coach

The initial concept for USC’s Bloom Football Performance Center was first born on the back of a napkin. It was late November 2021, and Lincoln Riley was on a plane to Los Angeles, where he was slated to be introduced as USC’s coach.

The then-hypothetical facility had been a critical contingency for Riley, who never toured USC’s facilities, but knew — like most people around college football — that the Trojans were seriously lacking in that department. For years, USC officials had resisted doing anything about it. The John McKay Center hadn’t even been around a decade, they’d inevitably say. Plus, there was the not-so-insignificant problem of where to build a new facility on campus.

Riley knew that. And he asked anyway.

“That was a little bit, in that moment, my way to test how committed SC was,” Riley said Thursday. “This honestly was probably the biggest test of commitment for, ‘How invested are we to get this program back?’ When that was met with no hesitations, that was a pivotal part of me taking this job. I think it’s fair to say, if that commitment hadn’t been made, I probably wouldn’t be here.”

The Bloom Football Performance Center on the campus of USC.

Almost five years later, the plans Riley sketched out that morning have been brought to life in one of college football’s finest facilities, the towering jewel of a $225-million capital project at USC that also includes a new baseball stadium (Dedeaux Field) and a women’s soccer and lacrosse field (Rawlinson Stadium).

The three-story, 163,000-square-foot football-only facility opened Wednesday night, with Riley reflecting back on that napkin and marveling at how far the program had come since. But this gleaming building and its array of amenities had far exceeded his initial expectations, he said.

He called it “magical.”

“You can say or promise that you’re gonna build a facility, and then you can halfway do it or you can do it right and just go over the top and just really not hold back in any way, and that’s what our university has done,” Riley said. “I’m proud and thankful for the university for making this happen.”

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1. Bronze plaques of previous USC players adorn the wall of the Mark and Mary Stevens Trojan Legacy Wall at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The weight room of the USC Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. A wall of USC players drafted by NFL teams at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. Trophies won by the USC football program on display at the Bloom Football Performance Center.

The real magic was that it happened at all, considering all that changed or had gone awry. The athletic director who first agreed to Riley’s facility request, Mike Bohn, resigned. The university president who signed off on it, Carol Folt, retired.

The cost of doing business in college football also went up exponentially with the advent of revenue sharing, all while the university was going through a financial crisis. None of which helped when it came to asking for $200 million in private donations.

Then there was the matter of physical space. The only option to build the facility was to demolish the Trojans’ longtime baseball field and displace the program for multiple seasons.

Hot tubs at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center.

“Think of what Coach Stank and the baseball team, what they had to give up to make this work,” Riley said. “The importance of just getting everybody together and on the same page and pushing in the same direction, this building is one of the first real signs of that. Because this took everybody.”

Riley, in particular, proved to be “very influential” in the process, according to Jeff Fucci, USC’s senior associate athletic director for capital projects.

“Coach was tireless in making sure that this was something that was not going to just be a vision and something that was talked about and not followed through on,” Fucci said.

It also took endowing just about every physical space in the facility to raise the necessary $200 million to build it, from the “Peets Family Atrium” to the “Al Cowlings Defensive Tackles Room” to a hallway labeled as the “Mark and Mary Stevens Legacy Walk.” Even some of the bathrooms bear plaques from donors eager to get their name somewhere in the building.

The locker room at the USC Bloom Football Performance Center,.

“This has been a huge, huge investment from the university,” Fucci said.

The result is a facility that stands in stark difference from the John McKay Center, which cost $70 million when it opened in 2012. That building was “80% subterranean”, according to Fucci — with not nearly enough space to contain the football program, let alone the other sports programs that used it.

Natural light pours into Bloom Center, by contrast. Thirty-foot glass doors open up onto the Trojans’ practice field from a 12,000-square-foot weight room with towering vaulted ceilings. From above, an outdoor terrace is outfitted especially for hosting recruits or other luminaries, complete, for the time being, with basketball courts and pickleball.

“I love coming to the weight room in the morning,” said offensive lineman Tobias Raymond. “The sun is coming up, and you can see it, and you open the doors and you get the fresh air blowing in.”

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1. Jeff Fucci, USC senior associate athletic director, leads the media on a tour of the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 2. USC players make their way to the locker room. 3. Mannequins on display with USC football uniforms outside of the on-site cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 4. The cafeteria at the Bloom Football Performance Center. 5. The weight room opens near the practice field.

Riley wanted the facility to put a special emphasis on recovery. So now, players have access to infrared beds, sensory deprivation tanks and AI-led massage chairs. There are hot tubs and cold tubs and a players-only sauna, while every locker is outfitted with a leather zero gravity chair. There’s even a barbershop.

“It’s hard to get our players out of here,” Fucci said.

Riley has been no different. Shortly after moving in, with his family out of town, the coach said he hunkered down for five straight days in the facility.

Before, that would’ve meant barely seeing the sun. But now, as the sun poured through the third-floor atrium of the Bloom Center, Riley couldn’t help but point out the symbolism of such an ambitious undertaking actually coming to life.

“They said it couldn’t be done,” Riley said. “But here we are.”

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1. The football practice fields next to the Bloom Football Performance Center. 2. The rooftop deck, an event-ready space at Bloom Football Performance Center. 3. USC football coach Lincoln Riley, left, speaks to the media in the team room at the Bloom Football Performance Center on Thursday. 4. The lobby of the Bloom Football Performance Center.

Injury update

Projected starting center Kilian O’Connor suffered a non-contact injury during USC’s camp practice Wednesday and will be out for the rest of the season, Riley announced.

“Tough one for the guys to see,” Riley said. “A great reminder for all of our guys just how nothing in this game is ever guaranteed. We’re fortunate to have enough depth on the O-line that we’ve been working on to continue to push forward.”

You compete.

Or you complain.

UCLA head coach Bob Chesney coined it at the beginning of preseason camp last year in Harrisonburg, Va., before leading James Madison to a 12-2 record, a Sun Belt championship and its first College Football Playoff appearance.

“You either compete or complain, you can’t do both,” Chesney said on Aug. 5, 2025. “You are either full of pride and won’t allow yourself to have mental, physical and emotional lack of discipline and toughness, or you fill yourselves with pity and you have a lack of all three of those things.”

Chesney carried that same tune on his first day of fall camp in Westwood, leading his new team.

The Bruin faithful got its first taste of their newly minted head honcho at his introductory news conference on Dec. 9, where he made promises of turning around the football program, elevating it to its height of the past, and reengaging the Bruin community.

UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava looks to throw a pass during the first day of preseason camp at Spalding Field on Thursday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

And Chesney has not wavered since.

From his halftime speech at a UCLA men’s basketball game versus Indiana — where he proclaimed that the Bruins would be Big Ten champions — to throughout spring practice and all through Big Ten media day last week, Chesney has stayed consistent.

And that consistency includes the way he is training his players leading up to UCLA’s opener against California, where the former Pac-12 rivals will meet for a night game between two first-year head coaches.

Chesney has emphasized, throughout his short tenure in Westwood, that while physical development is imperative in the offseason, the mental side of the game carries the same weight. Central to that, is putting players in adverse situations in the offseason to get them battle-tested come game day.

