Wilmington Teen Heads to Boxing National Championship

Last year Lateisha Darden laced up the gloves and competed as a 14 year old at the national championship & finished as the national runner-up in her weight class….
Next week she goes in more experienced and she goes in as a national golden glove champion as well… Not bad for the rising junior at New Hanover High School…

“Are the boys at New Hanover a bit afraid of you? After all, you’re a female boxer, John Rendleman asked. “No they just kinda play around, they’re not scared of me. I haven’t beaten up on any of them.

Lateisha sports a 25-5 record…She’s a member of the Port City Boxing Club…. and Andre Thompson is her coach and Lateisha enjoys hitting people in the ring.

Now I know if I were sitting at home watching this story I’d be saying to myself, why is coach Andre Thompson training Lateisha on a basketball floor at Gregory School instead of a boxing ring…well there’s a reason, and it involves the city of Wilmington. Andre Thompson said: “the city cut the program on August 6th, when I was on vacation, and I didn’t know anything about it.”

Once the city boxing program got knocked out…literally, Andre Thompson took matters into his own hands. He started the Port City Boxing Club and handles everything associated with the non-profit club on his own..which includes trying to make Lateisha a national champion…and if that happens, Lateisha’s grandfather might just change his attitude about Lateisha’s boxing…Lateisha added: “I want to show my grandfather I’m not a loser, every time I come back from a match he says: did you lose? I want to show him that I’m a winner and that I can do it.”