Keoni DeRenne, a standout shortstop on coach Jerry Stitt’s 1999 NCAA regional baseball team, has finally reached the major leagues. DeRenne was hired last week to be a hitting coach for the Kansas City Royals. An All-Pac-10 first team selection in 1999 and 2000, DeRenne played 11 years in the minor leagues. He has been a minor league coach in the Cubs, Pirates and Royals’ systems for seven years. DeRenne hit .361 for Arizona’s NCAA team of ’99, stealing 22 bases.

Tucsonan Bryanna Cote, a Canyon del Oro High School grad who has been a member of the Team USA Bowling squad six times since 2011, was a dominant figure in the 2021 PanAm Bowling Championships last week in Cali, Colombia. Cote not only led Team USA to the gold medal, but was the No.1 overall finisher in the Champion of Champions women’s competition. Cote, a former NCAA bowler of the year, won the PWBA championship in Arlington, Texas, in January, her first victory on tour in five years. Now, at 35, she is having one of the best years of her career.

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Trevor Hoffman was honored by the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl on Thursday. The 1989 Arizona All-Pac-10 shortstop said that he is glad that baseball’s 2020s unorthodox strategy of using an “opener” — a relief pitcher as an emergency, one-inning starting pitcher — was not in use during the time he broke MLB’s career saves record. “I still feel there is a better way, an old-school way of doing things,” said Hoffman. “It has just kind of gotten out of whack.” Hoffman also said that the NCAA’s new name, image and likeness policy that allows college athletes to endorse products and earn thousands of dollars would’ve probably benefited his 1989 teammates, especially future big-leaguers like J.T. Snow and Scott Erickson. “I think they’re in the process of finding out what’s right and what’s wrong. What’s the right balance?” Hoffman said. “My generation was more about being quiet and going about your business. Now they’re trying to monetize everything. It’ll take some getting used to.”