Two Trinity Boxing Club Student-Athletes Competing in National Championships

They had never stepped into the boxing ring before college, but now Wes Silverman ’26 and Samara Quintero ’25 are both fighting to win titles. The two student-athletes from the Trinity College Boxing Club will compete this week in the National Collegiate Boxing Association (NCBA) national championships.

Silverman, a biology major, said, “I had a friend in high school who was big into MMA and kickboxing, so we did a little bit the summer before college, but nothing serious. Having that interest, I joined the Trinity team and started taking it more seriously.”

Quintero, who is majoring in psychology, said she never thought about boxing before Trinity. “As a kid, I was super into The Karate Kid and all that stuff, so I think I had some attraction to fighting,” she said. “I saw the Boxing Club at Trinity and thought it was the coolest thing ever, but I had no intention of ever competing.”

Both boxers have excelled since beginning their training, and are the only two Trinity competitors who have qualified for the 2025 national championships, which will be held April 10 to 12 at the Lawrenceburg Event Center in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

Their qualification for nationals was a long time coming, with NCBA competitions starting back in October 2024. Silverman and Quintero each won the silver medal in their gender and weight class at the regional championships in Bristol, Connecticut, in March.

Quintero said, “With nationals coming up, I felt all this pressure to win, but I’ve taken a step back in the past week and been like, Wow, I can’t even believe I’m in this position at all… For me, the biggest thing that I’ve gotten is mental and physical resilience, and the ability to squash my self-doubt every time I enter the ring. That’s really applied to all areas of my life. I’ll think, ‘If I can get punched in the face, I can take this neuro exam.’ You can get so much out of the Boxing Club at every level. I think that boxing has made me a better person.”

Silverman added that boxing can help student-athletes find themselves. “You see what kind of person you actually are when you get in the ring,” he said.

The Trinity College Boxing Club practices three times a week out of the Charter Oak Boxing Academy (COBA), a local gym created by Johnny Callas that aims to support at-risk youth in Hartford by providing them with discipline and mentorship. As Callas has said, “Amateur boxing is a teaching metaphor for life that instills self-discipline, humility, tenacity and overall well-being.” Callas, known as “Coach,” is a 30-year World Championship Professional Boxing referee who was an NCBA champion himself.

Quintero explained that active members of the Boxing Club serve the community. “We have weekly tutoring and mentorship events with the COBA kids. To use the gym, which is such a privilege, you have to give back,” she said. “I love these kids and I’ve learned so much from them, inside and outside the gym.”

Quintero’s boxing experience has also come into play with her academics at Trinity, as she created a research study on the effects of collegiate amateur boxing on cognition and on resilience. “I got into this research study under Sarah Raskin [associate dean for faculty development and Charles A. Dana Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience] my sophomore year. She took me in, and I’ve been working on my study since then. I just presented my results and it’s actually now my thesis.”

The Trinity College Boxing Club has around 40 active members, with seven or eight students at the competitive level. Beginners are welcome and are eased in by learning technique before moving to sparring. Quintero said, “I would encourage anyone who’s interested in boxing to come try it out. We want more girls boxing.”

Even after he graduates from Trinity, Silverman said that he likes boxing too much to stop. “When you win, it’s kind of addictive,” he said. “It’s not the only thing, but there’s no better feeling than when you go through the work and at the end you get your hand raised.”

Learn more about the Trinity College Boxing Club here.