“Those are the moments that test you. Pay no attention to a virtue that’s not been tested in fire, and that’s ultimately something that we got to be able to do is put them in situations where we’ve tested them in fire,” Chesney said. “We know how they’re going to react and how they’re going to respond. We know when the moment’s on the line. That’s the most important thing that we can do out here. That’s what this whole entire camp is ultimately about.”

In order to test his players’ resiliency, Chesney has implemented “compete periods” throughout his time in Westwood to emulate the speed and intensity of live reps.

Alongside competition has been grading everything a player does, so there is no ambiguity as to where a player stands on the depth chart or in the program.

Outside of the actual drills and exercises Chesney implements, the coach has also purposefully scheduled some of his practices in the afternoon to expose his players to the intense Los Angeles heat — his version of throwing his players into the fire to help get them acclimated and test their mental toughness.

Chesney’s mental training ultimately serves as a litmus test in discovering who is cut from a different cloth.

“Procedural discipline was a big part of what we want to make sure that we’re constantly talking about,” Chesney said. “And then, how quickly can I get to the next play? How much do I love being coached, and how hard am I going to be coached and accept that coaching and make myself get better?”

With passion and excitement emanating from players on the first day of fall camp, and less than a month away from the first game of the season, Chesney highlighted that it is about striking a balance: testing his players’ resolve but also not being reactionary.

The new head coach underscored that it can be easy for impulse and emotion to take over, but uplifting one another and letting mistakes refine you rather than define you is integral to success.

UCLA defensive linemen Jacob Busic (97) and Anthony Jones (15) run drills during the first day of preseason camp at Spalding Field on Thursday.

(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)

Central to that is teammates, particularly within the same position group, celebrating the success of one another rather than letting the depth chart dictate morale.

“If someone’s above you and perceived to be above you, what are you doing? Are you trying to elevate your game and compete with them, or are you trying to knock them down and pull them back towards you?” Chesney asked.

“The best teams in the world love that that guy above him is a little better, and they are chasing him every single day. We have a good amount of that on our team, and it’s got to continue because we are going to need everybody, whether they know it or not,” he said.

UCLA will not play its first game until Sept. 5.

However, battles will be won and lost within the team along the way.

But to Chesney, it is how you respond to those successes and failures that prevail.

SAN DIEGO — High on the to-do list for the Chargers offense is juicing up the ground game, a pressing priority for a franchise whose last 1,000-yard rusher was Melvin Gordon in 2017.

Max McCaffrey is the team’s new running backs coach, and his last name should be familiar. His younger brother is Christian McCaffrey, All-Pro running back for the San Francisco 49ers and reigning comeback player of the year. Their father is longtime NFL receiver Ed McCaffrey, a favorite target of John Elway in Denver.

So Max knows his stuff about building a running attack, even though he was a receiver at Duke and had only fleeting stints with five NFL franchises, more often on the practice squads than the active rosters.

Chargers offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel noted with a half-smile that because Max is “definitely not the most athletic in his family,” his work ethic is “astronomically higher” than most.

Max , 32, chuckled Wednesday when informed of that wisecrack, conceding that he’s got some pretty stiff competition in his family. His dad has three Super Bowl rings — one with San Francisco, two with Denver — and mom, Lisa, was a standout soccer player at Stanford. In addition to Christian, 30, Max has brothers Dylan, 27, a former quarterback at Michigan and Northern Colorado; and Luke, a receiver and return specialist for the Washington Commanders.

They might not be quite as prominent as the Mannings or Kelces, but when it comes to football’s royal families, the McCaffreys are in the conversation.

Chargers running backs coach Max McCaffrey, left, works with running back Keaton Mitchell at training camp in El Segundo on Aug. 1.

(Los Angeles Chargers)

“I love my brothers,” Max said. “I’ll do anything for them, and I just want to see them succeed and chase what they’re passionate about.”

That certainly doesn’t quell his competitive nature, however, and he’ll have more than one chance in his current role to see brother Christian up close. The Chargers and 49ers will hold a joint practice at the Bolt on Aug. 18, and the teams will meet again in a Thursday night game on Dec. 17 at SoFi Stadium.

“My brother’s been my best friend and one of my biggest mentors my entire life,” Christian told The Times Wednesday. “We’re always bouncing ideas off each other. Obviously, he played receiver, but he has such a massive knowledge for football in general. He’s been a coordinator. He’s coached different position groups. Now that he’s got the running back job, it’s so fun just bouncing ideas off of each other.

“I never think I have it all figured out, so getting tips from him feels very familiar.”

Likewise, Max said that while Christian doesn’t share trade secrets with him, he does tap into the running back know-how of his younger brother, collecting tidbits on how best to train and prepare players for the rigorous job.

The eldest McCaffrey son called the 49ers star “the most intentional person I know.”

“He wakes up with a purpose,” Max said. “His day is planned from the second he wakes up to the minute he goes to sleep.”

That’s the kind of laser focus that can help a young running back such as Omarion Hampton, selected 22nd overall by the Chargers in the 2025 draft.

Ed McCaffrey was head coach at Northern Colorado from 2020-22 and had Max on his staff all three seasons, first as receivers coach, then as offensive coordinator for the final two seasons.

“I think it’s tremendous,” Ed said of his son’s play-calling experience. “It’s tremendous for the whole process because it allows you to set your vision as to how much you need to own at the NFL level running an offense.

“He got to really invest into the details across all positions, getting a firm, tangible example of what he needs from position coaches. So to be prepared to be a position coach, I think it directly helped him in that process.”

When McDaniel was head coach of the Miami Dolphins, he brought on Max as an offensive assistant from 2023-25. When McDaniel got the Chargers job, he brought Max with him, giving him a key position to oversee.

Chargers running backs coach Max McCaffrey, working with running back Kimani Vidal in offseason workouts in May, said, “I love my brothers. I’ll do anything for them, and I just want to see them succeed and chase what they’re passionate about.”

(Los Angeles Chargers)

Joked McDaniel: “For fantasy owners out there, if you’re not liking your output, you have Max to blame.”

Max got his name from a since-closed restaurant at the Stanford mall called Max’s Opera Cafe, where Ed and Lisa had their first date.

Since, he has worked hard to make a name for himself, and the spotlight is only growing.

Mauricio Pochettino has agreed to extend his tenure as coach of the United States men’s soccer team for another four years through the 2030 World Cup. The 54-year-old Argentinian took the US to the round of 16 at this year’s finals.

Natalie Nakase was about to coach the Golden State Valkryies against the Toronto Tempo on Sunday when she was asked about a controversy surrounding a different team and one of its players.

The WNBA’s first Asian-American coach was more than happy to give her opinion about transgender women playing in women’s sports, which has loomed over the league since Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham spoke out against it last month.

“Thank you for that question,” Nakase, a former Clippers assistant coach, said during her pregame news conference. “For me, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self. You know, I’m big on that just because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity.

“I’ve been in those ‘you shouldn’t belong here’ [discussions] many times. And for me, I don’t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that. So I’m all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women. So I’m all about inclusivity.”

