Team Gladiator of Forked River, NJ has two boxers training for the Olympic Trials this August. They are Bobby “The Bull” McCarthy and Rocco “The Rocket” Salimbene. They are both 17 yr old and just entering the men’s division and trying to make it to Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center. McCarthy is a sophmore at Lacey High School and Salimbene is a junior at Southern Regional High School.

USA Boxing has the trials one year before the actual 2012 London Olympics to be able to put the team together and train them for a year before the actual Olympic Games. They will have 4 opportunities to make it: the US Nationals, the National Golden Gloves, the East Coast qualifiers and West Coast qualifiers. (they both missed the first Olympic Trial qualifying tournament in October, the National PAL unfortunately) and they can not enter the other qualifier because its the US Armed Forces Championship.

They both had fantastic Junior Olympic careers as teens. Bobby,(6’2 255lb) winning the National Silver Gloves in February 2010 and getting the silver and bronze in two other national tournaments( he is also a 9x state champ and 4x regional champ).

Rocco also finished 7th in his only national appearance and was the Region 1 champion entering that tournament. Rocco(5’7 132lb) moved into the men’s division last month with an impressive win in Newark(he is a 4x state champ and 1x regional champ). “They both have been sparring professional men for the last two years so the move to the men’s division shouldn’t be too much for them. They are both extremely strong, fast and experienced.I’m really looking forward to this year with them. It’s very exciting.

It’s my first guys trying to make it to the Olympic Trials” said their coach Shawn Darling. They both spend many hours each day at Gladiator Gym with conditioning drills, endurance training, speed training, agility drills and of course plenty of boxing training. There is more info on the following two sites about them: www.gladiatorboxing.net and Gladiator Gym on Facebook.