Right one for the job

But the Woodside team certainly has the right person charge if the Wildcats are to continue their upswing. A retired physical therapist, Denenberg played volleball in college before taking up racquetball and later, tennis

She has certainly made up for lost time. She helped guide three adult tennis teams to championships in 2016. When she decided to take some classes at Cañada College in 2019, Bryan Jeong, the coach for the Colts’ women’s tennis team, recruited her to play, where she is now part of the Colts’ No. 1 doubles team and a team captain.

As if 2020 wasn’t bad enough with the COVID pandemic, Denenberg was in even worse shape, going through chemotherapy for breast cancer.

Despite the diagnosis, she was still with the Woodside team as often as possible during the summer and fall of 2020 and into the spring of 2021 when a partial season began. Denenberg is now in remission.

But when it comes to the Wildcats, Denenberg’s focus is not necessarily on wins and losses. Her main goal is to get her team excited to play tennis with the goal of simply getting better. That positive approach has paid off as the Wildcats are having one of their best seasons in years.

Denenberg is looking at the long game, as well.

“If these girls are still playing tennis at my age, then I’ve done my job,” Denenberg said.

***

Line Latu, former San Mateo and College of San Mateo football standout before closing out his playing career at Eastern Michigan during the 2019 season, has a new gig — playing fly half for the American Raptors rugby club, based in Glendale, Colorado.

The American Raptors are a new incarnation of the Colorado Raptors, that played in Major League Rugby for three years before moving out of the league during the pandemic-stricken 2020 season. The new Raptors club is transitioning from the Colorado XO. Colton Strickler of thednvr.com wrote about Colorado XO at the beginning of the year, “(The team) will serve as a unique experiment for American rugby. The [Raptors] are a team composed primarily of professional football and basketball players that are interested in learning the game of rugby.”

The 5-11, 205-pound Latu is hardly a rugby neophyte. In fact, the Latus are a rugby family. After the football season with the Bearcats, he would transition to club rugby. Older brother Patrick Latu, who also starred for the Bearcats, made four appearances for the USA Rugby U20 team and was captain for the San Francisco Rush of the short-lived PRO Rugby.

San Mateo High School has quite a rugby pipeline. Watson Filikitonga, a 2015 San Mateo graduate, signed with the LA Giltinis in 2020. His older brother, Lemoto, played for US Rugby in 2016 and 2017.

***

Casey Morton, a boxer originally from Hawaii who now lives in San Francisco, has bounced around to a number of different gyms and coaches on the Peninsula — including B Street Boxing in San Mateo and Redwood City’s Undisputed Gym.

Now, the “Lady Hawaiian Punch” trains at the Victor Conte-operated SNAC training facility and with Oakland-based trainer Otis “O.T.” Seymore. Earlier this month, Morton won the WBO Bantamweight International title with a majority decision victory over Urvashi Singh of India in Dubai.

The bout was a title-elimination fight and with the win, Morton takes the next step to what she hopes will eventually be a world title shot.

Morton improved her record to 10-2-3. 

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117. To report scores or have tips, email sports@smdailyjournal.com