Eight amateur boxers from Maui — five from the South Side Boxing Club and three from Central Maui Boxing Club — pose for a photo in the SSBC ring in North Kihei on Monday prior to leaving for the USA Boxing National Open in the Albuquerque, N.M. The Maui News / ROBERT COLLIAS photo

KIHEI — As the group of 30 or so young boxers worked out at the facility in the garage and backyard of Nante Manangan’s North Kihei home on Monday afternoon, the veteran coach for South Side Boxing Club smiled.

For the first time since before the pandemic, Maui is sending a contingent to a USA Boxing national tournament.

Two Valley Isle clubs are sending eight boxers — five from SSBC and three from Central Maui Boxing Club — to the 2024 National Open that will take place Saturday through March 16 in Albuquerque, N.M.

The 68-year-old Manangan — who last year finished an eight-year run on the Hawaii State Boxing Commission, the last four as chief commissioner — has been coaching boxing for more than 30 years.

“Last time we went to Albuquerque was about six years ago, before COVID, maybe seven years ago,” Manangan said Monday as the boxers prepared for their final sparring session before departing this week. “It means a lot, this is a big thing, a big tournament, so the kids are excited. It’s a great opportunity for them.”

The oldest of the competitors making the trip is 19-year-old Etienne Hardy, a 2023 Kihei Charter School graduate who owns an 8-5 record while he has boxed for SSBC for more than five years.

“Oh man, I have no idea what to expect and I am extremely excited to put myself out in a high tournament and high-class fighting,” said Hardy, who will be fighting in the 156-pound division. “Yeah, I’m ready. We were put under a certain amount of time and we did all the work that we could. You know, we’re ready.”

Hardy said the tournament will be the biggest challenge of his amateur boxing career.

“The only thing I can expect is the best from everyone, but from my side I will just go in there and do my work, go do your’s and it will come out a certain way,” Hardy said. “I’d say I’m confident in my abilities and what I’ve trained in, but I’ve never been to this level of tournament — I’d say I’m confident in what I have.”

The Duque brothers live in Kihei, attend Lahainaluna and box for SSBC — Dee Jay, 16, is a junior, and Dayson, 15, is a freshman. They have been working with Manangan since being displaced by the deadly Aug. 8 wildfire.

“We ride the bus every day back to Kihei and we live right down the road, so we just run up or get dropped off by our parents,” Dee Jay Duque said. “We lived in Lahaina. Our home is still up, but we thought the air was not safe for us to live over there.

“I wake up at 5:30 (a.m.), the school bus picks us up at Maalaea, the Ocean Center, at 6:55,” Dee Jay Duque said. “Monday we’re pau at 2:20 and the rest of the week we’re pau at 1:45, so we get back around, 2:30-ish, 3. We get ready for practice and come straight here.”

Both brothers, who are sparring and workout partners, said they would win a real fight between the two and each are proud to represent Lahaina on a national-level stage next week. The pride between each brother was clear as they stood together Monday.

“It’s a good thing to have an example from my own family, somebody who lives in the same household with me,” Dayson Duque said. “It’s a good motivation to keep doing what we do.”

The other SSBC competitors are Micah Diaz, a 12-year-old sixth-grader at Lokelani Intermediate School, and Anthony Farias, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at Kihei Charter who has been working with Manangan for six years.

Manangan’s home was teeming with action during Monday’s workout. The ring itself is in his garage, while punching bags of all sorts, weight-lifting apparatus, pull-up bars sit-up benches fill up his backyard. Former Maui professional boxer Kili Madrid was at Monday’s practice, working with some of the fighters.

“I think it’s going to be a pretty good experience, a chance for me to showcase what I’ve been learning all these years,” Farias said. “(Manangan) is a really good coach on the island because he teaches us all these techniques and things that we can do in the ring and it actually works, unlike these random things that other coaches teach and don’t really work.”

The CMBC fighters making the trip are James Lincoln, a 14-year-old freshman at Baldwin; Kalei “Leilei” Thomas, a 13-year-old eighth-grader at Maui Waena Intermediate; and Levi Teixeira, a 12-year-old seventh-grader at Kalama who has been boxing since May.

“It feels good doing that, just because I’ve been boxing less than a year,” Teixeira said of making the trip to the national tournament. “I feel ready. It feels good representing all of us. Yeah, I’m more than ready.”

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.