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Alexis Terrazas

‘Overlooked’ McMorrow is swinging into spotlight

In boxing, there perhaps is no better of a word that illustrates a failure of a prizefighter than “bum.” You wouldn’t know it to look at her, but Melissa McMorrow, a prizefighter, has something of a bum right knee. Playing soccer from the age of eight through collegiate adulthood can do that.   But her wounded knee aside, McMorrow is no “bum.” Susi Kentikian, exactly a week ago today, found that out the hard way. Read More

Low-key Moore looks to build off strong first year at Oakland Raiders

Denarius Moore, despite his short time in the NFL, appears not to be much of a stickler for media conversations. But that, however, isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Thus far, the second-year Raiders wide receiver has let his gridiron play speak for itself. And to keep a job in the pros, the ability to continuously score far outweighs one’s ability to constantly chatter. Read More

Plenty at stake in trilogy fight

Pledging violence upon a respected man might be a difficult concept for some to grasp.But 10 combined rounds of malicious caged mayhem can make such a notion an easy one to comprehend. Read More

S.F. boxer Mayfield puts unbeaten record on the line in high-profile bout

In boxing, it helps to have a good right hand — amongst other things. Karim Mayfield, apparently since the fourth grade, has had a good right hand. It took the Fillmore district native slugging an older schoolyard bully at Linda Park Elementary in Pacifica to allegedly prove the notion true. “I was the only black kid in the school ... and this guy was attempting to pick on me and my brother,” Mayfield remembered. “And my brother was like, ‘Just let it go.’” Read More

Allen quick to try and put his stamp on team

Back in January, shortly after his hiring as the Raiders’ coach, Dennis Allen made his football mantra known to anyone who would listen. “You coach ’em firm, and you coach ’em fair,” is how he vowed to drill his football team. And during Tuesday’s mid-May workout, the 39-year-old’s declaration spilled out onto the Alameda practice gridiron. Between three quarterbacks learning the playbook, a healthy Darren McFadden running routes and a rookie receiver demonstrating a pension for hauling in the long pass, Allen, all in all, was pleased.   Read More

Amgen Tour of California a grueling test for riders

What awaits the competitors of the Tour of California is 733.5 miles of paved riding hell. Tejay van Garderen is one of those riders, and he’s looking forward to it. “I want to try and get on the podium this year and I think that’s possible,” said van Garderen, a member of BMC Racing. “We’re bringing a strong team with us, especially with guys like George Hincapie and Brent Bookwalter, who know the race well.” Read More

Six draftees agree to four-year contracts

The appropriateness of Alex Smith’s answer in regards to “rookie advice” could not have been lost on the reporters who huddled around the veteran 49ers quarterback Thursday. “Don’t let the stage get too big in your mind. This is still football,” Smith said, indirectly counseling standout draftees LaMichael James and A.J. Jenkins. “Things can be overwhelming at first. You’re a rookie in the NFL ... sometimes you can get defeated mentally even before you get out there.” Read More

Quakes’ Wondolowski leads league in goals

Individual accolades alone don’t win championships — or Cups. Chris Wondolowski, the San Jose Earthquakes’ veteran in his eighth year of professional soccer, knows that all too well. After consecutive stellar seasons in 2010 and 2011 with the Earthquakes, “Wondo’s” quest of seizing Major League Soccer’s premier prize remains unfulfilled. “I’m OK with getting nothing as long as we get that MLS Cup,” the San Jose forward said. “That’s the main goal. If we can do that, then that’s when I’ll be satisfied.” Read More

SF-born racer Townsend Bell driving toward a dream at Laguna Seca Raceway

Townsend Bell isn’t much a fan of watching paint dry, or rather, the feeling of it. That’s how the then 21-year-old felt while studying business economics at UC Santa Barbara. And it took being strapped into a race car at the Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey to leave that dreadful feeling in his rear view. “I just decided I wanted to pursue something I was passionate about,” Bell, 37, said, recalling his racing school days at the 2.2-mile Monterey track, before going pro. “In a racing car, that’s where it all began.” Read More

Local trainer sends Rousing Sermon to 138th Kentucky Derby

Rousing Sermon
Four times, Hall of Fame Bay Area-based horse trainer Jerry Hollendorfer has seen the backside of the Kentucky Derby race track, a vicinity reserved for those most familiar with the rigors and rewards of the graded stakes race. Each of those times, the 65-year-old has attempted to strike gold and nab the coveted Derby trophy and rose garland. And each time, he has come up empty. Read More

Annual spring game ushers in new era for Golden Bears

BERKELEY — It’s been a while since C.J. Anderson has seen a Cal spring football game — eight years to be precise. But come Saturday, that drought will end.But the running back won’t be that mere spectator of seasons passed. He’ll be suiting up. “I’m gonna play like it’s a game,” said Anderson, no longer that 13-year-old Vallejo hopeful who religiously followed Cal’s football program growing up. “I know they’re my teammates. You can’t hurt them. But it’s football. It’s a physical sport.” Read More

Passion for wrestling runs deep for Bay Area grappler

Wrestling, once in one’s blood, is never completely cleansed. Katherine Fulp-Allen, the 121-pound Redwood City native who next weekend will attempt to pin her ticket to the 2012 London Olympics, can attest to that. Her connection to the art of clinching and grappling is stronger than most others. Katherine and her older sister, Sara, after all, inherited the archaic combat sport as children from their nondomineering father Lee Allen — a U.S. 1956 and 1960 Olympic wrestler and 1980 coach. Read More

Raiders' McKenzie will target best player, not need in draft

Reggie McKenzie
ALAMEDA — Reggie McKenzie, Oakland’s first general manager since the long reign of polarizing owner Al Davis, said much on the January afternoon that saw his swearing in as the Raiders’ top executive. But of McKenzie’s then New Year proclamation, what is perhaps best remembered is what the man said of his draft selections. Read More

3 Minute interview with Max Schireson

Schireson, 41, enrolled at UC Berkeley at age 14. And it was there that the current president of 10gen, a Bay Area-based software company that develops large databases, began his tech career. The database he develops is called MongoDB. What’s the essential difference between MongoDB and previous databases? Read More

Golden State retiring Chris Mullin's jersey brings hoops journey to completion

There was a time, albeit a long time ago, when Chris Mullin couldn’t run nor jump. Or at least, not very well. “I probably should’ve picked another sport,” Mullin, now 48, confessed of his childhood playing days.He didn’t. Basketball, bluntly put, was something Mullin really loved to do. And now, only after a 16-year playing career in the NBA, 13 of which he spent as a member of the Warriors, the boy from Brooklyn can finally stop running — and jumping. Read More
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