Former football player takes to the ring

SNOQUALMIE VALLEY - A former Mount Si High School football player has found success in a sport other than football. Michael "Maji" Gavronski, who graduated from Mount Si in 2004, has started to make noise on the amateur boxing scene.

SNOQUALMIE VALLEY – A former Mount Si High School football player has found success in a sport other than football. Michael “Maji” Gavronski, who graduated from Mount Si in 2004, has started to make noise on the amateur boxing scene.

Gavronski is 9-0 in the first matches of what appears to be a potentially long career. That undefeated start has earned him the opportunity to box in what promoter Ringside.com, on its Web site, called “the greatest boxing event in the world,” the 2005 Ringside World Championships scheduled for Aug. 3-7 in Kansas City, Mo.

Gavronski seems to have found a new sport he loves and getting in the ring is an interesting experience for him.

“It’s exhilarating, to tell you the truth,” Gavronski said.

He boxes in the 165-pound weight class, and the former Wildcats linebacker, uniform No. 35 in his Mount Si days, hopes that this event opens some new doors for him, in possibly either Olympic or professional opportunities.

The only fighter from the Valley who will be participating in the competition, Gavronski boxes out of the Ring Sports United gym in Bellevue. His coaches, Mark and Kim Messer, live in the Valley.

The event in Kansas City, according to the Ringside Web site, will bring together upwards of 1,500 boxers from as many as 15 nations to compete against one another in one of six different boxing rings inside a 35,000-square-foot hall near the Kansas City airport where the event will be held.