Two defending champions from Philadelphia are unable to attend the Pennsylvania Golden Gloves finals tomorrow night in Heinz Field's Coca-Cola Great Hall. They aren't sick. They aren't injured. They aren't otherwise occupied. Rather, they were simply beaten by a couple of 17-year-olds from a gym carrying the new name of an old gent still breathing the fetid air around Philadelphia rings.

	The state boxing championship weekend opens tonight with an eight-bout card and a Pennsylvania Golden Gloves Hall of Fame dinner inducting celebrated local fighter, official and administrator Andy "Kid" DePaul. The festivities begin with Novice and Junior title fights starting at 6:30 p.m. in Heinz Field's West Club. DePaul, 79, will be honored for his six-plus decades in boxing, which includes a national Golden Gloves championship 60 years ago -- "at Madison Square Garden," DePaul pointed out about the same 1947 when he graduated St. James High in the West End -- not to mention a 40-fight pro career, a refereeing stint and a long tenure with the State Athletic Commission. "He is the Golden Gloves," said Jimmy Cvetic, who oversees both the Hall of Fame housed at the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum and the state championships contested tomorrow night in Heinz Field's Coca-Cola Great Hall. "We are one of the few states in the country that have a state Hall of Fame. We set the standard." A limited number of tickets, at $30, remain for the dinner and show tonight. Tickets for tomorrow's state Golden Gloves championships are $30 and $20 and are available at the door. For information, call 412-298-7373.

Instead of Raymond Serrano returning to Heinz Field at 141 pounds, here comes Tahree Carroll. Instead of Tyrone Miles returning at 152 pounds, here comes Julian Williams. These boxing buddies hail from the former Shepard Recreation Center known for the past year as the Mitch Allen Gym, a living memorial to a fellow who, even after 55 years around the sport, continues to train young fighters. Carroll and Williams are coached by Allen understudy Kenny Mason, who also is Williams' legal guardian.

"They both have the commitment and desire to go far," Mason said over the telephone from the West Philadelphia gym where they were training for tomorrow's 7:30 p.m. East-West championships.

"They want to make this Olympic team. That's what we're working on."

Williams took one step toward that China goal: He, like Western Pennsylvania team member Anthony Tettis of Brockway, qualified for the U.S. Championships this summer in Colorado Springs -- an Olympic trials tournament for the 2008 U.S. team for Beijing -- by winning his weight class in the East Central Regionals earlier this year.

Carroll, a high-school junior who came to the Mitch Allen Gym and Mason barely two months ago yet wound up winning the Eastern Pennsylvania championships' outstanding boxer award last Saturday, is trying to follow Williams to Colorado Springs. The winners tomorrow advance to the national Golden Gloves at month's end in Chattanooga, Tenn., from where those winners advance to the U.S. Championships.

Each of Mason's young men will face a couple of West-team veterans in these state finals: Jesse Lubash of Munhall lost a close decision to Miles at 152 last April, and Mike Strauss of Carnegie is scheduled to face Carroll at 141, where Strauss won the 2004 state title. Lubash, whose brother Jim will box Dennis "Assassin" Hasson of the Harrowgate Boxing Club at 178 pounds, won the outstanding boxer award this past Saturday at the Western Pennsylvania championships for the Open, highest-level classification. He along with Strauss likewise are trying to qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials.

"That kid is very capable of pounding his way to the top," event organizer and Third Avenue Gym operator Jimmy Cvetic said of Strauss, who fights for the Wolfpack Club of Faith and Craig Wolfley.

The rest of tomorrow's lineup includes some familiar Philadelphia gyms, some Western Pennsylvania boxers familiar to the Golden Gloves, and a bout hauntingly familiar to one combatant: McKeesport's Eric Harris of the Third Avenue Gym gets a grudge match at 165 pounds against Jessie Hart, who defeated him last April in a close state-title fight.

"He has been carrying that like his shield, that he was robbed," Cvetic said of Harris. "If he has watched that film once, he's watched it a thousand times. Eric's waiting for him."

"I beat the guy last year and got ripped off," Harris said of Hart, of the Martin Luther King Recreation Center in Atlantic City, N.J., which qualifies as part of the Philadelphia region.

At 119 pounds, Rob Colasante of the same South Park Boxing Club as the Lubash Brothers is scheduled to meet Shawn Manning of famed Joe Frazier's Gym. At 125, the Third Avenue Gym's Charlie Lehner is due to fight Louis Esquillin of Harrowgate. South Park's Blaise Santoriello faces Anthony Flores of Rumblers Gym at 132.

In a match pitting the 2005 and 2006 state champions against one another, Tettis battles defending-champ Paul Koon of Bozy's Gym at 201 pounds. Rounding out the Open title bouts, Paul Zalus of James 5:16 meets Pedro Martinez of Joe Hand Gym in the 201-plus division.

"I tell you what, [Philadelphia] is not going to have to hunt for our kids," Cvetic said of the West. "Our kids are going to be right there. I think Philadelphia is going to be surprised. It's not going to be a walk in the park for them."

Or, at least, a walk through the Mitch Allen Gym.