The talented can often trace their successes to humble beginnings.

Mount Carmel senior Mariano Sandoval became the Illinois Silver Gloves Champion on December 3rd in Rockford, then earned the title of Regional Champion in the same place on January 3rd, and finished fifth place at the National Silver Gloves tournament in Kansas on January 28th. 

Sandoval was not always the accomplished amateur boxer he is today. During his freshman year he was a hockey player.

“After the hockey season was over, I was at dinner with my parents, and I was telling them I wanted to do Fight Night,” he says. “They were like ‘You got two months to train for it,’ and I was like ‘I know, I kinda wanna do it,’ and they were like ‘All right, we’ll hook you up with Rick.’”

Boxing coach Rick Ramos is a good friend of Sandoval’s dad, Louis. To prepare his son for Fight Night he sent him to Ramos’ gym. There, Sandoval would run, spar, and hit the bag for seven days a week.

“I trusted all the hard work I put in,” Sandoval says. “I know I worked harder than my opponent.”

Sandoval won his match at Fight Night and afterwards he would focus more on hockey during his sophomore year. However, he found himself pulled back into boxing.

“I saw one of my friends that I trained with fight in amateurs, and it just sparked something in me,” he says. “I want to do this. It took me a while to get back to the gym. But once I got back, I just took off. I started loving it.”

Sandoval picked up boxing again during his junior year, and returned to Ramos’ gym. This was also when he earned his USA license to box. With it, Sandoval could no longer box in Fight Night. On the other hand, his license opened doors towards other exhibitions, showcases, and tournaments that he could not have even imagined prior. His first official fight was at the Illinois Junior Olympics tournament.

“It ended up being my birthday,” Sandoval says. “Someone dropped out of the tournament and they called me up and were like ‘you could go straight to the championship.’ I was already in shape for that, and it was a day away. So we were like, ‘yeah, we’ll compete,’ and I ended up winning the Junior Olympics Championship.”

Eventually Sandoval had enough experience to join the Silver Gloves Tournament as a novice, but after he completed ten fights, he was able to fight in the open. The open is how boxers in the tournament can progress from state to regionals and, finally, to nationals. When Sandoval was ready, he was driven out to state.

“I had two matches, which were super duper hard,” he says. “I was the only fighter with under 20 fights, every other fighter had 30 fights, and then one had over a hundred. They started when they were eight years old. If you were doing it as a kid, you have a lot of experience in it.”

Regardless of the experience his opponents had, Sandoval was able to win both of his rounds and enter regionals. There he had the chance to fight the best boxers from the midwest.

“I had two matches there,” Sandoval says. “Two competed on one day and two competed on the other day. I fought someone from Kansas, and someone from Iowa. One of them was very athletic. So he was hard to deal with, and hard to calm down because he was all jumpy, but the other kid I had an easier time with.”

Once again Sandoval won both rounds, granting him entry into nationals. To prepare him for the biggest fight of his life he sparred with a Golden Gloves Champion Eddie Oliveras at Ramos’ gym. When the time came, Sandoval flew down to Kansas to compete.

“I only had one match at Nationals,” he says. “It went to a split decision, two judges gave it to him, and one judge gave it to me, therefore I lost. I thought he played the system well. He landed more punches, I was blocking them, but they were scored as effective punches.”

Sandoval’s time at the Silver Gloves tournaments are over, but he still aims to set higher goals for himself. His dream is to become a professional boxer while working at Local 399. Since he is going to be eighteen, he can start by competing in the Golden Gloves Tournament next year.

“Usually you want to compete and win in the Golden Gloves,” Sandoval says. “It’s just competing and then when you’re ready you just turn professional. Luckily my coach has super good connections with everybody, so once I’m ready we can turn pro and see where it takes me.”

Before Sandoval graduates, and enters into a new stage in his boxing career, he wants to thank the people that helped him along the way.

“I want to thank my family because they have been supporting me since day one,” he says. “I want to make it in boxing for them.”