Harvard

Noah Darnell, a senior pitcher at Santa Margarita High, got to experience something that is becoming too common in the world of the college transfer portal and changing NIL rules.

He was committed to Tulane for about five months. Then a week before his senior year was to begin, he received a phone call.

“They didn’t have a spot for me,” he said of Tulane. “We’re going in another direction.”

A week later, Darnell went to an Ivy League showcase and informed coaches he was back on the market. Harvard coaches saw him, knew he had a 4.4 grade-point average and told him they wanted him.

“Harvard was No. 1 from the get-go,” Darnell said. “I’m so happy.”

These last-minute phone calls by schools telling commits there’s no longer a spot have become more frequent, especially because college baseball has changing roster rules. Luckily for Darnell, everything worked out.

“I felt a little bit angry,” he said of his initial reaction. “I was frustrated. I wanted to work twice as hard to get another offer.”

As for lessons learned in this sometimes uncertain environment, Darnell said, “The main lesson I learned was God has a plan and you have to trust it.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Jazz Jennings has turned heads for a number of recent accomplishments.

After her last semester at Harvard, where she not only aced her classes but also tossed her graduation cap into the air, the star is now flaunting the results of her hard-earned 100-pound weight loss.

And, boy, does she look fabulous.

Jazz shared a jaw-dropping photo of herself in a plunging orange striped halter swimsuit, on which fans flocked to comment.

The reality TV star has lost over 100 pounds, and the snap serves as a reminder that hard work and dedication can truly pay off.

Rising to fame as one of the stars of the groundbreaking reality show I Am Jazz, she introduced viewers to her life as a transgender girl navigating adolescence.

The show not only chronicled her personal experiences but also brought awareness to the issues faced by the LGBTQ+ community.

Now, with a degree from Harvard under her belt, Jazz is proving that she is more than just a reality star.

Her recent photos — like the stunning one where she’s rocking that sizzling orange swimsuit — showcase her journey to confidence.

She also posted a family video showing the changes they all made between 2020 and 2025.

Jazz has always been unapologetically herself.

At just six years old, Jennings and her family began sharing their experiences on television, shedding light on the unique challenges of growing up transgender.

Her inspiring journey was highlighted on national programs like 20/20 and The Rosie Show, where she made a memorable appearance alongside Chaz Bono.

In 2011, the Oprah Winfrey Network debuted a documentary titled “I Am Jazz: A Family in Transition,” which focuses on her life and family.

Jazz was assigned male at birth in West Palm Beach, Florida, but at the age of four, she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

She publicly identified as transgender in a 2007 interview with Barbara Walters, which contributed to discussions about authenticity and gender identity.

Former Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a conservative who rebuked political tribalism and stood out as a longtime critic of President Trump, announced Tuesday he was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer.

Sasse, 53, made the announcement on social media, saying he learned of the disease last week and is “now marching to the beat of a faster drummer.”

“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase,” Sasse wrote. “Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”

Sasse was first elected to the Senate in 2014. He comfortably won reelection in 2020 after fending off a pro-Trump primary challenger. Sasse drew the ire of GOP activists for his vocal criticism of Trump’s character and policies, including questioning his moral values and saying he cozied up to adversarial foreign leaders.

Sasse was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict the former president of “ incitement of insurrection ” after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. After threats of a public censure back home, he extended his critique to party loyalists who blindly worship one man and rejected him for his refusal to bend the knee.

He resigned from the Senate in 2023 to serve as the 13th president of the University of Florida after a contentious approval process. He left that post the following year after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.

Sasse, who has degrees from Harvard, St. John’s College and Yale, worked as an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush. He served as president of Midland University, a small Christian university in eastern Nebraska, before he ran for the Senate.

Sasse and his wife have three children.

“I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more,” Sasse wrote. “Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived.”