Moran

On the first official day for high school football practice in Southern California, few can say they were more excited than University High quarterback Jeremy Pacheco.

In the second quarter of the first game last season, he sustained a season-ending knee injury. After surgery in October, he went six weeks without walking and had to study from home taking online courses.

After months of rehabbing, he’s been cleared to play in his senior season.

“The energy getting back to play football is next-level,” he said Monday afternoon.

No one really knows how good he is, except for University coach Bryan Robinson, who believes he’s ready to show off a strong arm and strong leadership qualities.

At Eagle Rock, where coach Andy Moran began his 29th season of coaching, the optimism is valid, because Moran has a quarterback in Liam Pasten coming off a season in which he passed for 3,602 yards.

“It’s like Christmas,” Moran said before sending his players to the weight room. “Everyone is excited for that first day.”

Pasten has grown to 6 foot 1 but weighs a slim 145 pounds. Don’t worry about hits.

“I have a good understanding of having to take hits or avoid hits to protect myself,” Pasten said.

Eagle Rock All-City quarterback Liam Pasten is 6 foot 1 and 145 pounds.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Pasten is also known for being one of the best high school barbers. He’s up to giving 40 to 50 haircuts a month.

As for what’s the most popular cuts, Pasten said, “Lower and mid tapers.”

He might have to offer his linemen free haircuts for no sacks as an incentive to protect him at all costs.

The first three days of practices for City Section teams are conditioning days. Then helmets and shoulder pads go on.

Southern Section teams with Week 0 games also began practices on Monday.

July 9 (UPI) — Jason Moran, an acclaimed pianist, composer, educator, bandleader and recording artist, said he has left his position as jazz artistic director at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

The center, which receives federal funds, has undergone dramatic changes since Donald Trump became president again and he installed himself as chairman. He ousted arts center President Deborah Rutter and Board Chairman David Rubenstein, and replaced board members appointed by former President Biden.

A number of artists have been replaced or have voluntarily quit, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, who canceled a run of his Broadway hit, Hamilton, next year.

The Kennedy Center declined to comment to NPR.

Moran, who accepted the position in 2011, one year after his predecessor, Billy Taylor, died, didn’t mention any disagreements with Trump or others in a post on Tuesday on Instagram.

Moran, 50, described “14 years of inviting thousands of artists to share their work with audiences.” And he was grateful “to an incredible staff that ushered artists from the negotiation to the after party.”

In his role, he developed programming and curated artists for one of the largest jazz programs in the United States.

He hosted performances and education programs that included the National Endowment for the Arts’ “NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert” and Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead, a residency for emerging artists of which Moran is an alum.

Moran, who scored the films Selma and 13th, tours the world as a performer. In 2010, he was awarded the MacArthur Fellowship.

“Thank you to the composers, comedians, choreographers, performance artists, skateboarders, filmmakers, authors, illustrators, dancers, photographers, sculptors, scientists, crews and on and on,” he wrote. “These young ones are beautifying the stage. And with that, I bowed on Juneteenth.”

Moran, who was born in Houston, began studying the piano at age 6, according to information posted on the Kennedy Center website. He attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts and then Manhattan School of Music in New York City.

At the college, he attended a class by saxophonist Sonny Rollins.

“My first day on the job at The Kennedy Center was when Sonny Rollins was receiving his Kennedy Center Honor,” Moran wrote,

The center, which includes a 2,465-seat Concert Hall, the 2,347-seat Opera House, the 1,161-seat Eisenhower Theater and the 320-seat Family Theater, made its public debut on Sept. 8, 1971.

Trump attended the opening night of Les Miserables on June 11.

During his first term, Trump didn’t attend a performance there, including the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony after several performers honored at the annual gala spoke out against him.