Nakase’s comments came on the same day that Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a T-shirt that read “Trans kids belong” under her jacket during her team’s game against the Fever. Reeve and Cunningham were seen speaking before the game, but the WNBA’s all-time winningest coach declined to reveal the details of their discussion to reporters afterward.

“Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” Reeve said. “And there are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues, and I think it’s how you handle things.”

It was the third consecutive Fever road game at which supporters of both sides of the argument gathered outside the arena to rally for their cause. It was also the third straight game at which Cunningham received boos from the crowd inside the arena.

Cunningham, who didn’t speak with reporters after the game, posed for pictures with Jennifer Sey and Riley Gaines, two outspoken political activists against transgender women in women’s sports.

Fever teammate Caitlin Clark, one of the WNBA’s biggest stars, did speak with reporters, for the first time since the controversy started. A reporter opened the news conference following Indiana’s 108-100 loss to the Lynx by asking Clark how she and her teammates have navigated the conversation around the issue.

“I think, for us, it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said. “I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions. But our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and obviously we didn’t do that tonight, so we need to find an area to improve in that way.”

When the same reporter started asking Clark for her reaction on the matter, she cut him off.

“I just answered for you,” she said.

In a July 21 ESPN article, Cunningham said she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

The next day, she told reporters that her stance is “kind of common sense,” adding, “I’ll stand on what I said, and I’ll always believe that.”

Before the Fever’s game on Friday in Portland, Cunningham told reporters, “I’m here to play basketball, but I’m also here to be me, and I’m not gonna like shadow that or hide or, you know, dim my light just because maybe people don’t agree with that.”

Speaking to reporters before the same game, Indiana coach Stephanie White expressed some “frustration” in not being able to focus entirely on basketball but said “I also understand this is part of our growth edge as a league.”

“We have to to be able to manage, we have to be able to insulate as much as we can, and then we have to be able to lead with conversation,” she said.

Asked how she would feel about a “biological male” playing in the WNBA, White said: “I’m not educated enough in terms of transgender and transitioning to give you a smart answer. I would say, though, that I just don’t feel like exclusion is an answer, and I think that we need to have deeper, more layered conversations.”

Portland coach Alex Samara told reporters before that the transgender community has the team’s “full support.”

“They’re a very important part of what the values of the Portland Fire are,” he said. “I know our organization is going to be intentional in making sure our fans feel comfortable and supported when they come here to the fire pit.”

Earlier last week, Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was banned by the WNBA from attending her team’s next five home games after she allegedly cursed at two teenage girls who were holding a sign in support of Cunningham when the Storm was playing the Fever on Tuesday.

MINNEAPOLIS — A crowd of critics and supporters of Indiana guard Sophie Cunningham’s stance on transgender participation in women’s sports gathered around and inside Target Center on Sunday as the Fever faced the Lynx in Minnesota.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve wore a light blue shirt under her jacket that said “Trans kids belong” as she directed her team — the top team in the WNBA — to a 108-100 win over the Fever. There were fans in the stands wearing T-shirts that read, “Trans kids belong in sports.”

It’s the third straight Fever game that drew a rally after Cunningham recently voiced support for barring transgender girls and women from girls’ and women’s sports in an ESPN article published last week.

Before the contest, Cunningham and Reeve held a conversation at midcourt. Reeve didn’t want to share the exact nature of their talk.

Lynx guard Olivia Miles shoots over Fever guard Sophie Cunningham Sunday in Minneapolis.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

“Both of us understand that we have platforms and we both talked about wanting to, more than anything, educate,” Reeve said. “There are some things that we have in common, and maybe some things you differ on, just like any issues. I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person, for sure.”

Cunningham was booed by the crowd on her first touch of the game and throughout.

Outside the arena, dozens of fans gathered near the entrance. A person using a loud speaker repeatedly said, “Protect trans women.” There were signs held up that read, “Love is truth” and “Thank you Sophie.”

Asked how she and the team are navigating the outside conversations, Caitlin Clark said after the game, “I think we’re excellent.

“I think it’s for leagues and governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions,” Clark said. “Our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins and obviously we didn’t do that tonight. So we need to find an area to improve in that way.”

Any reaction?

“I just answered,” Clark said.

Cunningham said Friday in Portland that she wasn’t concerned about rallies against transgender participation in women’s sports becoming a distraction for the Fever.

“I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me,” Cunningham said Friday. “I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light. And so that doesn’t even cross my mind. Doesn’t cross my teammates’ minds.”

Minnesota rookie sensation Olivia Miles spearheaded an efficient offense with 28 points and Courtney Williams added 27 points, helping the Lynx win their 10th straight game despite the controversy surrounding the contest.

People hold signs and point in defense of and opposed to trans athletes in women’s sports before a Lynx-Fever game Sunday.

(Abbie Parr / Associated Press)

Minnesota had a 96-82 lead with 6:41 to play before the Fever, who had scored 100 in a record sixstraight games, pulled within 100-98 with more than 2 1/2 minutes to go. Miles and Williams both came up with big baskets as the Lynx won their 10th straight for the first time since 2016.

The league’s No. 1 offense definitely made life difficult for the league’s No. 2 defense, but the Fever, who played in Portland on Friday night, couldn’t stop the Lynx on the offensive end. Both teams shot 57% with 11 three-pointers and went 11 of 15 from the foul line with a combined 55 assists. The big difference was Indiana had 12 turnovers compared with six for Minnesota, which had an 11-5 advantage in offensive rebounds.

Napheesa Collier had 18 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Lynx (25-6). Natasha Howard scored 13 points and Kayla McBride had 10.

The Fever (19-11), who had their five-game winning streak halted, were led by Kelsey Mitchell with 37 points, her fifth 30-point game of the season and 14th straight 20-point game, second in league history behind A’ja Wilson’s 15 straight in a single season. Clark added 19 points and 10 assists and Aliyah Boston had 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists.

Justin Halpern had a best-selling nonfiction book, co-created “Harley Quinn,” is co-showrunner for “Abbott Elementary” and has recently published his first novel, “Get Lost.”

But today he wants to mostly talk baseball. He recalls rooting for the Mets as a child in San Diego because he was so enamored with Dwight Gooden’s “electric” fastball and his disappearing curve. He spills about the big game he blew as a tween when a simple throw to first went horribly awry, about the two no-hitters he threw at Point Loma High School, how his dreams of stardom went south while at San Diego State, about feeling bitter toward the game and then rediscovering his love for it.

This wasn’t just idle chatter. Baseball is integral to Halpern’s own character arc and to “Get Lost” both on the page and behind the scenes. Take that terrible error when Halpern was 12. Afterward, his father didn’t console him with platitudes. He told the boy to dismiss the “it’s just a game” pity from his coach and accept that for Justin it was a big deal and it made sense to feel awful, but that also meant he had something he felt passionate about.

That paternal talk helped less in the moment than down the road: Halpern’s struggling writing career exploded when he started tweeting his dad’s life advice and then, with his writing partner, Patrick Schumacker, turned those “S—My Dad Says” tweets into a best-selling book. (He’s acutely aware of how lucky he got but also says he and Schumacker were well prepared to capitalize on that opportunity.)

