Cary-Grove's Chris Hill Stands Out at Pug’s Boxing Club

The senior at Cary-Grove High School is in the gym six days a week.

Of the young group of boxers training at The School of Hard Knocks in Crystal Lake, one kid from Cary sticks out and will likely have his first sanctioned amateur bout sometime this fall.

Gary Dobry, head coach of Pug’s Boxing Club, said Chris Hill, a 17-year-old senior at Cary-Grove High School, is among his most dedicated pupils.

“The most important thing for a boxer is his work ethic,” Dobry said. “Guys like Chris Hill are rare. He’s always in the gym.”

Dobry added that Hill keeps his hands up and has good form.

Hill spent Sunday morning sparring several rounds with Bill Briska, a 16-year-old who attends Crystal Lake South High School.

Hill and Briska took turns exchanging the classic orthodox 1-2-3 combination, which consists of the jab, cross and hook.

Hill's friend Spencer Kube first brought him to the gym about two years ago.

Spencer is the younger brother of Alex Kube, a standout player at Cary-Grove High School who recently finished up his college football career at Northern Illinois University.

Hill said his ring idol is Ricky Hatton. But he doesn’t see himself ever becoming a professional fighter.

“I box to stay in shape,” Hill said, “to stay active.”

Hill aspires to become a psychologist and would like to go to a university with a boxing club, such as Northern Michigan or Southern Illinois, so he can continue training.

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South Wrestler Trains in the Boxing Ring

Mike Romanelli is aiming high.

The 17-year-old senior at Crystal Lake South High School is a wrestler that aspires to make it to state this coming season.

He’s been cutting weight.

He’s 200 pounds and wants to get down to the 195-pound class. He said a boxer’s workout — including about 20 rounds of sparring Saturday and Sunday — is helping.

“I’d rather work out than diet,” Romanelli said, explaining why he’s a regular at the School of Hard Knocks in Crystal Lake. He’s hoping to knock off about five more pounds before the wrestling season starts. He's not in a fall sport, so he needs to stay active, he said.

“The next weight up (in high school wrestling) is 220 pounds,” Romanelli added. "I could go up."

“He could always go to the higher weight class by using the Lou Malnati’s workout,” joked Gary Dobry, head trainer at the gym.

Dobry said he first trained Romanelli when Romanelli was 8 years old, when Dobry’s boxing gym was in Palatine. He also trained Romanelli’s father, Mike Romanelli Sr.

Dobry said the younger Romanelli is at a level in which he is good enough to be competitive in the Chicago Golden Gloves boxing tournament.

“You can’t teach toughness,” Dobry said. “Mike’s a tough kid. He hits hard. He can take a punch. He just need’s to work on his range and learn how to work the angles a little more.”

But Romanelli said he’s having none of that.

Once the wrestling season starts in November, you won’t see Romanelli in the boxing gym until next spring.

“Wrestling season is the same time as the Golden Gloves,” Romanelli said. “When I’m wrestling, I don’t have time for anything else.”

And that’s O.K. with Dobry.

“Some people just want a boxer’s workout but don’t want to compete,” Dobry said. “That’s fine.”

Romanelli said working out as a boxer has helped with the mechanics of wrestling. He said he feels like he’s a faster, has better footwork on the wrestling mat.

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Pug's Boxing Club welcomes British veteran boxing trainer Tony Prignits to the Pug's Boxing Team training staff. Head trainer, and Hard Knocks' owner, Gary Dobry says, "Tony has trained me personally for years and that relationship eventually evolved into Tony helping me work some of my own fighters. I'm big on technical skills, turning out 'technicians'. Tony is that old-school, Jake LaMotta-type of trainer that motivates fighters to be finishers, punishers. He's the proverbial "Mick" type of trainer of Rocky fame. Tony helps me produce well-conditioned wrecking machines that can get the job done. I soon realized that the marriage of our training approaches was producing

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Pugs' Hall-of-Famer, Rick Lanas

Pugs' owner Gary Dobry (r)

Buzz Kilman, Radio Legend (l)

(l) Pugs' Hillary Slater

Cary-Grove's Chris Hill Stands Out at Pug’s Boxing Club

South Wrestler Trains in the Boxing Ring