Isaac Zambrano knew that unexpected bad news at his primary job last month would mean more problems for his small business in the near future. “As soon as the schools closed I knew we would suffer,” Zambrano said. “Everyone was very eager for the spring season at the parks. Now we need to change it […]
“Oh, what could’ve been,” has been repeating in my head. The flow of constant uplifting stories from Long Beach sports is cut off like a faucet spun tight, and it’s left me wondering. Two months ago, one of the stories on my radar revolved around the Pettway family and what could’ve been a sensational start […]
As far back as Kendall Cooper can remember, this is the longest she’s ever gone without touching a basketball. For the better part of a month, the former McDonald’s All-American has been kept off the court where she’s made her name. Her talent and on the hardwood helped her become one of the best players […]
Years from now, when I am telling the story of the COVID-19 shutdown to my future students, I will struggle to capture the way in which the news was both incremental and sudden, both inevitable and completely unexpected. My students — 10th, 11th, and 12th graders at Jordan High in North Long Beach — had […]
Are you missing sports like we are? We’ve decided to go back and re-record some of our favorite Long Beach highlight videos we’ve produced over the last 12 years. This week we’re starting with the 2012 Moore League baseball showdown between Lakewood’s Shane Watson and Wilson’s Chase De Jong, and we’re talking to De Jong […]
As professional sports leagues across the world came to a halt due to the global outbreak of COVID-19, one of the last countries to shut down its athletic activities was Turkey. Nearly three weeks after the NBA postponed its season here in North America, the Turkish professional leagues were still playing competitive games. That includes […]
Meetings of the Long Beach Unified School District’s Board of Education are usually pretty…well, boring. Absent of any fireworks or major disagreements, they’re almost always about an hour of cordial agreement and unanimous votes. Last week’s meeting was about as far from “usual” as the Board has probably ever gotten. Superintendent Chris Steinhauser announced that […]
The inaugural 562 Long Beach Smash Tournament was held last weekend, with two days of action deciding the city’s best high school individual and team Smash Brothers players. Millikan’s Jed Astle won the individual championship on Saturday and Lakewood’s team of Christopher Cruz, Christopher Sanchez, and John Huff won the team championship on Sunday. “I’m […]
Photo courtesy Peter Simmons/Leicester Riders Just 45 minutes before game time, the Leicester Riders were huddled together in the same house, contemplating an important decision. In a normal world, the team would have arrived at its home arena about 90 minutes before tip-off to prepare for its game against the Manchester Giants, but this was […]
As we celebrated February’s two-year anniversary of the562.org’s launching, we had plenty to be happy about. The runaway growth of the website meant we were reaching hundreds of thousands of people each month, and we’d published more than 500 photo galleries and 450 highlight videos, as well as more than 1,000 articles. None of that […]