When I heard that Long Beach legend Willie Brown had passed away a few weeks ago, I was on a family vacation in Mammoth. Willie was one of Long Beach’s true legends, and I was sad to hear that he’d left us; I spent most of the rest of the day thinking about him and […]
Long Beach Poly fans lost a special member of their community last week, and the city lost one of its greatest ever athletes. Poly alum and 1959 CIF Football Player of the Year Willie Brown passed away due to complications from cancer at the age of 76. Brown is survived by his wife, Carole, son, […]
July has been a busy month on the recruiting front for Long Beach footballers, as Long Beach Poly’s Alex Austin and Millikan’s Malik Bradford both committed to Pac-12 universities. Alex Austin Austin, the son of Long Beach City Councilman Al Austin, is entering his senior year and has emerged as a major recruit this spring […]
The CIF Southern Section sent out a survey to its 500+ member schools today asking for their input on rules regarding athletic transfers. CIF-SS commissioner Rob Wigod (a Wilson alum and former Wilson/Lakewood coach) sent a message out last spring suggesting it might be time for a conversation around changing transfer rules. Here’s what all […]
Long Beach Poly alum and 1959 CIF Football Player of the Year Willie Brown passed away today due to complications from cancer. He was 76. Services are pending. Brown is survived by his wife, Carole, son, Brian, daughter, Kimberly and grandchildren Nathan and Alana, and his brother, Oscar. Brown shared the Poly backfield with Dee […]
Elijah Bates, the editor at the college paper JJ and I worked at, used to say that life was like a story and the people we met were like characters. As writers, we should look for the most interesting characters to write about the same way a novelist would populate a book with characters people […]
Long Beach Poly is well-known for having produced more NFL players than any other high school, with over 60 former Jackrabbits having hit the league. Last week, though, an NFL player that didn’t come from Long Beach borrowed Poly’s practice field to get a workout in: Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott. “It was great for […]
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY MARK BAUSMAN
The Long Beach Mizuno Volleyball Club had a great end to its summer season at the USA Volleyball Junior Olympics national championships in Detroit, as the club boasted a pair of national champions. Mizuno is owned and run by Joy McKienzie-Fuerbringer and husband Matt Fuerbringer, who are the head coach and top assistant for the […]
Long Beach didn’t have a representative in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game last night for the first time in 13 years, but there are enough MLB players with local ties to theoretically field an All-Star team— if a few players were flexible with positions. PITCHERS There has been more than one elite MLB pitcher […]