While the rest of the tri-campus tries to keep up with the constant evolution news Regarding the recent presidential election, the three junior captains of the Baraka Bouts Women’s Boxing Club are preparing for the upcoming 22nd annual Baraka Bouts tournament.

Notre Dame has more than 500 recognized clubs including this one. This begs the question: how did this year’s captains find out about it?

Emma Hazel, a junior captain from South Bend who is double majoring in political science and Spanish with a minor in theology, recalls: “I came across the Instagram account (@barakabouts) the summer before my freshman year and I immediately knew I had to be a part of this club. As an athlete throughout high school, this club provided me with the opportunity to continue being a part of a team in college. »

From Brooklyn Heights, New Jersey, junior political science captain and Italian minor Tess Kesler joins the team to help lead the way. Kesler discovered another way.

“I actually first found out about it from my (resident assistant), who was club captain, and I thought she was the coolest person ever and she had nothing but Very good things to say about it, so she convinced me and a few other girls from my dorm to go to the first practice, and I was pretty hooked from that point on.

As all three are captains, the club also recognizes even more specific roles for them. These roles relate to the captain’s life in a way that can improve the club.

“My role specifically is (that) I am the mission captain of the club. And our club, although it’s a women’s boxing club, it has a huge fundraising center and we have a fundraising target every year, and all the money for that goes at Lakeview and St. Joseph’s Hill schools in Uganda,” Hazel described. “My job as Mission Captain is that every Monday we have a “Mission Monday” during training, and either myself or a guest – a priest or someone who has studied at one of these schools – we will talk about the missions to all the boxers. »

A computer engineering major and business engineering minor, Layann Wardeh takes a different approach as a practice captain.

“Every captain has a role in the club, and my role specifically is to be the practice captain and do the weekly tasks or plan for the week,” she said. “Me and one of the other practice captains – her name is Kim – Kim and I plan eight practices every week, and so we plan to practice for six of them, and we also plan the technique for each of the days. And we also work with Coach Nate (Walker) on the specific technique we want to apply that day.

Even though fighting often comes down to the basics, it’s always important to do it with style.

“My role this year was clothing. So it was pretty much all summer, designing all of the team’s merch,” Kesler commented.

While the public sees all the battles and results of the work put in throughout the season, the captains know the stress the tournament can cause, especially if they are new to the scene.

“I think the junior captains like to be a lot more available at practice to help with anything… helping the girls outside of practice or grabbing a meal. Being a junior captain on campus, being able to have meals with boxers, having that meal plan and being in their dorm specifically is a huge advantage,” Hazel said.

“Besides my role as practice captain, we kind of work with (the) girls, holding mitts for them or helping them move or carry bags – stuff like that,” Wardeh added.

The last, and arguably most important, aspect before the big tournament that will take place in the coming weeks is staying focused when entering the ring. Hazel takes a different approach from the others.

“In a nutshell, I just take into consideration that tournament night is a very noisy environment, and I try in advance to find ways to concentrate in noisy places – ways to be fully present and completely focused on the task at hand so I have an unorthodox method where I try to avoid listening to a lot of music beforehand.

Kesler takes a different route and focuses more on the psychological aspect of anticipations.

“I do the exact same warm-up that we do in training every day and I just try to be in the same mindset and then I also have confidence in my own abilities because most of the time, people can doubt themselves in the ring, but you really just have to rely on the training that you’ve done throughout the season I think that’s the main thing, just have confidence. in what I do.

So, the captains are ready as the quarter-finals begin on Monday, November 11 at 7 p.m.