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The following story was written in 2025 by Dan DeCarlo. Note: Dan DeCarlo is a board member of The562’s nonprofit and a frequent contributor.
Since 2008, the founders of The562.org have been producing highlight videos of mostly local high school sports. The evolution has been remarkable in terms of both quantity and quality. The562 estimates that it has produced nearly 5,000 highlight videos covering at least 18 different sports in the past two decades.
In the early days, it was a long and difficult process of shooting, laying down the track and editing. Some of the videos in the early days were also not that good—but with experience and better technology, The562 has nearly perfected the art form to the point where they can produce as many as four complex highlight videos in a single evening for publication the following morning.
“When JJ [Fiddler, one of The562’s founders] and I first started, with Tyler [Hendrickson] joining shortly after, we would only do one video a week because we hadn’t developed the process,” said Mike Guardabascio, co-founder of The562. “He and I would cover a game and then edit the raw footage until 4-5am and then we would record.”
In the late 2000s, the process was much more cumbersome than it is today, but with the advent of movie making and editing tools on everyone’s iPhone, the process has become significantly cheaper, quicker and more available.
While technology helps, it does not begin to tell the story of how much dedication and hard work goes into producing these videos. While most high school seniors in Long Beach today don’t know of a world where just about every league football game is memorialized with a highlight video, the fact of the matter is that The562 is one of one. There is not another media outlet anywhere in the country that covers local sports like The562. Let’s take a look at a Friday night from the fall of 2025.
On September 26, 2025, the Moore League football season was in full swing with a slate of four games that The 562 set out to cover with full highlight videos. The marquee matchup of the evening was Millikan against Wilson, which arguably announced the Bruins as a legitimate threat to upend Poly’s decades-long dominance in the Moore League.
The evening started, as all big game days do, with a pre-game meal and strategy session at about 5 pm at the Hangar in Long Beach. The crew, including Matt Simon, Eli Aquino, Mike Guardabascio and Tyler Hendrickson, along with photographers, interns and family laid out the strategy over tacos. That included the likely story lines, interviews, and how to best record the games.
After breaking bread and the delivery of appropriate pep talks, the crew fanned out to cover the four Moore League games scheduled that night with plans to meet back at The 562 HQ immediately after each game to write and produce a highlight video for each game. The goal is always the same: produce the highest quality highlight video, capture the best still images and write a compelling story about each game with publication occurring before the fisherman heads out Saturday for the morning catch. No one said it would be easy.
The crew did not wrap up their work until the wee hours Saturday morning, but Long Beach sports fans had each game’s highlight film waiting for them when they had their coffee Saturday morning.
“People in the know are always really freaked out and impressed,” said Guardabascio when describing the reaction from his sports media industry peers when they realize how quickly The562 turns around its videos. But perhaps as a testament to The562’s longevity in local sports coverage, Mike noted, “most people in Long Beach think it’s a normal thing. We get asked about how we do it more by other professionals than anyone.”
On this pleasant September evening, it is a fascinating study to watch Tyler Hendrickson get to work. Tyler arrived at Millikan’s DeHaven Stadium a little after 6pm, got his field pass and was almost immediately stopped by a flurry of well-wishers. Tyler is courteous to all, but his time is short before he had to excuse himself from the pleasantries to get to the field to get pre-game interviews and shoot video. While The562 does bring photographers to shoot stills, Tyler is both videographer, interviewer and, later, producer of the videos and works alone almost entirely throughout the game.
After the pregame festivities, which has Tyler running from sideline to sideline shooting video, it’s 7pm kickoff time and Tyler begins the process of documenting nearly every play with both notes and video, while also Tweeting throughout the game to provide live updates. Watching Tyler toggle between note-taking, filming and tweeting is akin to watching a juggler.
Tyler’s real-time note-taking is no easy task as he is not just scribbling random thoughts, but recording the details of every play, including the type, player, yardage and other details. It is all the more impressive when it is appreciated that he is also videoing and tweeting at the same time. These notes become a critical piece of the roadmap for what will ultimately become the highlight video.
While Millikan was the favorite tonight, Wilson came away with a convincing victory leading to an emotional and respectful celebration on Millikan’s field. Heroes of the game, including Thomas Jones (no, not that Tom Jones) were interviewed along with winning coach Raudric Curtis.
After the game, there is no time for dinner or extensive pleasantries. The crew must hustle back to The562 HQ (aka the Guardabascio home) for the hours-long production process. Most of the crew arrives from their various games by 10:30pm and immediately gets to work. They each sit at their own laptops across from each other poring over hours’ worth of video that has been uploaded to their laptops and begin the process of choosing the video clips that will be used coupled with writing a script that will be overlayed with the video.
Simultaneously, each reporter is writing a game story to appear on The 562 website alongside the highlight video. And if that is not enough, the crew does not miss an opportunity to talk a little smack toward each other, some deserved and some just a little harsh. Wisely, the rank of the smack is reserved for after the younger Guardabascios and Mrs. Guardabascio retire for the evening.
Apple’s iMovie software allows the crew to edit and insert cues and script directly onto the video. This enables the narration to sync up to the images and provides the videos with a SportsCenter type expert feel and quality. The SportsCenter anchors, it should be remembered, have a multimillion dollar studio and a team of writers, producers and editors behind them while on this September night, it’s four guys with laptops and free software making Emmy-quality short films in a dining room after the kids go to bed.
After the team clips the raw video footage, puts it in order and syncs it up to a script, it is time to record. While each game was covered by only one reporter, most football highlight videos are narrated by two reporters. While one would never know that only one of the narrators was actually at the game, that perceived easiness with which each narrator provides their part is due to the meticulous preparation that goes into the production process.
The back-and-forth banter during these videos has become somewhat of a calling card of The562’s over the years and Tyler Hendrickson in particular is known for a pretty good zinger in nearly every video. While the narration seems almost off the cuff in its pleasantness, it is in fact mostly tightly scripted to make sure that the narration matches that which is on the screen. Remarkably (at least to a novice), the efficiency with which the videos are recorded is stunning. This evening, there were almost no double takes and the presentation was flawless.
After all four videos were finalized, the game stories were written and all uploaded to The562’s social channels somewhere around 4am, finally giving time for the crew to get some rest. These days and nights are not easy; they require the kind of stamina that is not generally seen with journalists.
Said the then 41-year-old Mike Guardabascio, “I’m not sure how long I can do the Friday nights—it takes more of a physical toll on me every year. I do a lot of work over the summer to make sure I can physically stand up to it.” Yup, even journalists train—at least at The 562 they do.
The 562 is actively recruiting and training the next generation of reporters so that they can hopefully keep The 562 going after Mike and Tyler decide to hang up their cameras and pens. On this night, Matt Simon and Eli Aquino, both younger staffers, held up well, albeit, their smack game is a little behind Mike and Tyler. The 562 has an active intern program which is now in its second year and those interns will be given an opportunity to learn the business that leads to the Friday night heroics of The562 crew.
But you know what? None of this can happen without the support of the community. While Long Beach may not remember a time before 562 highlight videos became ubiquitous, there is no guarantee that it will all continue. The 562 needs your support. Please consider becoming a supporter so that these Friday nights can live on forever.
Our biggest fundraiser of the year is happening NOW! Make a tax-deductible donation to The562 during Long Beach Gives from Sept. 17-24. CLICK HERE to show your support for local journalism in Long Beach!
