Gatti Conditioning coach Bob Waring died
Patrick Kehoe
me long time Gatti strength and conditioning coach Robert Waring died last
night - stroke or heart attack or embolism - they don't know... the entire
camps is in shock...
My condolences to the Waring family
A sad day for Team Gatti...
P
REED BOXIN
was bob waring the same guy who they said he and sweet pea were best friends
when the did a peice on pernel before one of his fights years ago ?
jessie jr
Paul Dalrymple
> was bob waring the same guy who they said he and sweet pea were best
friends
> when the did a peice on pernel before one of his fights years ago ?
Likely so- he was Pernell's conditioning coach.
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February 24, 2001
Beach boxing coach Bob Wareing dies at 50
By PAUL CLANCY
The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH -- They all came to Wareing's. Smokin' Joe Frazier, Muhammad
Ali, Pernell ``Sweet Pea'' Whitaker and countless lesser lights of the
boxing world worked out at the gym whenever they were in town.
The reason they came was Bob Wareing, a boxing coach and one-time amateur
champion, who died suddenly at his home Friday morning, apparently of a
cerebral aneurysm. He was 50.
Hundreds of others, from judges and politicians to ordinary folks, made
Wareing's a Virginia Beach institution. It didn't matter who you were, they
said. They were all treated just the same.
News of Wareing's death -- eight months after his father, John Wareing,
passed away -- stunned family, friends and people in the boxing world. They
said they couldn't believe the extremely fit, upbeat and relatively young
man had died.
``I'm really broken up about this,'' said Lou Duva, Whitaker's co-manager
during his reign as world champion. ``All my fighters who trained down there
loved him. He took care of everyone, from Pernell on down, no matter who
they were.''
Wareing was Whitaker's conditioning coach and accompanied him to fights
around the world.
Wareing was one of seven children of the legendary trainer who performed
feats of strength on national television. John Wareing founded Wareing's Gym
on Laskin Road in 1960 and then opened another on 17th Street and instructed
generations of fitness buffs.
The senior Wareing passed along the business to his sons, Bob, Mike, Jack
and Tony, in the early 1980s.
They built a new gym on 19th Street, which occupies most of the block.
Friends and family recalled two sides of Wareing.
``As tough as he was, he was a sensitive soul,'' said Mike Wareing, who had
gathered Friday with others at his brother's beachfront home in Croatan.
``I think Bob was the best friend anyone could ever have.''
Added Circuit Judge Edward Hanson, also a regular at Wareing's: ``It didn't
matter who you were, what you were or where you came from, he was the same
with everybody. He made you feel special.''
Jon Sedel, a business associate who went through elementary and high school
with Wareing, said, ``He was the toughest, strongest, fastest guy in the
school, but he was also the easiest going.''
He was an innovative boxing coach who taught explosive hitting techniques to
countless boxers, he said.
Speaking of Wareing's coaching of Whitaker, Sedel said, ``He took a guy who
probably had the greatest tools in boxing, but was not great at staying in
shape, and made him into what many think was, pound-for-pound, the greatest
of all times.''
And yet to City Council member Linwood O. Branch III, a one-time boxing
student of Wareing's, ``He was just one of the nicest human beings on the
face of this planet.''
Nancy Chandler, principal at Pembroke Meadows Elementary School, started
working out with John Wareing 31 years ago and continued with the sons.
``You wouldn't find a greater guy, so fit and such a model of everything
grown men ought to be,'' she said.
``I see his dad in him.''
Wareing was a volunteer coach for four years at Ocean Lakes High, where his
son Joe was a first-team All-Beach District linebacker.
``Our football family has lost a great friend,'' said Ocean Lakes head
football coach Jim Prince.
``His time, effort and expertise will be greatly missed, but beyond that he
was just a great guy and tremendously loyal.''
Said Hanson, ``Now I understand the saying, `the good die young.' ''
