By: Sean Crose
“I can finally teach without my mask on anymore,” Sonya Lamonakis tells me. “It’s hard,” she explains, “you run out of gas.” Lamonakis, a teacher of the New York City Public School System has mcuh to be happy for at the moment. For Lamonakis is also the Vice President of USA Boxing, New York’s premiere amateur boxing tournament, which is set to finally emerge full bore from a Covid era slowdown. “We opened back up last year,” she says, “and it’s been good. We did Covid testing in every tournament.” Times being what they were however, the tournament had to step away from home.
“All the boxing was done outside the City,” she says. “It was tough, but we made it work.” Even in tough times, amateur fighters still came out. “In the beginning it was a little hard to get boxers,” says Lamonakis. In time, however, the competitors stepped forward. “By the time they opened up,” she adds, “everybody had already been vaccinated.” Now, with a new tournament ahead, one that’s largely free of restrictions, no less, Lamonakis is preparing for a successful return. “We just kicked off registration. We have 14 events scheduled at various locations,” she says. “We’re expecting a huge turnout.”
Sure enough, the tournament is arranged to be rather intriguing this year. “We’re having double elimination for the open class,” says Lamonakis. “We’re going to offer a novice division for our tournament, because we don’t want to discourage anyone.” The highlight of the tournament will go down at the heart of New York City boxing. “Our finals will be in June and MSG (Madison Square Garden) again,” Lamonakis says. What’s more, the finals may well coincide with one of the City’s biggest weekends of the year. “We usually coincide with the Puerto Rican Day parade,” says Lamonakis.
The prospect of this year’s tournament being a success is strong. “We’re expecting a huge turnout. We have a lot of active members again,” Lamonakis says. “We also have out streaming with smoker talks. All shows will be streamed for $9.99.” That’s nine dollars and ninety-nine cents Lamonakis makes clear with a laugh. Boxing Insider will be the media sponsor for this year’s tournament.