D.C. I think our biggest fight’s going to be at the University of Maryland – we’re going to get some party buses out there so everyone can come and support Georgetown boxing. Our fight at Maryland is going to be huge – we’re going to have entrance music and everything; it’s going to be sweet.

What song would you pick as your entrance? I don’t know. I was thinking about that the other day. Obviously rap would be great to get you pumped up; Rocky would be too cheesy, so you don’t want Rocky. But then we were all talking about if a guy came out to something really cheesy like Britney Spears and got beaten by him, how’d you feel about that? So I haven’t decided yet, but come out in the spring and you’ll find out.

Booey’s or Wisey’s? Probably Booey’s, just because you can sit down and chill there, and it’s open late on weekends.

– Photo and interview by Hijab Shah

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