Wing Open Boxing Championships: Your questions answered
Cadet Don Angelo Piasecki lands a punch onto Cadet Will Winstead in the 132-pound men’s weight class during the 2021 Wing Open Boxing Championships.
By Rachelle Stoll, Strategic Communications
Cadets and boxing fans are convening under the bright lights of Clune Arena for the 64th annual Wing Open Boxing Championships on March 4, 2022 at 7 p.m. This year’s competition will be open to the public. Below is a run-down on this storied championship and your guide to boxing at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
1. What is the Wing Open?
Since 1958, cadets from all forty squadrons have been eligible to tryout to compete in intersquadron competitions. Known as Friday Night Fights, these weekly elimination rounds culminate in a semifinal bout on February 25th, and a championship on March 4th.
The Wing Open is also held for a good cause. Each year, proceeds from the Wing Open go to a designated charity. This year, proceeds from the Open will be donated to Pikes Peak United Way.
Cadet Will Winstead and Cadet Don Angelo Piasecki battle for the win under the bright lights at Clune Arena.
2. What is the tradition of the Wing Open and what does it mean to cadets?
Boxing head coach Blake Baldi is a 2005 Academy graduate and former Wing Open champion. He sees the Wing Open as a morale booster for the Cadet Wing, and a great way to celebrate the toughness and grit required of future officers. “The Wing Open has a good sense of purpose. It will be held a week before Recognition, so it will be great to watch athletes, and their hard work, pay off.”
The Academy’s physical education program offers an introductory boxing course, which is mandatory for all cadets as part of the physical fitness curriculum. As such, all cadets are familiar with the sport.
3. How are the fights organized and scheduled?
The tournament is typically organized in brackets by weight class, with 12 bouts lined up for the final. While the tournament is open to all cadets through tryouts, the Wing Open determines which winning members of the boxing team will go on to compete at the National College Boxing Association (NCBA) regionals and nationals.
Senior Ymani Nesmith is vying for a third consecutive women’s Wing Open title in 2022 at the 165-pound weight class.
4. When were women allowed into the boxing ring?
In August 2014, the Academy created a cadet women’s boxing club and hosted a tryout with over 40 participants. Within its first year of existence, the Academy’s women’s boxing club saw great success. It developed two All-Americans, a nationally ranked bronze medalist, and a women’s bout in the 2015 Wing Open.
In 2015 the Department of Defense (DoD) lifted the ban on women in combat, and in 2016 the military services began integrating women into previously prohibited combat roles. Keeping in line with these sweeping changes across the DoD, then Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson mandated that all cadets—regardless of gender–would be required to take a boxing course as part of the core curriculum. Before 2016, the boxing class was mandatory only for men. “This is all part of something bigger — the warrior ethos, a mindset all of us in the profession of arms must maintain every day we serve,” said Brig. Gen. Linell Letendre, Dean of the Faculty.
Since then, the Academy’s female boxers have integrated with the mens’ intercollegiate boxing team and compete yearly for the National Championship.
Senior Maddie Lloyd will seek her fourth title at the 2022 Wing Open Championship.
5. Which boxers do we need to watch out for this year?
Team captain Cadet First Class Maddie Lloyd from Highlands, North Carolina will compete in the 132-pound weight for her fourth Wing Open title. If she wins, she will be the first female in school history to win the Wing Open all four years. After graduation, the foreign area studies major will be heading to pilot training.
The Academy has had 16 male Wing Open champions who have won four titles. Cadet First Class Lawrence Barrett from Holualoa, Hawaii will be competing for his fourth Wing Open Title in the 125-pound category. In 2019, Barrett won bronze in the NCBA All-American competition.
Cadet First Class Zach Philipps was the 2021 boxing team’s Most Valuable Player. He is vying for his second Wing Open Title in the 139-pound weight class. The senior biology major will train to become a Weapons System Officer training after graduation.
Since 1958, the Wing Open has been a representation of grit and resilience in the Cadet Wing.