And that particular story, Halpern says, was “foundational” for “Get Lost.” The novel follows Lila Dixon, an acerbic, cynical baseball scout living a dreary and closed-off life in her 30s. When her mentally ill mother goes missing, yet again, Lila must return to the hometown she loathed to search for her, but this time she must also deal with her estranged father, John “Dix” Dixon. Dix was a baseball prodigy too cocky and flashy for his own good who now coasts through life on his long-ago heroics coupled with charm and an undeserved diet of luck.

Halpern’s father’s message resonated for this novel because Lila, who was neglected, abandoned and ultimately shuttled off to foster care as a kid, “has been wandering the planet without finding anything she gives a damn about. Now she needs to find something.”

Halpern quit baseball in college after an injury and the realization that he’d never make the majors. “Aside from talent, you have to be willing to do all these tiny little boring things every single day,” he says. “You have to be obsessive. I worked hard but I wasn’t willing to do that.”

The team’s assistant coach told Halpern it was the biggest mistake of his life and he’d “never make a penny writing” but writing was the one thing where he was willing to tackle the tiny little boring things needed to keep improving.

The adaptation of “S— My Dad Says” for television failed but he felt he improved with each successive show. He also didn’t give up when his first two attempts at novels were “terrible” with “nothing salvageable” in either attempt.

He learned to stop imitating his favorite writers. “I was trying to copy authors more skilled than I was and wasn’t taking the time to find my own voice.” And he strived to break the habits of writing for TV (although he’s quick to acknowledge that “Get Lost” remains dialogue heavy), including working alone. A perpetual collaborator who describes himself as “codependent,” going solo “was a huge challenge that almost shut down the novel a couple of times.”

He contemplated calling friends to run ideas by them when he got stuck but ultimately resisted. “If I didn’t figure out how to solve things myself I was never going to finish this novel anyway,” he says, adding with a laugh, “I’m definitely still codependent, but the novel forced me to venture into waters that I never would have gotten into on my own.”

The deepest of those waters came from learning he does not like exploring his emotions. “My wife probably learned this many years ago,” he says wryly. “Every time I need to sit in a feeling, I try to wiggle my way out of it and that’s probably really annoying for the people in my life. To make “Get Lost” work, he had to burrow into the “complex emotional stew” of Lila’s multiple traumas and make her journey feel earned. Each morning he’d take “epic walks” with his dog. “I’d just talk in the voice of the characters in my head, without it having anything to do with the plot.”

Creating Lila’s flippant father came easily, which is why Halpern refused to settle on Dix as the main character. He didn’t want to make Dix loathsome, but he also didn’t want to glamorize his behavior, thinking back to how he felt “The Wolf of Wall Street” made the sleazy finance bros seem too cool to many in the audience.

Writing a female protagonist, especially one who had so many reasons to be guarded, he didn’t want her to be too likable or to be sexualized or to have solutions come easily. “I didn’t want Lila to need to lower expectations of her father and just love the man for who he is but to realize the limitations of this man and not let that affect how she feels about herself.”

It’s easy to read “Get Lost” hearing Aubrey Plaza in Lila’s sardonic tone, and Halpern heard her voice, and others, while writing but kept reminding himself that he’d have no talented actress to add humanity to his dialogue.

“I knew there’d be no Aubrey Plaza here to save my ass,” he says, although he and Schumacker are now planning a movie adaptation. “I had to figure out how to create this complicated character myself,” Halpern tells me via video from the writers room in L.A. for “I Suck At Girls,” an upcoming Netflix series loosely based off another of his nonfiction books. Schumacker came in and dryly praised “Get Lost” by saying: “Justin knows words that I didn’t think he knew.”

Halpern is more self-aware than he lets on as becomes clear when analyzing his baseball journey — when he quit he admits he felt resentful. “I’d given so much time to the game and it owed me something, but hadn’t given me what I’d asked,” he reflects.

Several years later, he realized he needed to embrace the game for what it offered, not what he wanted. He started playing in adult leagues and became so invested that in his mid-30s, when a surgeon told him he’d torn his labrum, he said, “Is my career over?”

The surgeon asked, “Aren’t you a writer?”

Halpern recovered and, when he’s not joyfully coaching his kids’ Little League team, he’s still heading for the mound at age 45, thrilled with the challenges of outsmarting hitters and reveling in the social aspect of being on a team. “Even with a bunch of older people, there’s just something about sports that still really takes me to a higher place,” he says. “I’ve had a super blessed writing career, but the highest highs I’ve ever had are on a baseball field.”

Miller is a freelance writer in Brooklyn, N.Y., who frequently writes about movies.

England tried to rally themselves following their semi-final defeat by New Zealand, but came up against a Diamonds team recovering from one of the biggest shocks in the tournament’s history.

Australia – who had previously been in every Commonwealth final and won the tournament four times – were stunned by Jamaica on Saturday afternoon, giving them less time to recover for the bronze-medal match than England.

The Roses worked hard to shut down the Diamonds’ forward-passing options from the start, but the team in green and gold found their rhythm with devastating consequences, overturning an early 9-7 deficit to lead 19-11 in a bruising first-quarter spell for the Roses.

Stembridge’s side, who lost 66-47 to the same opponents in the pool stage, then lacked impetus in the second period, showing signs of tired legs against one of the world’s most established shooting partnerships in Kiera Austin and Sophie Garbin.

A loose pass from England captain Fran Williams allowed Austin to calmly extend the gap to 28-16 and her side kept the margin steady, resulting in a half-time score of 35-24.

The presence of substitute shooter Eleanor Cardwell in the third quarter helped the Roses score five without reply to trail 45-34, but they were still 49-36 behind with 15 minutes left to play.

Bronze is not a colour of medal that Australia ever imagined they would be playing for, but what seemed just as important to them was reminding the world what they are capable of and why they have been such feared opponents.

In that sense, Stacey Marinkovich’s Diamonds shone as ultimate professionals, and England again came up short against a top side, losing by one less point than the pool stage match between the teams.

“It’s so tough after we lost yesterday and the disappointment of not making a final, to pull yourself up. I’m just so proud of the girls, the fight that we had through this 10 days to keep showing up and responding,” Williams told BBC Sport.

“Probably a few of our errors came through that fatigue and the mental drain that being in tournament netball is, and that is no excuse.

“For so many of us, 10 of us, that was our first Commonwealth Games experiencing that and maybe that showed in a final-day game where you’ve got to turn it on when medals are on that line.

“I’m not going away from that World Cup next year without a medal and standing on that podium, hopefully with a gold, so we’ll be doing as much as we can in the next 12 months to make sure that we are in a better position to fight in these final games.”

Eddie Howe has stepped down as head coach of Newcastle United.

The 48-year-old has left after nearly five years in charge, following a disappointing season where the Magpies finished 12th in the Premier League.

Howe had helped the club earn Champions League qualification on two occasions, and win the League Cup in 2024-25.

“After a period of personal reflection, I have decided that now is the right time for me to step away from my role,” said Howe.

Newport were four points adrift of safety in the fourth tier when Fuchs was named as Dave Hughes’ successor in November last year.

The Austrian guided Newport to survival in League Two, but left the club on the eve of their return for pre-season ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.

The arrival of Mullins means it is the third successive summer that there has been a managerial change at Rodney Parade.

