The head coach of Canada's Olympic boxing team resigned on Tuesday, citing the unwillingness of the athletes to conform to his style of coaching as the reason for his decision.

Gord Apolloni, considered one of the best boxing coaches in Canada by the Canadian Amateur Boxing Association, was hired to coach the senior national team in April 2003.

But only two of the 12 boxers who made up the national team qualified for the Olympics, a result Apolloni blamed on a lack of discipline.

"I didn't want to be working with a lot of people who needed to be disciplined, as opposed to being honed and toned," said Apolloni.

"They needed training discipline, and discipline in the sense that they needed to be reprimanded. I want to work with a team that wants to win, and I think that hiring me near the end of a four-year Olympic cycle was probably the wrong thing to do."

The two boxers who qualified were Andrew Kooner in the 54-kilogram class and Adam Trupish in the 69 kg division. Both train in a gym in Windsor, Ont. and will be accompanied to Athens by their coach, Charlie Stewart.

Boxing Canada executive director Robert Crete and Apolloni both said the poor showing of the team in Olympic qualifying matches was a disappointment. But Apolloni said he saw it coming.

"That would be a disappointment to anyone, but I actually called that," he said. "I knew that would happen because these guys aren't disciplined.

"They more or less did whatever they wanted to do," Apolloni said. "I wasn't frustrated, I just understood that these guys weren't open to any kind of change. Their attitude was `We got here doing what we were doing, so why bother changing?'"

Apolloni was paid an annual salary of $15,000, which he said wasn't worth the aggravation.

"A lack of funding brought us to this position here, and I think Sport Canada has got to smarten up with (its) money belt, and open it up a little bit," he added.

"If you're getting paid the big bucks, you're more likely to stick it out and make sure these guys are going to perform."

As a comparison, Apolloni pointed out that the Italian national team head coach earns $100,000 US per year.

Crete acknowledged that the timing of Apolloni's hiring - near the end of a four-year cycle - may have been a mistake.

"There was a difference in view and opinion between Gord, the athletes and Boxing Canada in the way that the head coach should be doing his work," Crete said from his Ottawa office.

"The nomination of Gord as a head coach, I think, wasn't the right move, doing it in such close proximity to the Olympic Games.

"Had he been in that position within the normal four years prior to an Olympic Games, his style, his way of thinking and the bonding with the athletes and the rapport with the personal coaches would have been completely different."