When Matt Milas joined the Michigan crew team during his freshman year, he never expected that it would lead him to become the captain of the Michigan men"s boxing club. Milas, a fourth year junior, remembers becoming interested in boxing while rowing on the machines next to the sparring mats.

"I"d look over to the boxing ring and see people sparring and doing all sorts of different things. It looked interesting. For crew, I would just be sitting there rowing for hours," Milas said.

Milas joined the club in the summer of 2000 and has since worked up to the position of team captain. Senior Theron Tingstad who won the regional championship his freshman year and was named All-America in 1999 is the other team captain.

Father Pat Egan heads up the coaching staff of the club, which is a member of the National Collegiate Boxing Association. Egan leads approximately 30 club members through their workout at each practice. Active members are required to participate in two practices per week. There are about 60 members overall, with skill levels ranging from beginners to experts. No matter the talent level, the boxers have different reasons for joining the club and committing a part of their week to it.

"I joined because it was something new, something that was not offered in my high school," freshman Brian Shin said. "It"s not like other sports. In boxing, you know when you mess up because you get hit in the head."

Shin and others enjoy the sport because it is challenging, both mentally and physically. Sanjay Sharma, a beginning boxer, said that he was there to learn techniques and get in shape.

"I like boxing because there"s more purpose to it it"s better than just lifting weights," Sharma said.

"Because boxing is not a team sport, you are responsible for yourself and you only go as far as you want to go," junior Merrick Poon said. "If you keep in shape and drive yourself, you get results."

Poon joined the club last fall and has competed for the team once. He would tell anyone interested in boxing that it is impossible to know how exciting it is until actually stepping in the ring.

"There"s nothing like beating someone up," Poon said.

At practice, boxers perfect their technique and prepare for competitions against other schools in the region. The club will send a team to the Detroit Athletic Center Fall Classic show on Nov. 9. The show, which is a benefit dinner, will feature matches starting in the lowest weight class of 112 pounds and continuing up to the heavyweights. The Michigan boxing team will face competitors from Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Kentucky.

After the upcoming DAC Fall Classic, the boxing club hopes to put together an invitational at Michigan. In previous years, the club has had trouble finding a spot to hold its competitions, using its own practice area in the Coliseum one year and setting up a movable ring in the CCRB another year.

"We basically set up matches as we go along through the year," Milas said.

The boxing club practices Monday, Wednesday and Thursday from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Tuesday from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. All practices are held in the upper deck of the Coliseum.