UCLA adds former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo to staff

• March 31, 2023

UCLA has hired former Navy football coach Ken Niumatalolo as the program’s director of leadership, the school announced Friday.

Niumatalolo, Navy’s winningest head coach, was fired at his locker after the Midshipmen’s 20-17 double-overtime loss to rival Army in Philadelphia in December.

Niumatalolo – who had a reputation for graduating his players, his honest approach and avoiding NCAA infractions – will serve as an adviser to the program’s staff and players, according to a UCLA press release.

UCLA recently hired Niumatalolo’s son, former Utah tight end Ali’i Niumatalolo, as an offensive line graduate assistant. Former Navy assistant coach Bryce McDonald is UCLA’s chief of staff, and assistant coach Brian Norwood is one of Niumatalolo’s best friends.

Niumatalolo had a 109-83 record in his 15 seasons leading Navy, where he won six of 10 bowl games, both school records. No head coach had won eight consecutive games in the Army-Navy series until Niumatalolo began his career by doing so (2008-15), and his 10 wins overall is also the most in the history of the rivalry. Niumatalolo’s teams earned the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, awarded annually to the military service academy team with the best regular-season record against the other two teams, a program-record six times. Niumatalolo also joined Wayne Hardin as the only Navy coaches to beat Notre Dame three times.

The Midshipmen had struggled recently, though. They finished with four wins or less three seasons in a row and have gone 2-5 against both Army and Air Force since 2016.

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Niumatalolo’s 2015 team won a program-record 11 games, something they did again in 2019, with both teams finishing in the top 20 of the final Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Just the second Polynesian head coach in FBS history and the first Samoan head coach at any level, Niumatalolo was selected to the inaugural class of the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

​ Orange County Register 

How OC’s public health system changed during the pandemic

• March 31, 2023

The coronavirus pandemic has changed communities in many ways, and for the doctor who helped lead Orange County through its darkest periods of illness, among the most important has been the lasting changes seen in the public health system.

Dr. Clayton Chau, who was the county’s public health officer through much of the pandemic and remains today the director of its OC Health Care Agency, announced this week he will be leaving as of June 1, timing his decision to take some time to address his own mental health to the upcoming end to the federal public health emergency declared when COVID-19 began its destructive spread across communities.

Looking back at the last three years, Chau said the “frail infrastructure” of the public health system was flipped on its head by the global health emergency. And though the official declaration of a pandemic emergency is sent to end here in the U.S., COVID-19 will continue to be around for a few years and people need to continue to protect themselves.

Just two weeks ago, Orange County surpassed 8,000 COVID-19-related deaths reported; on Thursday 16 people were in Orange County intensive care units because of the virus.

“We’re doing great, (COVID-19) is definitely on the wane,” said Andrew Noymer, a UC Irvine professor of population health and disease prevention, but added that the virus “at some low level …is going to be the new normal.”

In preparing for this “new normal,” Chau said he is pushing his team at the OC Health Care Agency to continue to raise awareness and educate the community on how to protect one’s self and the county’s most vulnerable populations from the virus, as well as emphasize the effects of “Long COVID.”

Post-COVID-19 symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and headaches can persist for weeks, months or even years after infection. Health professionals are learning how to treat these Long COVID conditions, which Chau said is affecting about 25% to 30% of people who have tested positive.

Chau said the biggest change he’s seen within the public health sector in the last few years is the county’s greater collaboration with local community organizations, which helped address inequalities in the health system and to reach communities that were most impacted by the pandemic.

“The public health system in our country had been pretty much desecrated, and so I don’t think anybody was ready to respond to such a large-scale pandemic,” Chau said. “When that time (came), when we needed other people to work with us, whether it be community-wide testing or vaccination, everyone from all the corners of Orange County stepped up and participated.”

The Westminster-based nonprofit Abrazar provides various services in Orange County’s lower-income communities such as after-school programs, transportation for seniors to medical appointments and distributing food. CEO Mario Ortega said the pandemic hit hard in the high-poverty and monolingual communities her organization serves, the same residents who were also less able to access county resources because of technological barriers.

“They didn’t have access to a lot of the programs that were rolling out because a lot of them require technology or use of the internet,” Ortega said. “Because we’ve been doing this for so long, we know how to connect with the community. Our team is part of the community.

“We said, ‘We need to be able to provide them access to information.’ The traditional means to get the information out to the community, you can’t use that, it’s not working. So we said, ‘Let us be a part of the solution. You have an issue, that’s what we’re here for.’”

Before the pandemic, there was more of an “arm’s length distance” kept between the health care agency and nonprofits, Ortega said, crediting Chau’s leadership with bridging that gap.

