The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009 Wilson junior Sammie Hamilton is in Israel competing in the Maccabiah Games for Team USA. Competing among 38 countries and thousands of other Jewish athletes, Hamilton has proven herself one of the best young swimmers in the world with an outstanding […]
Author: Mike Guardabascio
COLUMN: Build the Ramona Park Pool
Our city has a chance to do something that would improve lives and make things better for people in North Long Beach. A year ago, councilman Rex Richardson pointed out (correctly) that his Northside constituents had less access to public pools than people in other parts of the city. The Westside has a public pool […]
COLUMN: Long Beach Rolled Deep in NBA’s Summer League
Mike Guardabascio “You can take the Summer League out of Long Beach, but you can’t take Long Beach out of the Summer League.” That was the thought I had as I was driving my family home from Las Vegas last weekend, after 72 hours of nonstop basketball action at the NBA’s Summer League, hosted at […]
Feature: Wilson’s Sammie Hamilton, Team USA Begin Maccabiah Games
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009 It’s been Sammie Hamilton’s dream for as long as she can remember, and next week for the first time she’ll compete with a Team USA swim cap on. Hamilton is part of the strong USA contingent competing among more than 10,000 […]
All-City Tribute of the Year: Long Beach Poly Football and Keith “Slice” Thompson
One of the special aspects of the Long Beach sports world is how community-based it is, and how many programs feel like a family. The Long Beach Poly football team has always been one of those teams, and that’s been evident in how the program has grieved and remembered Keith “Slice” Thompson, the beloved longtime […]
All-City Freshmen of the Year: Jovani Ruff, Jillene Wetteland
The All-City Freshmen of the Year award has been a great predictor of success the last two years, with previous winners Camille Lindsay, Maya O’Dea, Jason Parra, and Sammie Hamilton all continuing to dominate the Moore League this year (all four won Moore League Player of the Year or individual championship honors in 2021-22). We […]
All-City Spirit of Long Beach Award: Gabriel Tyler
Each year we present the Spirit of Long Beach award to a person or group of people that’s inspired us over the course of the school year. We’ve never spent less time deliberating the award than we did this year, in deciding to present it to Long Beach Poly junior Gabriel Tyler. We’ve known Gabe […]
All-City Multi-Sport Athletes of the Year: Nico Colchico, Jackson Cryst
As athletes begin to specialize in a sport or even a position within a sport at earlier and earlier ages, the era of the multisport star has largely come to a close. It’s no longer the norm for the city dominant high school athletes to earn Player of the Year consideration in multiple sports the […]
COLUMN: Title IX’s Legacy Felt in Long Beach
Mike Guardabascio A few weeks ago we celebrated a milestone moment in American sports history, the 50-year anniversary of the passage of Title IX. A federal civil rights law that has influenced so much around gender equality in education, arguably Title IX’s biggest impact was leveling the playing field for girls and women in sports. […]