He is also the fourth permanent boss appointed by owner Huw Jenkins since his January 2024 takeover of the club, following Nelson Jardim, Hughes and Fuchs in the hot seat.

Former England Under-21 international Mullins – who also played for Reading, Birmingham City and Notts County – moved into coaching within Watford’s youth system in 2016.

Having managed the Hornets’ under-23s, he twice took temporary charge of Watford’s senior team, following the exits of Quique Sánchez Flores and Nigel Pearson from Vicarage Road.

Mullins joined Colchester United as an assistant in 2020 and – following a stint as interim boss – took permanent charge of the U’s in May 2021, but was sacked less than a year later.

He went on to have a brief stint in charge of the Turks and Caicos Islands national team in 2023 before joining Fulham as under-21 boss later that year.

In his first campaign in charge, Mullins led the young Cottagers to Premier League Cup glory with a 4-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur Under-21s in the final.

Matthias Jaissle is the surprise favourite to take over as Newcastle head coach as Eddie Howe’s replacement – and would arrive with a strong recent record of success.

Howe, 48, is set to leave St James’ Park after nearly five years. He had been in charge since November 2021 when he replaced Steve Bruce and took the Magpies to their first domestic trophy in 70 years by winning the Carabao Cup in 2025.

Former RB Salzburg boss Jaissle, currently in charge of Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli, is noe expected to come in.

The 38-year-old German was a centre-half, progressing through the Stuttgart youth system before playing senior football for Hoffenheim from 2007 to 2014.

He represented Germany at Under-21 level, but was forced to retire through injury at the age of 25.

Jaissle took his first coaching steps as assistant manager of Danish club Brondby between 2017 and 2019. He then took over RB Salzburg’s Under-18 academy team before becoming a head coach for the first time at Liefering in Austria’s second tier.

He guided them to a second-placed finish, the club’s joint best-ever position, and that achievement helped him become RB Salzburg manager in 2021, replacing Jesse Marsch, who would later manage Leeds United and then Canada at the 2026 World Cup.

In two seasons with RB Salzburg, Jaissle won the Austrian Bundesliga twice and also the Austrian Cup once.

Their team included Benjamin Sesko and Brenden Aaronson, who now play in the Premier League with Manchester United and Leeds United respectively, and German forward Karim Adeyemi, now at Barcelona.

Jaissle joined Saudi club Al-Ahli in 2023 and led them to consecutive Asian Champions League titles in 2025 and 2026. Such success would have been noted by Newcastle‘s Saudi ownership in the event of Howe leaving St James’ Park.

Magpies supporters will be encouraged by Jaissle’s methods – his teams play high-pressing attacking football. He demands they show intensity and force turnovers as high up the pitch as possible.

Ex-superstar player succeeds Didier Deschamps as France manager after the national team’s bitter semifinal exit in the United States.

Former France midfielder Zinedine Zidane will take over as national team head coach, the French Football Federation posted on X on Tuesday.

The appointment of the former Real Madrid manager comes two weeks after Didier Deschamps’ tenure as coach ended following France’s fourth-place finish at the World Cup. His final match in charge was the 6-4 defeat by England.

Zidane, 54, is expected to begin his reign with an away UEFA Nations League game against Turkiye before France host Italy at the Stade de France on October 2.

Deschamps, who left after 14 years at the helm, oversaw 185 matches and 120 victories, guiding France to the 2018 World Cup title, the 2020-21 Nations League trophy and the Euro 2016 and 2022 World Cup finals.

Both share a long association, having been teammates in the 1998 World Cup-winning side at  home in France.

Zidane played a pivotal role in that triumph and won the Ballon d’Or that year.

Sussex have announced that former Kent boss Matt Walker will take over as their new head coach for the 2027 season.

The 52-year-old will take charge on 1 November, succeeding Paul Farbrace, who is switching roles to become Sussex’s new Director of Cricket.

Walker spent eight seasons as head coach at Kent, guiding them to promotion to Division One in 2018, T20 Blast success in 2021 and the One-Day Cup in 2022.

He has also coached in the England men’s set-up and is currently batting coach at Warwickshire and assistant coach with MI London, formerly known as Oval Invincibles, in The Hundred.

More to follow.

During a match, fans of Palestinian club Shabab Al-Khaleel raised a banner thanking Egypt coach Hossam Hassan for his support for the Palestinian cause. Hassan raised the Palestinian flag after Egypt’s national team defeated Australia in the World Cup round of 16.

Asked about how he viewed the last 35 minutes of the game having had time to reflect, Tuchel said he felt “the same way – that we were too passive”.

“If you’re asking if I regret my decision, if this is the question, then I don’t regret my decisions,” he added.

“I felt that the momentum switches in the match. And I tried to help my team…

“I took several decisions, trusting my instinct, my intuition, my experience, trusting my competitiveness, and I took the decision in order to help the team and get the result. We didn’t get the result.

“So I take, of course, the responsibility and for these decisions. I would regret if I didn’t help. I would regret if we didn’t react.”

Tuchel said he was not willing to engage “in this kind of game” over who is to blame.

“No problem,” he said. “This is the deal that you sign up for, but I will not engage.

“For me, there is no-one to blame.
If you need someone to blame, I take the responsibility. I’m the head coach.”

Asked why England’s record goalscorer Kane played so deep in the latter stages, he said: “What do you mean? Like in the last 30 minutes?

“Why we defended in a deep block. Well, that’s what you do if you defend in a block. We were not active enough.”

Tuchel said Argentina had “played with a lot of momentum after our goal”.

“They had a lot of offensive changes, and a lot of offensive positions,” the 52-year-old added.

“We could not stop the crosses, and we could not stop the runners into the box.

“So we decided to play a back five, to have more width in the field, to be closer to the guys who cross.

“We just became too passive, and Argentina, by the way, found another gear and they found the total flow.

“We played in the semi-final against the reigning world champions.

“We were 85 minutes 1-0 up. We played against the best player in the world, and we lost 2-1, which is painful.”

Tuchel was asked if he had studied data which showed England’s physical performance levels against Argentina were lower than the DR Congo game in the same stadium earlier in the tournament.

He said “even if we don’t want to admit it because it feels like an excuse”, the Mexico game with 10 men in the altitude of the Azteca Stadium and the heat against Norway in Miami “cost us more than we maybe thought”.

“The players literally gave everything physically [in] every single match. If you see this data drop, there must be a reason behind it, because the motivation was through the roof,” he said.

As if the college sports world weren’t crazy enough with roster limitations and rising numbers in the transfer portal, a new trend that isn’t really new but is accelerating involves coaches telling players they will have little chance to play as motivation for the player to leave and open up a roster spot.

That’s how a coach escapes bad publicity for chasing off a player. But maybe the coach is being honest in their evaluation? It’s all part of the strange happenings taking place.

Check out social media to see the growing number of high school and junior college players suddenly searching for new schools this summer by saying, “My recruitment is back open” or announcing an “involuntary decommitment.”

Just this week, Ole Miss is facing criticism after a longtime high school baseball commit from Iowa who has been battling cancer for three years, Brett Harris, said he had his baseball scholarship pulled.

