Longtime Long Beach Poly girls’ volleyball coach Leland McGrath confirmed he is stepping down as coach of the Jackrabbits after 13 years. McGrath’s Jackrabbits won the CIF Southern Section Division 1 championship in 2010 and won six Moore League championships. He leaves a Poly team that is absolutely packed with talent next year, headlined by […]
Author: Mike Guardabascio
Feature: Wilson’s Rachel Glenn Laments Loss Of Special Senior Season
This was supposed to be Rachel Glenn’s year, and this was supposed to be her weekend. The crown jewel of Long Beach’s high school sports landscape had spent months dreaming of what she could do at the CIF State Track & Field Championships, originally scheduled for this weekend before the COVID-19 shutdowns wiped most of […]
LBUSD Officials Outline Beginnings of Fall 2020 Plan
In an interview last week, current Long Beach Unified School District superintendent Chris Steinhauser and incoming LBUSD superintendent Jill Baker outlined the first stages of the LBUSD’s plan to return to school when the 2020-21 school year begins on September 1. “It’s closer to what has been known as school,” said Baker, who will take […]
Local Schools Bracing For Major Budget Cuts
Last week, California governor Gavin Newsom released his May Revision to the proposed budget for for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Because of a $54 billion deficit associated with revenue loss due to COVID-19 shutdowns, there are significant cuts to education, a harsh blow for the city of Long Beach, where the Long Beach Unified School […]
Feature: Peyton Watson, Long Beach Poly’s Star Hooper Stuck At Home
A five-star basketball recruit is usually a kid with the world on a string. But for Long Beach Poly junior Peyton Watson, life looks pretty much the same as it does for the other students at his high school and in the city of Long Beach. Were school still open, he’d be turning heads on […]
LBUSD Closed For Summer, Evaluating 2020-21 Sports Plans
The Long Beach Unified School District announced last week that in-person graduation ceremonies are officially off for the class of 2020, and that summer school and other programs will not take place on physical campuses this summer, with a few limited exceptions. There had been some hope of a delayed in-person graduation ceremony, but with […]
Feature: Drew Buggs Carries Mom’s Memory, Love
Drew Buggs had been dreaming about this season of basketball for years. He was going to be a redshirt junior at Hawaii, where he was going to improve on his record-setting career with his best-ever effort. His family was going to come out to the islands to see a game, his first time playing in […]
Three Long Beach Poly Football Alums Giving Back
Three Long Beach Poly football alums have teamed up to help give back to the community during the COVID-19 shutdown. Brothers Cameron and Nolan McDonald and Raymond Graham have been donating food and supplies for the last three weeks and have plans to form a non-profit that will help them continue doing so in the […]
Feature: Tiedemann Brothers Staying Busy At Home
This was supposed to be a truly magical Spring for Tai and Ricky Tiedemann. Two of the six Tiedemann brothers, the sons of Rick and Mimi Tiedemann, both brothers were poised for big seasons on the diamond, Tai as a Minor Leaguer with big expectations in the Rangers’ organization, and Ricky as the senior ace […]
Feature: COVID-19’s Devastating Impact On One Long Beach Family
It’s been an impossible two months for the Alexanders. The family of four, longtime residents of North Long Beach, are a detailed study of the havoc that the COVID-19 virus can wreak on a single household. Lawrence Alexander went to the hospital in the back of an ambulance more than a month ago–he hasn’t been […]










