Trainers can make an impact in so many ways; when a fight is close, a slight adjustment or a word of encouragement at the proper time can be the difference between winning and losing.
Rarely has a trainer?s impact been as stark as it was in November, when Ann Wolfe took James Kirkland to Mexico and came home with a super welterweight upset of Alfredo Angulo in one of the year?s most exciting fights.
Wolfe doesn?t have many top-level fighters. She doesn?t have a reputation as a master strategist and she?s not known as a brilliant game planner.
Her only fighter of note is Kirkland, but her impact was so great upon him that she?s the 2011 Yahoo! Sports Trainer of the Year.
Wolfe wins the award in a year with no obvious slam-dunk choice. Other experts have chosen Virgil Hunter, whose only major fighter, Andre Ward, was brilliant in winning Showtime?s Super Six World Boxing Classic.