College baseball, in particular, is being disrupted. Members from the high school class of 2027 are being forced to reopen their recruitment as schools take into consideration a new NCAA rule giving players five years of eligibility across five years.

Braden Ruiz, a Mater Dei High graduate who played shortstop at Cypress College, signed with Oregon last January. Last month he asked for his release from Oregon.

“It was the vibe I was getting,” Ruiz said. “They said I could still go up there and give it a shot. The conversations were they didn’t seem interested as before. I decided to decommit. The coach who recruited me ended up leaving Oregon a week later.”

Ruiz played with a hamstring injury at Cypress College last season.

“It’s all about performance,” he said. “If you’re not performing, it makes the coaches think differently.”

Ruiz has come to understand how college sports has become a business.

“They pretty much can do whatever they want,” he said. “They can pull your offer or in the conversations tell you you’re not wanted anymore. But it’s part of their job. They need to win to keep their job.”

Mater Dei coach Richard Mercado said he’s advising parents and players “if a school is giving out NIL money, it’s a business. You’re not going there to be friends with the coach. It’s a business relationship. They have to win immediately and with limited roster spots. They can’t be wrong.”

Players being pushed away to open a scholarship spot is not new. It’s happened in all sports. College baseball coaches have been engaged in a balancing act for years. Remember the days when Division I schools were limited to 11.7 scholarships. Players were being given partial scholarships and coaches had to project who might leave or stay after the amateur draft. Now college programs can offer full scholarships (think SEC), but rosters dropped to a maximum 34 players last season, forcing coaches to revise and regroup.

Add the impact of no more transfer restrictions and it’s understandable there’s uncertainty. The word loyalty is going to cease to exist in many programs.

So what’s the advice to players and parents?

Betting on yourself still works. If someone doesn’t want you, find someone who does.

“Everybody’s journey is different,” Ruiz said. “You can commit early or late. I would say people who commit now will make it on campus. Their past season was probably good. People performing better more recently have a better chance of playing.”

Do research to find programs that stick with old-fashioned rules and commitments and maybe mention academics.

On Thursday, Ruiz signed with New Mexico State. He’s one of the fortunate ones finding a school with a roster opening this summer before Saturday’s amateur draft begins. He’ll have three years of eligibility left. He’s finally healthy and can’t wait for the day he gets to play against Oregon.

If he becomes a standout, who knows, maybe the Ducks will want him again in this new world of college athletics.

“The portal is crazy,” Ruiz has concluded.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Before it could rise in the World Cup, France first had to fall.

And the fall was spectacular.

In 2010, four years after reaching the final for the second time in three World Cups, the players revolted against coach Raymond Domenech during the tournament. In response, the managing director of the country’s soccer federation resigned in disgust, and the team left South Africa winless after scoring just once in three games.

That matched France’s worst World Cup performance in 76 years. The team, outsiders agreed, had become impossible to coach.

Four years later France made the quarterfinals, beginning a streak in which it has reached the final eight in four consecutive World Cups for the first time. If France, ranked No. 1 in the world, beats Spain in the semifinals Tuesday — Bastille Day in France, a patriotic holiday that is the equivalent of the Fourth of July in the U.S. — it will advance to the final for a third straight time.

Only Brazil and Germany have done that.

France’s Kylian Mbappé (10) celebrates with teammates after scoring against Sweden.

(Yuki Iwamura / Associated Press)

The base for that success was laid a generation before the collapse in South Africa, when a series of poor performances led the French Football Federation to create a series of 16 government-subsidized academies known as Centres de Formation. The main training center opened in 1988 in Clairefontaine, about 30 miles southwest of Paris, and many players from the 1998 championship team — including Zinedine Zidane, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires — passed through its doors.

“What is true about French football is that they started building academies very early and structuring them very early,” said Rudi Garcia, who played 10 seasons in France before becoming a coach of the Belgium national team. “A lot of the good work that’s being done by French football in general is due to the academies.”

But if Clairefontaine set the foundation, Didier Deschamps, the coach who took over the “uncoachable” team in 2012, built much of what went on top.

“It’s not luck,” Henry said on Fox. “This guy is a serial winner. I can also tell you how hard it is to have a lot of alphas and make sure that only one will be the alpha.”

Deschamps was a lunch-bucket player, a hard-working defensive midfielder who excelled at winning back possession in a 16-year career that included captaining France to both a World Cup and European Championship before he retired to become a coach, guiding Monaco to the Champions League final in his first stop. If he has a super power, both as a captain and coach, it’s his ability to manage big egos and get them to buy into the team concept. He did that first as captain of the star-studded 1998 squad and has been even better at it as the coach.

“The collective spirit,” Deschamps said, “is our strength.”

France coach Didier Deschamps celebrates with William Saliba after a World Cup quarterfinal win over Morocco.

(Lars Baron / Getty Images)

“He’s got credit in the bank,” added former World Cup goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, another Fox analyst. “Who can question him? His record speaks for itself as a player and as a coach.”

About that record: Deschamps heads into Tuesday’s semifinal with 20 wins and just two losses in 25 matches as a World Cup coach. He has won more World Cup games and more knockout-stage games, 11, than any other manager. And he was unbeaten in the tournament as a player, going 6-0-1.

Add those wins together and Deschamps, 57, has been on the field or in the technical area for 26 of France’s 48 World Cup victories. Before him, France never had won a World Cup.

By Sunday, the French could be lifting the trophy for the third time in 28 years. Only Brazil has won that many titles in a shorter span. And this team could be France’s best.

All that is thanks in large part to the FFF and government investment in the Centres de Formation. France is now the greatest developer of elite soccer talent in the world. Of the 1,248 players chosen to play for the 48 teams in this World Cup, 99 — nearly 8% — were developed in France, according to Opta. At least 13 teams in this tournament had at least one French-born player, among them Spain and Cape Verde. No other country comes close.

There are several reasons for that. The Ile-de-France region, which includes Paris, is home to large communities of working-class immigrants from the country’s former colonies. Eleven of the 26 players on this French team came from these banlieues, as they are called, among them captain Kylian Mbappé, who has the most goals in the last two World Cups.

The talent pool there is so deep, France probably could have fielded a B team in this World Cup and made it to the quarterfinals. And because the competition to make the national team is great, it raises the level of play for everyone.

For those who fall short, their immigrant backgrounds allow them to play for other countries. For example Riyad Mahrez, a former African player of the year, was born in Clichy, France, but plays for Algeria, while Senegal’s Ibrahim Mbaye is from Trappes.

“It’s quite an incredible pool of talent in a relatively small area,” Hubert Fournier, technical director of the French Football Federation, told the New York Times. “There’s a high concentration of players with very well-structured clubs. And then everyone draws from this Ile-de-France pool because afterwards they go to other clubs; they don’t all stay in Ile-de-France.”

The energy and diversity of the banlieues also fuels the national team. Nine of the 11 starters in France’s win over Morocco either immigrated to France or are the children of immigrants from Madagascar, Lebanon, French Guiana and Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau and elsewhere.

And Deschamps, who grew up in modest circumstances in Basque country, is the one who has made all those disparate parts work together. If France wins its next two games, he’ll become the second man to coach two World Cup champions.

