BENGAL BOUTS: Brawler looking to punch out victory
By BRIAN BURKE
Sports Writer
Brock "Landers" Heckmann is a leader when it comes to the Notre Dame boxing team. And he will gladly yield to fellow senior captains Mark Criniti and Matt Fumagalli when it comes to teaching the finer points of technique. While the latter two are pure boxers, Heckmann will stand toe to toe and out-punch his opponent. As such, he sees his niche as a Bengal Bouts captain as that of motivator.
"I try to get in here a couple hours early and makes sure everything's alright," said Heckmann, who comes from Rancho Mirage, Calif. "I'd say my role in the whole thing is making sure everybody's here, everyone gets upstairs at 4:00 on time, getting our calisthenics, our push-ups, sit-ups, and jumping jacks all out of the way before we really start coaching. But Mark Criniti, Matt Fumagalli, those guys are more the technical, masterminds of the boxing scheme."
In the Bengal Bouts all is not lost if a fighter is not a polished tactician, as Heckmann's title last year in the 150-pound division proves. As just a second year fighter, he slugged his way through three bouts, the last of which was perhaps the most thrilling fight of the 2001 finals when he outlasted Chris Matassa.
"I'd definitely throw myself in the `brawler' category, though this year I've been trying to work on the technical fighting more," Heckmann said. "Last year I had three fights, and every one of them was a brawl. I fought Matassa at the end, and that was the biggest brawl of my life. One thing I guess I could say is, I've got three older brothers, so fighting with them at home everyday after school, was a good way to get the brawler mentality going at an early age. My older brother Scott, he's 15 months older than me. He was always a lot bigger than me, so we used to get into it quite a bit."
While the Matassa finale drove the crowd in the Joyce Center wild last year, those in the stands will not be treated to a rematch. Matassa has moved up to the 165-pound division this year. Nevertheless, Heckmann sees that fight as one of his greatest Bengal Bouts memories; to win a title in such dramatic fashion, with so many changes in momentum and both fighters exhausted at the end.
"That Matassa fight, that was perhaps the greatest moment of my life," Heckmann said. "Just going out, all out brawl, even if I didn't win the fight it would've been just as cool. I didn't remember it at all until I watched it on tape, and then it started coming back. It was pretty much a six-minute blur, you know? We must have thrown a hundred punches each, every minute."
Although his adversary from last year fights in another bracket, Heckmann faces new obstacles on the road to defend his title. As he looks to refine his skills, and "box" as well as "brawl," the other fighters in the 155-pound division semifinals all have individual characteristics that will make it a challenge to repeat.
"I've got a lefty [Wednesday], a good fighter, Chris Pettit, it'll be a challenge. Nobody likes fighting lefties, they should have their own weight bracket," Heckmann joked. "They're so tough, you just never fight lefties. Like 90 percent of people are righty, turns out I have two guys in my bracket left that are both lefties. [John] Nowak, he's a lefty, hard hitting lefty, he's got to fight Mike Melby, a taller guy with reach. So there's a good chance I could have two lefties from here on out."
While Heckmann proved he is one of the strongest fighters in the Bengal Bouts this year and has earned his position as captain, the other side that often goes overlooked is the work put in to the raise the money that goes towards the missions in Bangladesh. In that arena too, Heckmann and the other captains have employed motivational tactics among the boxers outside the ring.
"We've kind of been pushing the kids really hard that our main goal this year was to make $100,000," Heckmann explained. "Everyday we'd tell them before practice `go out, sell some advertisements.' We even made it mandatory if you wanted to spar more than two times, that you had to have an advertisement in. So a lot of people that wouldn't normally have brought ads in, had to bring ads in. Every-body's been good about it. [Bengal Bouts chaplain] Father [Bill] Seetch comes down, everybody loves hearing him talk about the Bengal Bouts' missions, how great it is. He talks about how a dollar here is a hundred dollars in Bangladesh, and they really don't have very much out there and we really help them out."
With a championship already under his belt, Heckmann will take away more than just the tourney wins. Bengal Bouts is unique in that fighters work side by side with teammates for six weeks, and go at it in the ring for six minutes. While it might sound cliché to talk about the cohesiveness of the boxing team, the experience makes it inevitable.
"I'd say there's your handful of guys who really love boxing, all it is to them is boxing," Heckmann said. "I really think the vast majority of the people down here really enjoy being part of the Bengal Bouts program. This year I've really gotten to know just about every kid in here, I've had a random conversation with just about everybody down here. The caliber of guys here is amazing, all really willing to give their efforts for charity, and just tough kids. I like hanging out with tough kids.
While Bengal Bouts provided him with great times to look back on, there still is one more week in Heckmann's Bengal Bouts career to look forward to, and one more opportunity for a title.
"I've gotten calls from guys I didn't even know too well, seniors from last year, just telling me, `make the best of this last week of Bengal Bouts, it's the coolest thing you'll ever do in your life.'"
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, February 27, 2002
