Billy Walsh was on Newstalk's Off The Ball last night and spoke of the differences he has encountered in his new role as head coach of the USA's women's boxing team. Walsh says that he found the American team to be "a bit behind what we've been doing in Ireland", finding the American boxing team to be quite fractured. Walsh's first objective is to unite his boxers and their coaches into a team:
I found it was a very fractured coaching team. Boxers are very individual and had their own coaches from all over America so we had to change that. The coaching staff are one team, like we had in Ireland.
[In Ireland] we had a team, which worked from our sports science people down to the guy who cleaned the gym down to the coaches as well.
Obviously someone had to lead that, and I've been leading that here, leading that change. We are Team USA and we all have a motto and a drive to being the best team we can be.
It still seems incongruous to us to hear Walsh refer to himself as being part of 'Team USA'. The difficulties in uniting the boxers into one team stem from the sheer size of the United States. Walsh is based in Colorado, meaning many of his boxers are forced to undertake some exhausting commutes:
One of the girls drove twenty-two hours to get here yesterday, and I thought Dublin was a long drive from Wexford!
Twenty-two hours is crazy, but that's what they do over here.
We were very fortunate [in Ireland] that we're a small nation and we met every week. We trained together from Tuesday to Friday, so it was easy to implement, whereas here we have to implement this on a periodic basis as people are flying five or six hours to be here.
Along with these logistical challenges impeding Walsh's efforts to fulfill the potential of the USA's women's boxing team is a cultural problem. While amateur boxing has a storied past in the United States, the financial pull of the professional game entices many boxers to eschew the amateur game - and, as a result, the Olympic Games - prematurely.
Walsh says that another of his difficulties is to boost the profile of the Olympic Games, something he never had to worry about in Ireland:
There is no vision here for the Olympic Games. In Ireland we have a vision for the Olympic Games, we want to stand on top of world podiums, this was our ambition in the amateur game.
These guys [amateur boxers in America] don't think about the Olympic Games; all they think about is going professional.
Building a profile around the Olympic Games and around the boxers going to the Games, so I suppose that is part of my job here.
Walsh is now settled into life in Colorado and greatly enjoying the role, although he admits he found it tough to leave Ireland. During the drawn-out contract negotiations with the Irish Sports Council, Walsh admits he found it to be a lonely time, saying that he "spent many night on my own crying".
Walsh also revealed he is likely to take over as coach of the men's team after the Olympics.
You can listen to the entire interview on the Newstalk website, here.