But when asked for the secret to his success after France’s quarterfinal win over Morocco, a team with six French natives, Deschamps praised the French team, one thought to be uncoachable when he took over.

“Having great, great players, excellent players. My credit goes to the players,” said Deschamps, whose team hasn’t given up a goal in its three knockout-stage wins. “But maybe I do my job well.

“The human aspect is of paramount importance. I am extremely happy on a personal level as well as seeing my players enjoy themselves.”

The latter stages of McCullum’s tenure have been blighted by off-field issues. During the winter, Harry Brook, Jacob Bethell, Josh Tongue and Ben Duckett were all involved in late-night incidents.

After England won the first Test of the summer against New Zealand, the series was derailed by Stokes and Gus Atkinson breaking the team’s midnight curfew and being present when a member of security staff was struck by a Saracens rugby player.

And McCullum accepted responsibility for what happened on and off the field.

“I was the leader of that group. I was in charge of the team culturally, in charge of the team tactically, in charge of the team results wise as well,” said McCullum.

“If you don’t get the results, being a results business, fundamentally you get replaced. I’m not unaccustomed to that, I’ve been around this game for 20-odd years and I know if you aren’t getting the results, someone else needs an opportunity.

“I put my hand up for that and accept it wasn’t good enough.”

McCullum and Stokes have both previously denied they grew apart during the Ashes series, and McCullum said he has heard from the all-rounder since news of his departure from the Test role emerged.

“I got some nice messages from Stokesy,” said McCullum. “I guess, in a romantic kind of way there’s something about Stokesy and I going out together. We started it together and we go out together, and I have no problem with that.”

England’s search for a new Test coach is already under way, and Gould explained on Sunday a coach will be appointed before a new captain is finalised.

Gould also suggested that the captaincy would be split, perhaps hinting that white-ball captain Brook, also the Test vice-captain, would not be able to lead across all formats.

Brook and McCullum have formed a strong bond while working together with the white-ball teams, and England’s T20 side have just moved to the top of the world rankings.

It raises the question as to whether that partnership will be broken up if 27-year-old Brook takes control of the Test side.

“You know my thoughts on Harry, my affection for him as a player, person and leader,” said McCullum.

“He’s got one of the best tactical brains I’ve seen in someone so relatively young. He’s developing at an incredible speed as a leader. I love working with Harry and I’d love to continue to do so.

“There will be lots of robust conversations throughout. Myself with the white-ball and whoever takes over the red-ball, ultimately there’s going to be harmony across all three teams because we’re going to want what’s best for English cricket.”

McCullum previously had experience working in an environment where the coaching responsibilities were split. For two years, he was Test coach, with Matthew Mott in charge of the white-ball teams. When Mott was sacked in 2024, McCullum assumed overall control.

A heavily congested schedule lends itself to splitting the coaching jobs, but can also lead to one team being sidelined in terms of access to multi-format players.

McCullum will now have to build a working relationship with the new Test coach.

Former England coach Andy Flower could be a candidate, while McCullum’s former New Zealand team-mate Stephen Fleming is highly respected and has just left Indian Premier League side Chennai Super Kings.

Ex-England batter Jonathan Trott has international experience with Afghanistan and Glamorgan coach Richard Dawson is seen as an emerging homegrown contender.

“Once the Test coach is put in the post, we’ll work collaboratively to try to work out what is right for all three formats, and what is right for English cricket,” said McCullum.

“I expect that to be robust, but hopefully a profitable conversation for everyone. Fundamentally, we just need to get what’s right for English cricket. That will be the number one motivation.”

England, under McCullum, begin a three-match one-day series against India at Edgbaston on Tuesday.

Jos Buttler will play his 200th ODI for England, while the tourists can call on the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.

England will consider between six and 10 names as they seek Brendon McCullum’s successor as Test head coach and would like the person in place for August’s series against Pakistan, says ECB chief executive Richard Gould.

McCullum, 44, was sacked as red-ball coach on Sunday after seven defeats in the past nine Tests.

England’s next Test is against Pakistan at Headingley on 19 August and the team are also currently without a captain after Ben Stokes announced his retirement during the series defeat by New Zealand in late June.

Gould told BBC Sport: “It will be a targeted selection process. We often do a lot of work in terms of planning as to succession – I will always keep a shortlist going of coaches and various other positions and in truth, this position is probably one where the shortlist is no more than six to 10 names globally of a diverse nature.

“In terms of conversations, they will start to happen now and [managing director of men’s cricket] Rob Key will be leading on those.”

Gould confirmed the England and Wales Cricket Board will look to install a head coach first and that person will have a say, alongside Key and national selector Marcus North, in the appointment of a captain.

The new coach will have to work alongside McCullum, who retains the white-ball role, to balance the best interests of English cricket in a crowded cricket calendar where players manage international and franchise commitments.

McCullum’s four-year reign as Test coach has seen England adopt an aggressive style of cricket, but Gould believes his replacement does not necessarily have to mirror that.

“When you look at the skills we’ve got and the talents we’ve got within the team, it is a team that has been playing relatively aggressive cricket,” Gould said.

“But there are always options for the pattern of play to change depending on what the coach wants and where the coach believes those skillsets are.

“It’s going to have to be an individual that complements the skillsets we’ve got in the players and can bring the very best out of them.”

While England would like McCullum’s replacement in position for the three-Test series against Pakistan, Gould accepts an interim solution may happen.

“Clearly the individuals that will be within our shortlist will have other commitments – they may be international cricket, they may be county cricket, they may be franchise cricket, and we’ll need to work through those,” said Gould.

“An interim solution could be in place if it allows us to get to the best possible decision later on down the line.”

Gould added that England would also consider a model where a coach could continue their franchise commitments alongside the role.

A thick early morning marine layer on Saturday in Huntington Beach left players, coaches and fans arriving for the Battle at the Beach seven-on-seven passing tournament feeling cool and energized. New Servite coach Rick Garretson later joked that back at his former home in Arizona, the temperature was over 100 degrees.

Ray Fenton, the new head coach at Orange Lutheran after earning coach of the year honors at Los Alamitos, didn’t have to wear a hat to cover his shaved head. Neither sun nor one of the most talent-laden group of teams in the tournament history could disrupt where Fenton appears to be taking the Lancers.

“Are we playing selflessly or selfishly? Are we good teammates or not?” Fenton said about what he wanted to learn in the Lancers’ only appearance this summer in a passing competition.

Let’s just say the progress is impressive. Fenton brought along his up-tempo, no-huddle offense from Los Alamitos, and quarterbacks Ezrah Brown and Reagan Toki were executing it in midseason form. Looking on in street clothes was 6-foot-5, 305-pound offensive tackle Lucas Rhoa, a Texas commit who can’t wait to throw his weight around when the pads come on. The Lancers won their first four matches, including an opening win over two-time defending champion Mission Viejo.

They made it to the semifinals until a roadblock sent the Lancers home. St. John Bosco came in as the tournament favorite, and from start to finish, the Braves looked better than each opponent. It was only a matter whether coach Jason Negro was going to use his backups to spread playing time.

The Braves knocked off Corona Centennial in the championship game. Tustin won the other division title.

