Joe Smith, founder and director of the YCAP Boxing Club on Central Avenue.
OK, so maybe Tuesday's news that our town has landed the USA boxing team qualifying tournament without so much as trying won't generate the immediate electricity that corralling a similar event in women's figure skating or gymnastics might have.
It's boxing, after all, which seemingly has fallen so far down the popularity ladder that it often seems as if even Olympic matches are televised at 3 a.m. And only on the Internet.
That doesn't mean this isn't a huge deal, however. Or as the YMCA's Joe Smith -- who's been a team manager for both the U.S. men's and women's national boxing teams -- noted at Tuesday's news conference: "The only thing bigger in amateur boxing is the Olympics."
So if you want to see who'll be placed on our national men's team over the next 18 months with an eye on qualifying for the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, make plans to drop by the Chattanooga Convention Center from Nov. 30 to Dec. 5 to watch our nation's best and brightest young pugilists.
But just in case you need a more personal reason to attend, consider top-ranked 19-year-old lightweight Roger Hilley, who's been under the tutelage of Joe's son Andy for several years at the quaint Y-CAP boxing gym on Central Avenue.
Y-CAP is an acronym for the YMCA's Community Action Program, and while its core athletic component is its inner-city boxing instruction, it constant message, in Andy Smith's words, is "Just do the right thing and success will follow."
But probe Hilley, who fights at a well-chiseled 132 pounds, and you'll find not only a polite and soft-spoken young man but one with a keen appreciation of boxing's more illustrious distant past. For Hilley's favorite fighter isn't a current star such as Manny Pacquiao, unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. or the retired "Golden Boy" Oscar De La Hoya.
"Sugar Ray Robinson," said Hilley, referring to the legend who last fought in 1965 and died in 1989. "He's by far the greatest of all time."
Hilley already has fought over 100 fights, twice winning world crowns at the Ringside World Championships. Of the chance to make the U.S. national team with an eye on the Olympics, he said, "I can see myself on that team. My job is to make that dream become a reality. My belief is that if you're not first, you're last. I want to be first."
And Hilley is not Andy Smith's only potential U.S. team qualifier. Seventeen-year-old light flyweight Slade Corvin also has won two world championships and hopes his compact 5-foot-4, 108-pound frame can find a place onto the U.S. team.
"This is such a great moment, not just for our gym, but for our city," said Corvin, who's home-schooled. "I think there's a real possibility of making the U.S. team and touring internationally. You still have to qualify in your weight class for the Olympics, but what a great experience this would be."
There are no guarantees for Hilley and Corvin, of course. They'll have a chance. Nothing more or less. But for Chattanooga this is a certain win. Without so much as bidding for this event, we were awarded it when another city was forced to pull out.
So three days after Thanksgiving our town will welcome 250 boxers fighting for 10 weight division titles and the automatic U.S. team memberships that come with those crowns.
"Once again, this demonstrates the leadership we have in this community," said humble, modest Joe Smith. "We did not bid for this event. They reached out to us."
Added Bob Doak of the Convention and Visitors Bureau: "We know how to roll out the red carpet for these large-scale events."
But Sports and Events Committee president Tim Morgan saw it differently.
"This is a testament," he said, "to what Joe is doing."
What Joe and Andy Smith are doing best, what they've been doing for Y-CAP's 15 years, is teaching character and discipline and hope through boxing. If hosting the U.S. national boxing team qualifying tournament is our town's reward for their good work, it's acclaim long overdue.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.