Kingsville native in Paris as boxing coach

For those intently watching the Paris Olympics, you may have noticed a familiar face amongst the athlete contingent — especially if you’re from Kingsville.

Kingsville’s own Chad Wigle is a boxing coach with the United States Olympic Team.

The KDHS grad has a lot of people back home rooting for him and his team to do well — including his former boxing coach, Doug Patterson.

Patterson says Chad reaches out to him several times a week via messenger and he is keeping a close tab on his former protégé as he puts his mark on the boxing world.

“I knew Chad was going to be a good boxing coach,” says Patterson. “He never stopped asking me questions. Kind of reminded me of myself.”

Patterson says he feels that today’s coaches don’t know enough about the game, but he’s glad that Wigle is doing things the right way.

“I’m very proud of him and all of Kingsville should be, too,” he said.

Wigle now lives in the states and is the national development coach for USA Boxing. 

He spoke to the Sun on Friday and expressed his exitement in being at the games.

“It’s awesome to be walking around the village and standing in line at the cafeteria with the absolute best athletes in the entire world,” he said. “Watching multiple packs of people walk by all wearing their team uniforms makes the experience very real, about how this is the top global athletic event.” 

Wigle says the excitement at the boxing venue is like nothing he’s ever experienced.

“The energy of the live, sold-out crowds are 10 times what I’ve seen at world championship finals,” he says. “But, it’s not just the finals. Every fight is like that.”

And while he is a coach for Team USA, he can’t help but root for young Canadian boxer Wyatt Sanford, who won the bronze medal in his weight class.

“I hope he gets gold at 63.5 kg, “said Wigle. “Team USA doesn’t have anyone competing in that category, so I feel pretty safe saying that.”