“This was one of the first times where they said, ‘We hear what you’re saying and we agree,’” she said. “I think it really is because of Dr. Chau, as he elevated the respect of the work that (we do), and realizing that we could reach the community much more effectively than any of the means that the county would try to do.”

Chau said thanks to federal and state funding and support from the OC Board of Supervisors, the public health department was able to provide funding to community-based organizations that typically would not get a lot from the government to help reach OC’s vulnerable communities.

Third District Supervisor Don Wagner said he hopes to see the collaboration between the county and local organizations continue in the future.

“I think Dr. Chau and the men and women of the health care agency really did work overtime to do the very best that they could, in their judgment, for the people of Orange County, and I thank them for it,” Wagner added.

The public health sector, even outside of Orange County, continues to face the challenge of finding and keeping workers. Chau said it’s a key focus for the OC Health Care Agency and will continue to be after he leaves in June.

“The burnout issue is very real, not only for the public, but also for the private side. Hospitals struggle with keeping and retaining the workforce,” Chau said, and added that OC will receive $25 million from the federal government over the next five years to help with building out the public health workforce. “We are working with our community partners, academic institutions, our community clinic and hospital, as well as our board, to come up with a concrete plan on how we’re going to utilize $25 million to build up our workforce.”

While Chau takes time off to take care of his health and spend time with family, he said he is confident the team he has built over the last three years will take good care of the community and will collaborate with local organizations to continue addressing inequalities throughout Orange County that the pandemic helped put a spotlight on.

His advice to current and future public health workers? “Work closely with the community. Understand what is relevant to the community’s needs,” he said.

“Collaborate with partners out there. We cannot do it alone, the pandemic has shown us that,” he said. “Keep your finger on the pulse of the community and then be open to continuing the partnership outside of the county to ensure that we have a system that is whole.”

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​ Orange County Register 

Cody Rhodes views WrestleMania 39 as ‘biggest chapter’ of his career

• March 31, 2023

Cody Rhodes will compete against Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship match at WrestleMania 39 this weekend.

Rhodes spoke with the Southern California News Group in the days leading up to the main event to share his thoughts on his return to WWE, his mindset ahead of the biggest match in his career and what tradition he would like to see restored.

Q: You made your intentions clear you wanted to compete for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship upon your return to the company. What are your thoughts now that you will have that opportunity in the main event at WrestleMania 39?

A: I’ve kind of entered a weird state of cruise control, where it may be good or it may be bad and maybe its a bit of both but what I mean is I’m very at harmony and peace with all that I’ve done and all that I know how to do heading into this and I’m trying to keep that balance and that peace but in all the same I don’t want to miss out on any of these moments like driving through West Hollywood and seeing Roman (Reigns) and I towering over Sunset Blvd or just the fans you encounter everywhere and all my peers and friends that have reached out and the very small amount of time to be around my family before I do all this. I’m trying to stay in the cruise control so I don’t get stressed but also trying to pop out here and there to have these revelatory moments of ‘this is big and special’ and ‘you may not be here again or you may be here again. Who knows but enjoy it.”

Q: Who has been someone that’s reached out to you with extra encouragement or support that’s really stuck out to you during this process?

A: I’ll share one and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing … but I got a really nice message from (CEO of WWE) Nick Khan that I thought would just be a really nice message and then I listened to it further and it was a full-blown fiery almost college football coach level pep talk. It went from some standard pleasantries to a legit pep talk and I thought it was one of the coolest things to receive. I had to learn how to figure out how to save an audio note on my phone because I didn’t know how to do it. That was something that really made me feel good, I don’t want to feel alone because I’m still a little bit of an outsider here but they certainly don’t treat me like one and that was a nice moment.

Q: Why do you still have that feeling of being an outsider?

A: Well I think it’s one thing if you’re gone for a few months or a year and you come back and then you kind of yo-yo around and do it again, I’m not knocking that trajectory, but mine was different in the sense because it had been seven years (between stints with WWE) and we were pass the point of no return or at least I thought. We were passed the thought of ‘oh, I’m going back.’ Even the first meeting that I went to have (with WWE), it wasn’t about getting a job or contract. That first meeting was about having some closure and see some faces I haven’t seen in a while and I left that meeting strongly considering WrestleMania and then of course when I come back at WrestleMania (in 2022) it was like obvious to me and I even said it on RAW, ‘that you find your destiny on the path you take to avoid it.’ When I say “outsider,” I just don’t know everybody in the locker room. I’ve been doing a media tour with people I just haven’t done a media tour with before and I felt like I knew everybody here. So I just try to learn the team and there are a lot of unsung heroes that help make WrestleMania weekend happen. … I’m just trying to reconnect with them or connect with them for the first time because I say I’m an outsider but you also want to be the quarterback and lead the team so you have to know everybody and what they do.

