In the nick of time, the California Department of Public Health modified its guidelines to allow high school water polo to happen this year. The sport has a deep history in Long Beach and this season will be unlike any other, with games happening almost every day during an accelerated two-week season that will still […]
Water Polo
Long Beach Boys’ Water Polo Preview
The Wilson water polo team is one of the most dominant dynasties in Long Beach sports history, in years both bizarre and regular. This year the Bruins are going for a 13th consecutive Moore League championship, which would also be their 34th in the last 36 seasons. Head coach Jeff Nesmith played a young team […]
Long Beach Girls’ Water Polo Preview
The Wilson girls’ water polo team is going for its third league championship in a row, and has only lost two since the Moore League added the girls’ game in the 2001-02 school year. The Bruins return some great players and have yet again added another talented freshman class with Olympic Development Program experience. “The […]
COLUMN: New Belmont Pool a Win For All of Long Beach
Finally. More than seven years since the closure of the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool, the crown jewel of the Long Beach sports world is getting a worthy replacement. Last week the California Coastal Commission issued what should be the final “yes” vote to construct the new Belmont Pool, after years of red tape, lawsuits, rallies […]
BREAKING: High School Football, Other Sports Now Eligible To Resume
Based on data released on Tuesday afternoon by the Los Angeles County Health Department, practices and games for outdoor sports–including high school football–are eligible to return in Long Beach and LA County. Per the updated guidelines from the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) released last Friday, outdoor amateur sports would be allowed to resume […]
Top 10 Long Beach Youth Sports Teams Of The Decade: 2018 Shore 10U Girls’ Water Polo National Champions
This is the ninth of 10 stories about the best Long Beach youth sports teams we’ve seen over the last decade. We’ve taken nominations from the community and will release the top 10 in no particular order. Come back next week to read about other club squads that made this historic list. The Shore Aquatics […]
Top 10 Long Beach Youth Sports Teams Of The Decade: 2019 Shore Water Polo 10U Coed National Champions
This is the fourth of 10 stories about the best Long Beach youth sports teams we’ve seen over the last decade. We’ve taken nominations from the community and will release the top 10 in no particular order. Come back next week to read about other club squads that made this historic list. The Long Beach […]
High School Aquatics Teams Scramble For Practice Sites
While natatoriums sit vacant at Long Beach’s high schools, the water polo and swim programs have been seeking a venue to conduct conditioning workouts outdoors. Due to current health orders, high school teams are only permitted to conduct those sessions outside, but teams have had difficulty in recent weeks finding a place to make that […]
Nominate Your Long Beach Youth Sports Teams Of The Decade
The COVID-19 shutdowns have stolen so much joy from everyone. The sports community of Long Beach felt that the most this summer when fields and courts across the city were left unused. For the last decade, we have provided in-depth coverage of the incredible achievements of the elite Long Beach youth sports teams. We respect […]
Oral History: Covering Long Beach At 2012 London Olympics
It was a true team effort when The Grunion covered the 2012 London Summer Olympics and all 32 athletes and coaches who had ties to Long Beach. Long Beach State’s Misty May-Treanor and Long Beach Poly’s Bryshon Nellum were two of the headliners, and the small but significant stories that Mike Guardabascio and JJ Fiddler […]