Coach says Yanez off U.S. Olympic boxing team for skipping 3 weeks of camp

From ESPN.com... Light flyweight Luis Yanez was kicked off the U.S. Olympic boxing team for skipping three weeks of residency training without getting permission or even telling USA Boxing where he was, national team coach Dan Campbell claims. USA Boxing removed Yanez from the Beijing squad after the 106-pound fighter refused to return to the team's training program in Colorado Springs for most of June. Campbell said Yanez also avoided contact with his national team coaches, who became concerned for his safety. "I gave him every opportunity, and if people knew all the stuff that he has done, they would be amazed," Campbell told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "He's one of the biggest liars I've ever met." Yanez, who flew home to Dallas on Monday after being denied entrance to the U.S. Olympic Training Center, reacted with surprise and outrage at the decision when speaking to reporters, claiming his absence had been caused by a family emergency. "They don't understand that family is really important," Yanez said. "If our family is really ill, I'm going to try to help as much as I can. ... I tried to work things out with them. They didn't want to work things out." In fact, Campbell said Yanez wouldn't be in this mess if he had been willing to answer his phone during his absence -- or if he had been even slightly specific about his sister's apparent illness, which he blamed for his absence. Campbell said Yanez later misled USA Boxing CEO Jim Millman and others, claiming he had spoken to the coach about his absences. He also criticized Yanez for telling people he was a current co-captain of the U.S. team when his turn in a rotating captaincy ended in February. "He wouldn't communicate with anybody," Campbell said. "We would have been willing to work with him if we knew what was going on." The trouble started when the team allowed Yanez to return home to the Dallas area for his high school graduation June 4, but asked him to return four days afterward. Yanez didn't come back, and Campbell's repeated attempts to contact him were rebuffed. Yanez, a two-time U.S. champion who won a gold medal at the Pan-Am Games last year, still hadn't returned by the time his team set off for a training trip in Argentina last week, instead attending a send-off dinner in Dallas where a Texas state representative gave him a commemorative plaque. Campbell finally spoke to Yanez last week, but the boxer and his father were unable to provide the name of Yanez's ailing sister's hospital or doctor, the coach said. "Then we find out that he actually told he was going to ," Campbell said. "They thought he was just talking. I heard it from the guys when we were all in Argentina at the airport. Now he has nobody that's willing to back him. This became a very close team by the end here, and he's lost that." USA Boxing's residency program, reinstituted by Campbell after a 24-year absence, was a source of friction with several boxers who initially wanted more work with their local coaches and more time at home. Campbell demanded residency to foster teamwork and to improve the long-struggling team's adaptation to the international game. Most of the eight remaining boxers who will head to Beijing have come to appreciate the program's benefits, but Campbell also had disciplinary problems with light welterweight Javier Molina, who missed more training time than allowed. Campbell has been flexible with other fighters who needed time off to raise money for the trip to Beijing, but he said Yanez never gave him the opportunity. Molina eventually responded to a last-chance legal letter demanding his return to Colorado Springs. Yanez didn't respond in time to a similar letter. USA Boxing is in the process of scheduling a hearing with its judicial committee to appeal its decision on Yanez, spokesperson Julie Goldsticker said. Yanez also is entitled to request an outside arbitration hearing. If Yanez's punishment stands, the U.S. team will head to Beijing with eight boxers. Yanez, fighting in a particularly tough division, wasn't among the Americans' top medal hopes. Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press