Junior quarterback Koa Malau’ulu, in his third year as a St. John Bosco starter, has new bulging biceps from his many hours in the weight room. The hard work shows. The ball is coming out quicker from his hand. His priority this summer has been trying to build chemistry with a new group of receivers.

“They’re all coachable,” Malau’ulu said.

Junior DJ Tubbs, one of the few returnees, remains a go-to target. “He may not be big but plays big,” Malau’ulu said.

St. John Bosco has six top defensive backs, giving the Braves options for the coming season.

One of the best players in California and the nation, Cathedral Catholic’s Honor Fa’alave-Johnson, a USC commit, got to show off his speed.

Corona Centennial, which doesn’t usually perform well in passing competitions (the Huskies like to let their running game set up the pass), started the morning 4-0 and didn’t lose until its final game. Making the final means the Huskies could be very good this fall. The only other times they reached the Edison final was in 2015 when they won the Division 1 title and 2008 when they were undefeated state champs.

New quarterback Jaden Jefferson has lots of weapons at the receiver position, including his former Cathedral teammate Quentin Hale. Sophomore defensive back Koti Fultz had a big day on defense.

Hayden Koo of Tustin makes catch between two St. John Bosco defenders.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Palos Verdes has a four-year starter at quarterback, Ryan Rakowski, and he’s going to cause many problems for defenses this fall with his knowledge and accuracy.

Long Beach Poly, making its debut under first-year coach Travon Patterson, will have lots of options on defense because of its standout cornerbacks in Donte Wright and JuJu Johnson.

Tustin is loaded with skill-position players.

San Clemente won the Ocean View tournament. Culver City took its own tournament championship.

Cheryl Reeve is relieved.

The longtime Minnesota Lynx coach tied WNBA legend Mike Thibault for most career wins on June 28. The two remained deadlocked, with the league-leading Lynx losing two straight games for the first time all season.

But the losing streak is over — and the WNBA has a new all-time winningest coach. Minnesota defeated the Connecticut Sun 86-80 on Wednesday night for Reeve’s historic 380th career victory.

“I am so glad this is over,” Reeve, 59, said during a postgame interview on USA Network.

Reeve was a four-year starter at La Salle from 1984-1988 and ranks fifth in career assists (420) for the Explorers. After serving as an assistant coach at her alma mater and George Washington, Reeve became head coach at Indiana State, going 63-72 over five seasons with winning records in each of the last two.

Jumping to the WNBA in 2001, Reeve was an assistant coach for the Charlotte Sting (two stints), Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock before becoming head coach of the Lynx in 2010. Since then, she has compiled a record of 380-196, won four WNBA titles (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017) and been named the league’s coach of the year four times (2011, 2015, 2020, 2024).

Reeve has missed the postseason only twice during her time with the Lynx, and her 49 playoff wins are the most in league history. She was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame last month.

“A milestone fit for the Hall of Famer,” the WNBA wrote in an X post congratulating Reeve.

While Reeve has compiled her total over 16-plus seasons, Thibault reached 379 victories over the course of 20 WNBA seasons, 10 with the Connecticut Sun (2003-2012) and 10 with the Washington Mystics (2013-2022). Currently the head coach of Belgium’s national women’s basketball team, Thibault was a three-time WNBA coach of the year and led Washington to the league title in 2019.

Reeve was head coach of the U.S. national team, with Thibault as her assistant coach, when it won gold at the 2022 World Cup in Australia and the 2024 Paris Olympics. Thibault’s son, former Mystics coach Eric Thibault, has been on Reeve’s staff in Minnesota as associatehead coach the past two seasons.

“Learned a lot from Mike through the years,” Reeve said after Wednesday’s game. “Tremendous coach and just so much respect that we’ve had for each other through the years. I know he’s happy for me. And somebody’s going to pass me and I’ll be happy for them too.”

Reeve was correct about Thibault’s feelings.

“Congrats, Cheryl, so much from all the Thibault family,” Thibault said in a video posted on X by the Lynx. “If anyone was going to break my record, I most wanted it to be you. Our friendship means a lot, but the job you’ve done as a coach and mentor in this league is appreciated by so many people. And I couldn’t be more proud to have you as a friend.”

Toronto’s Sandy Brondello is the closest active coach to Reeve’s mark. She ranks sixth all-time with 280 wins.

It has taken two years, but the parents of the late Calvin “CJ” Dickey Jr. have finally been able to express appreciation for the efforts of authorities in the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office. Still, they are a long way from what they might consider a satisfactory resolution.

Dickey died after collapsing during the first day of Bucknell University football training camp in July 2024. The freshman lineman was put through rigorous drills by strength and conditioning coach Mark Kulbis, according to the attorney general’s office, even though Kulbis knew Dickey had sickle cell trait. The medical condition can increase the risk of serious injury or death following extreme exertion.

Dickey, 18, was taken to the hospital and died two days later.

Kulbis, who left Bucknell in January 2025, has been charged with felony aggravated hazing and misdemeanor counts of involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment and hazing, according to the attorney general’s office. Bail was set at $10,000.

“The facts show this was an intentional, deliberate hazing perpetrated by a coach who knew CJ’s health condition made him vulnerable to extreme workouts,” Atty. Gen. Dave Sunday said in a statement. “The facts show this defendant received information about CJ’s health condition, along with training about NCAA anti-hazing standards, and disregarded that information. This is an extraordinary tragedy, worsened by the fact that CJ’s death was preventable.”

Reached by the Associated Press on Tuesday, Dickey’s father, Calvin Sr., said that he and his wife, Nicole, are “at the point where we’re just glad that someone is being held responsible for our son’s death. We just want to see the process through, and we’re going to leave it to the attorney general to continue following the evidence.”

Dickey’s parents filed a lawsuit in April 2025 against Bucknell and its athletic staff, alleging that CJ’s death was the result of a hazing ritual for freshmen players.

“While the University will not comment on pending litigation, we again extend heartfelt sympathies to CJ’s family, and we will continue to focus on our most important priority — the health and safety of all Bucknell students,” Bucknell told ESPN in a statement.

According to an autopsy report issued by Montour County, Dickey was diagnosed with “exercise collapse associated with sickle cell trait,” rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure.

With rhabdomyolysis, kidneys become strained when proteins and electrolytes from damaged muscle tissue are released into the bloodstream. Studies have shown that sickle cell trait can be fatal when coupled with rhabdomyolysis.

In the lawsuit, Dickey’s parents alleged that Bucknell athletic trainers and coaches knew their son had sickle cell trait and failed to take steps to ensure precautions were in place.

“We have asked repeatedly for not just a high-level overview of what happened that day, but for the details, the specific fully transparent details,” Nicole Dickey told NPR shortly after the lawsuit was filed. “We’ve reached the point with Bucknell where we do not feel that we’re going to get that. The only path for us to get that truth is to file the civil lawsuit.”

More than a year later, the charges brought against Kulbis created another path that Dickey’s parents hope lead to a resolution.

“We do this for CJ, for every young man on that team, and anyone who comes after him, and anyone at any university,” Nicole Dickey told ESPN. “This is a longer, harder path, and I am ready for it. My boy is worth it.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.