It’s brigade Boxing time at the Naval Academy. That means it’s a time for agitation, nervousness and excitement for a small group of midshipmen who have boxed their way into tomorrow night’s Brigade Boxing Championships.

Navy sports fans are familiar with the various arenas that serve as home for athletes strutting the blue and gold. But only the insiders know where to find the busiest of all of the school’s athletic facilities every year at this time. The training area for the young men who go beyond the basic boxing classes taken by every midshipman is tucked away at the front end of the third deck of Macdonough Hall. It is separated from a volleyball area by a heavy canvas curtain and it’s all but invisible unless you know where to look.

While boxing coach Jim McNally works the members of the Navy boxing teams for much of the calendar year, the intensity in the hidden away boxing area is peaking. With the advent of the Brigade Boxing Championships, the venue moves from the privacy in Macdonough to the crowed arena in Halsey Field House where the ten title bouts will be held beginning at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow.

McNally, in his 10 th year of leading the Navy boxing program, assures the 55 th annual Brigade Boxing Championships will be filled with exciting competition. “I think we’ll have some very interesting bouts because there are some very talented boxers this year,” McNally said. “We have seven boxers who have placed at Nationals as members of the Navy boxing team. And we have five defending champions back in the finals. “We also have some young guys I think will give s some very good competition and hopefully some close fights,” McNally added.

Highlighting the card is the presence of junior 156-pounder Todd Alexander, a Huntingdon, PA product who has already won two Brigade Boxing titles as well as two national championships. McNally assures that Alexander is boxing as well as he ever has and the coach thinks he is on the way to another banner year. That makes sophomore Grant Flynn, from Hingham, MA one of the least envied members of the entire brigade, let alone the boxing program. He gets the unenviable task of trying to stop Alexander’s reign as champion, but that will be difficult the way Alexander has been working already this winter.

Another national champion will be favored in the 180-pound bout. Radcliff, KY boxer Jon Bradley, who won last year’s Brigade title and continued on to capture the gold medal at Nationals, will face sophomore Jarrod Donaldson from Hedgesville, West Virgina.

“One of the most interesting and probably most competitive bouts will be at 147,” McNally said. “We have Liam Hulin, who is a senior and a defending champion going against Mike Francis, a plebe who is a transfer from Penn State. “When Francis was boxing for Penn State last year he beat Hulin in the semifinals at the Nationals,” McNally explained. “It should be a pretty good bout.” Francis is a product of Pittsburgh, while Hulin hails from New Iberia, LA.

Another close battle is expected in the 190-pound bout, which is a repeat of last year’s championship bout. Senior Jim Masterson from St. Petersburg, FL will try again to defeat Santa Barbara, CA native Jon Ohman, also a senior. Ohman won the title last year and then went on to finish second in the nationals.

J.J. Puga from McAllen, TX is the defending Brigade Boxing champion at 165 pounds. He is also a veteran of national competition having finished second in 1994 and third last year. Puga, a junior, will go against Josue Diaz, a plebe from Carolina, Puerto Rico.

“I think we’ll have a cery good heavyweight bout this year. Both guys are on the light side, but they’re quick on their feet and they’re good punchers,” McNally said. “I expect that to be one of the most exciting bouts of the night.”

Former varsity basketball player Kiko Eaton, a 200-pound senior from nearby Lanham, will go toe-to-toe with Baltimore senior Derrick McCoy in the evening’s finale.

The boxing gets underway with Will Bonifant, a junior from Martinsburg, West Virgina, who finished third in the nationals in 1994, facing Jason Lavarias, a 125-pound sophomore from Teaneck, NJ. The 132-pound final pits junior Floridians Blair Stevenson from Lakeland and John Shepard from Panama City. And at 139 pounds senior Matt Andrews from Burnettsville, IN goes against Phoenix, AZ freshman Sebastian Pacheco.

Joe Bayer, a senior from St. Francis, MN meets sophomore Cy Mellet from Lansdale, PA in the 172-pound championship bout.