Mission Valley Rumble rocks St. Ignatius for charity
By Trent Makela/Leader Staff
The fight left both boxers bruised and exhausted, but Ronan's Cameron "Not So" Neiss and Charlo's Devin "King of the Ring" Bauer took time during their standing ovation to embrace and formally introduce themselves.
Sweat, strained muscles and sore noses made for plenty of squishy hugs at the Mission Valley Rumble last Saturday in St. Ignatius.
A total of 32 students from local high schools climbed into a temporary canvas ring in front of roughly 450 spectators at the St. Ignatius Community Center to try their hand at boxing to benefit local Lil' Dribblers and Little Guy Wrestling programs.
Neiss and Bauer, both current high school wrestlers and alumni of local Little Guy Wrestling programs, had never met one another prior to the final bout of the event. Their hug and smiles, though, were a familiar sight throughout the night.
Fighters from Arlee, Polson, St. Ignatius, Two Eagle River and Poplar also put on the mandatory padded headgear, gloves, crotch protector and colorful swimming trunks in an attempt to earn $50 for the children's program of their choice.
Participants first chose fighting nicknames to be added to the fight bill, such as David "Crooked Nose" Plant, Kenzie "Small and Mighty" Trudeau and Toby "The Iron" Cheff.
St. Ignatius exchange students Vugar "The Brave One" Garayev, from Azerbijian, and Mathias "Viking Warrior" Mertz, from Denmark, even got in on the action. Mertz was a late addition to the bill, and decided the event would be a fun final adventure before returning to Denmark the next day.
"Mathis said they didn't have [smokers] in his country and he hadn't seen it before," event organizer Steve Woll said. "Being an exchange student, he wanted to give it a try and he loved it. He said it was one of his favorite memories of being here."
The event was scheduled to have just eight fights, but late additions like Polson High School junior-to-be Brock Picard doubled that number on Saturday morning. Picard made the trip to St. Ignatius to watch some friends fight, but ran to a friend's house to grab some trunks when he heard there was an opening in his weight class.
"I went to school in Mission until seventh grade and I always did Lil' Dribblers and Little Guy wrestling," Picard said. "[St. Ignatius principal] Jason Sargent and Steve Woll were great coaches for me and my brother. They both do so much to help the kids get into sports and excel. I sort of wanted to help them out."
The Mission Valley Rumble had been in the works four about four years, according to Woll, and was inspired by similar events in Kalispell and Whitefish.
Woll also said that he wanted to inspire people to remember the proud boxing history in the Mission Valley that includes a two-time professional world champion from the early '80s in Marvin Camel. A mural of Camel is now painted on the south wall of the St. Ignatius Community Center.
Objections to school involvement eventually led to the smoker to cut ties with the local schools.
"A lot of people said this was going to promote violence. I saw it go the other way. I saw people from Mission pulling for Ronan kids and Ronan people pulling for Mission kids," Woll said. "My favorite part was probably seeing kids from up and down the valley competing against each other and then shaking hands and telling each other good job after the fight. To step in that ring takes some strong perseverance, and it brought a lot of kids respect. I thought it brought the valley together."
St. Ignatius girls' basketball coach Les Rice served as the man on the microphone all night "because I own a tuxedo and I like the way my voice sounds on the mike".
"We probably wouldn't be friends anymore if he wasn't in there," Woll said. "He gets to wear that tuxedo once a year and now he can pull it out twice."
Woll hopes to make the Mission Valley Rumble an annual event.
University of Montana mens' basketball coach Wayne Tinkle made his way from Missoula to watch the fights and sat ringside as one of the events' three judges.