It's gold or bust for the fighters at Spruce Capital Warriors Boxing Club.
Thomas Spiers and Robbie Cousins flew out of Prince George on Friday morning headed for Sydney, NS and the 2012 Canadian National (Senior) Elite Boxing Championship from Jan. 10 to 14.
"I'm going for gold," says Spiers about returning to the national championship after missing last year due to financial issues.
"It kind of sucked missing it, but I couldn't really help it with the way Boxing BC went," he says.
"They said they were going to pay for a hotel room so we made up enough money [about $1,800] to pay for our own tickets, but at the last minute they said they weren't going to pay."
Spiers' coach Wayne Sponagle didn't mince words about who was to blame. "[Boxing BC] have their favourites that they pay for everything and they denied Thomas the chance to go [last year] - they said they could pay his room and then three days before the fight they phoned and said they can't pay his room," says Sponagle.
Last September the leadership at Boxing BC changed, which means all 16 boxers heading to nationals this week will need to pay their own way.
"This year everybody has to pay their own way, there's no favourites and nobody's getting anything others aren't," says Sponagle.
"For some boxers and coaches it's the first time they ever had to do that."
For the Warriors Club the trip will cost between $5,000 and $6,000 according to Sponagle.
The coach joined his two boxers on the flight to Nova Scotia Friday as he was selected as team coach for the British Columbia boxers.
"I was very honoured to be asked to be the coach," says Sponagle.
Spiers, 21, fights in the 81-kilogram weight class and is looking to improve on his 1-1 finish at nationals two years ago.
"I'm more ready and more focused," says Spiers. "I'm stronger and more mature. [Back then] I wasn't prepared enough."
Cousins, the other Warriors' boxer heading to nationals, is an Edmonton product who moved to Prince George a year ago to train with Sponagle after forming a friendship with another boxer - Marcus Hume.
"Marcus and I actually met on the Internet and he ended up coming to an Edmonton tournament about four years ago now, and we just kept in touch," says the
64-kilogram boxer.
"He came out to Edmonton one year to help me with a training camp and then I came out here. I was here for two weeks and I fell in love with it. It's the best training I've had in the five years that I've been boxing."
The 20 year old heads to the national championship after a year of suffering through various injuries from a cut on his forehead to issues with his hands.
Weigh-ins are Tuesday and then Spiers and Cousins will learn their draw.
"If you get a really good draw you can end up doing very good," says Sponagle.
