coach owen and the origins of hurricane

coach owen began boxing at cove boxing club in 2009 to lose weight. it was there he became addicted to boxing, leading to his first fight in 2010. after two fights with cove boxing club, owen followed his brother, peter, to train with him under coach paul panos at fortus team gym. owen fought consistently for fortus from 2011 to 2015, including a fight against his own brother.

in 2015, owen was forced to stop competing due to injury. it was this year that his coaches, Paul panos and phil miller, asked him to help out with coaching. owen would coach alongside bruno grasselli, helping the beginners at the gym learn all the fundamental techniques and footwork of boxing.

in 2018, coaches paul and phil left the gym. it was from then that owen had to step up and begin cornering alongside bruno. it was also this year that owen became a full time coach, offering personal training as well as running classes at the gym.

in 2019, owen became the head coach of fortus. in a busy year full of challenges, owen coached adrian cammarano to the world championships in russia and armando shehu to win his third nationals at the u19 nationals on the gold coast.

owen also became more involved with boxing sa state trainings, regularly going to futures camps run by coach phil goodes. this opened up opportunities to work with more athletes and further develop as a coach.

in 2022, following regular attendance at state trainings, state team trips and national events, owen became the state u19 coach. this role saw owen running monthly training days for athletes from all over the state and lead the state team at the u19 nationals in melbourne.

in 2023, owen took on his current role as state futures coach after the previous futures coach, phil goodes, moved on to become the president of boxing australia. this role sees owen work closley with national futures coach, jamie pittman, to select the best athletes in the state for the futures squad and run monthly futures camps with them.

from 2021, owen has also had the opportunity to go to the australian institute of sport as an assistant coach for national futures camps run by coach jamie pittman. this has further allowed owen to develop his coaching by working with coaches and athletes from around the country in a high performance environment.

in 2024, owen made the decision to leave fortus team gym and begin his own boxing club, hurricane boxing club. the club is named after the fight nickname given to owen by his coach phil miller in 2014. starting in 2025, hurricane boxing club will begin operating out of george st gym in hindmarsh. it’s there that owen hopes to bring all the knowledge and experience he has gained over the years to the gym and create a high performance environment that develops boxers and pushes them to become the best they can be.