sport world

(Games at 7 p.m. Friday unless noted.) Poly (2-0) vs. Mission Viejo (3-0) at Veterans Memorial Stadium Two undefeated, nationally ranked teams will take the field in Long Beach tonight as the No. 10 Jackrabbits host the No. 25 Diablos (per MaxPreps’ rankings). Mission Viejo beat Poly 42-14 last year and is ranked ahead of the Jackrabbits in the CIF Southe Section’s Division 1 poll this week. “It...

Long Beach native and longtime sports executive Jack Teele passed away Wednesday night at the age of 87. Teele was a sportswriter at the Independent Press-Telegram for 10 years and then spent 33 years in the front offices around the National Football League, including 21 years with the Los Angeles Rams, where he rose to the rank of vice president of administration. Teele was a long-familiar face i...

THOUSAND OAKS >> No dramatic moment, no speech, no loud applause. The Rams simply conducted their defensive meetings Monday with Aaron Donald in attendance, and that normalcy had to feel superb. Donald, the Rams’ star lineman who ended his six-week contract holdout Saturday, got back to work at team headquarters. The plan, according to Coach Sean McVay, is for Donald to be on the field when ...

LOS ANGELES >> His play-calling was measured, effective and, at times, even inspired. At the end, it was something else completely, something shocking after witnessing the Rams mostly depress all of last season. Sean McVay’s play-calling, to cap his head-coaching debut Sunday, was celebratory. He ordered his team to assemble in victory formation and his backup quarterback to take a clock-emp...

LOS ANGELES >> Just before Rams quarterback Jared Goff disappeared into the Coliseum tunnel late Sunday afteoon to celebrate his first win as an NFL quarterback, he paused, peeked over to a hundred or so fans shouting his name from the stands and raised his right arm to the sky. The roar that immediately erupted was unlike anything we’ve heard from the Coliseum for an NFL team in what seem...

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles’ celebration of landing the 2028 Olympic Games next week will include Inteational Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. Bach will light the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum’s Olympic cauldron during the Rams-Washington game Sept. 17, the Southe Califoia News Group has leaed. Bach’s two-day visit to Southe Califoia will come four days after the IOC in Lima, Per...

LOS ANGELES >> For months they lived together, trained together and prayed together. So it only made sense that when the Dodgers’ two teams in the Dominican Summer League played each other for the championship Sunday, they celebrated the win together. When “DSL Dodgers 2” beat “DSL Dodgers 1” in the title game, 6-4, it marked the second time in the history of the 33-year-old league that two ...

By Ryan Kartje [email protected] @Ryan_Kartje on Twitter THOUSAND OAKS >> Wade Phillips has been in this position before. Four of the past six times he has switched teams, to be exact. And so, when you ask about his conce transitioning from last year’s 4-3 defense to his vaunted 3-4, a topic that seems to whip fans of his new defenses into a state of nervous hysteria, Phillips calmly brushe...

GREEN BAY, Wisc. >> Sean McVay’s focus on Sept. 10 almost has been almost obsessive. The Rams’ coach has seemed like an eager child counting down to the days to his birthday. It’s almost here. Much to McVay’s excitement, the preseason ended Thursday night with a 24-10 loss to Green Bay at Lambeau Field, a game filled with backup players, many of whom were fighting for roster spots. McVay’s w...

THOUSAND OAKS >> Last November, as the Rams season descended into a downward spiral, Hall of Fame running back Eric Dickerson found himself locked in a feud with the Rams head coach and its front office. How quickly things change. On Tuesday – the same day he was signed to a symbolic one-day contract, allowing him to officially retire as a Los Angeles Ram – Dickerson was given an official ti...

The heat wave this week in Southe Califoia has forced area high schools to adjust practice and game times for their sports team, and to adhere to guidelines that are in place to protect the safety of the athletes. The San Feando Valley and Inland regions have felt the most disruption, as temperatures in those areas have soared well above 100 degrees since Monday. In the L.A. City Section, so...

LONG BEACH >> The Long Beach State women’s soccer team started life without senior captain Ashley Gonzales with an inspired performance and 2-0 win over No. 16 Northweste on Thursday at George Allen Field. “We owed ourselves that performance,” LBSU coach Mauricio Ingrassia said. “We only had two days of training but the players did a good job leaing and evolving.” Gonzales, who was the B...

Here are the Week Zero games for local high school football on Friday. Games at 7 p.m. unless noted. St. John Bosco at St. Thomas Aquinas, 4 p.m. Reigning CIF-Southe Section and CIF State champion Bosco opens the season in Florida against the defending state champion Raiders, and that’s nothing new. Coach Jason Negro has scheduled eight out-of-state opponents in the last six years. The Braves ar...

For the first time since 1984, the Long Beach State women’s volleyball team opens its season with a new head coach. Recently retired head coach Brian Gimmillaro didn’t miss a match in the last 32 years, and only missed one practice in that time (not due to illness but to recruit a high school player). Gimmillaro didn’t even miss practice after he had knee surgery, hobbling into the gym that afte...

LONG BEACH >> The future is now for Long Beach Poly. With numbers dwindling, increased competition for talent from St. John Bosco and other private schools, there’s no telling what will happen next year or after that. Head coach Antonio Pierce’s recent announcement that the school will drop its junior varsity team was a reminder that there will be consequences for having the two smallest fre...

Long Beach State Athletics Director Andy Fee announced Monday that Dirtbags head coach Troy Buckley signed a contract extension through the 2022 season. The extension includes four additional years, increased base salary and supplemental compensation based on success on and off the field. “I am very grateful and appreciative of this opportunity to continue to lead this historic program going forwa...

BELLFLOWER >> “Our expectations are to win a national championship,” St. John Bosco senior Jaiden Woodbey said after a recent practice. “We have the mentality and leaders to do it.” St. John Bosco is one of few high school football programs in the country where a player can say something like that with conviction. Coming off of its second CIF State title in four years, Bosco is a legitimate ...

The hype and trash talk between boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. and mixed martial arts champ Conor McGregor is about to come to and end and now it’s time to put up or...well it’s time to rumble. And it’s also time to start making plans for where to see the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight in Long Beach, the South Bay and nearby areas for those who want to see it with other fight fans. Here’s a verified li...

THOUSAND OAKS >> Yes, it’s just preseason. Before that, it was just OTAs. Before that, it was just the Big Sky Conference. At every tu, Cooper Kupp has faced doubters, and tued them around. The stakes have reached their apex. Kupp, a former small-school standout at Easte Washington, now is preparing for his NFL regular-season debut, and the Rams’ third-round draft pick seems ready, as always. In two preseason games, Kupp has eight catches for 105 yards and one touchdown. Also, seven of Kup...

Even before his first regular-season game, Rams Coach Sean McVay showed he won’t be afraid to delegate responsibilities. McVay, formerly the offensive coordinator in Washington, announced shortly after his hire in January that he would call plays for the Rams, but McVay said Sunday that his offensive coordinator, Matt LaFleur, called plays during the second half of Saturday’s preseason victory over Oakland. Most notably, LaFleur, formerly the quarterbacks coach in Atlanta, called plays when the ...