Q: You have an image of your weight belt on Twitter with a lot of different wrestling companies/promotions written on there, what is the story behind it?

A: Those are all the places I went to and all the places you will go (when not working for WWE). They were all massively important to the brand that WWE has invested in on the “American Nightmare” side of things, which is something that was built outside of (WWE). They’re amplifying it and absolutely giving it a platform that is bigger than any platform I’ve had before but it was developed out there on those shows and those are the promotions that are on the belt. That’s just an idea I had and I didn’t want to make it some big legal problem so I just put them on the inside of the belt. There’s a story for the outside of the belt as well. So much of my story has been about my family but the person that’s inside the ring for the main event and standing across from Roman Reigns is just me. I’m not bringing anybody else with me. (Reigns) can bring ‘The Bloodline’ and I’ll bring just me. That’s why the outside of the belt just says my name. I don’t think that’s ever been the case before. I was able to carry everyone else with me and remember who was getting in there and climbing those steps as well.

Q: Do you know how many are written on the belt?

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A: There’s a lot on there that the one photo didn’t show and I don’t know if I’ll show the full photo but it’s an extensive list. … We used a spreadsheet that had all of my bookings from my manager. We’ll have to get a count for you.

Q: What inspired the concept of wearing the weight belt and what does it mean?

A: (Hulk) Hogan was front and center with the long tights and the weight belt and he had a certain look to him, especially when he was doing ‘Hollywood’ Hogan, but him and Macho Man (Randy Savage) had a really great esthetic that I loved and I was discovering this at Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. They had the cut off merch shirt, the tights and the boots and they had that belt there as well but it even goes further back as well to street fight clothing and bunkhouse gear with the bandana over your jeans and the weight belt. It was just like a ‘what’s old is new’ again. … I learned when I returned to WWE that the belt is part of the gear and the value of letting that be something to connect with the fans and give them. That’s been something we’re really expanded upon and not I can’t see myself having a match where I’m not giving one of my belts to a kid in the crowd. … There’s a fun rumor and a bit of a self high-five but there’s been this merchandising firestorm (with the weight belt) exceeding the “John Cena-level” and I’m blessed that something like that is happening.

Q: You also have a new shirt available that says “finish the story” and you’ve said that before on television, what does that phrase mean to you?

A: I might have tweeted it out, a lot of magic can come from Twitter occasionally but it was actually Michael Cole saying “finish the story” at the Royal Rumble and the way he said it and the exclamation point he put on it is where it became a thing and now it’s on the shirt and on everything and obviously it’s indicative to this journey with ‘how big is the story?’ and ‘is winning the title the story? Or ‘is being the champion the story?’

Q: WrestleMania is just a chapter in the story, right?

A: I would say yeah but it’s the largest chapter because we are talking about going back in 1977 with Dusty (Rhodes) in Madison Square Garden getting his hands on the WWWF championship at the time, which will become the title that (Reigns) has now, and not being able to take it home and be the champion. It’s the largest chapter perhaps in my story.

Q: Since your return, you’ve been able to share personal stories on television while working with guys like Paul Heyman and Kevin Owens and how they’ve been able to help you, what is it like to work with those guys?

A: Kevin is a big part of my career because in a sense, now that the world is a bit more privy to it, but when I decided to leave and was planning the exit (from WWE), Kevin was very helpful in helping me coordinate a road map (to sustain a career outside of WWE) and that’s something that isn’t lost on me … and without their being that prior knowledge from Kevin I wouldn’t have been able to do it. As far as Mr. Heyman goes, I think it’s always special to be in there when you have a legendary figure and there’s a little thing I don’t normally share with anybody but some fans have noticed that when I’m in there with a future hall of famer or a legendary guy, I wear a peacoat or a longer coat. As much as I like the history that Mr. Heyman has with my family and all that, that’s about the most amicable thing that’s happened with him and I is me being able to tell him that story about what he did. I don’t think he’s ever heard it from me or my perspective as the son of someone he helped with their livelihood and I think that’s all that needed to be done. It’s just one of those situations with him and I where I know we are going to Mania and it’s far more real than anyone can even think.

Q: As the Intercontinental Championship we saw you bring back that old-school design, is there any chance of the “Winged Eagle” design back if you win the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship this weekend?

A: I know that I’m looking to leave WrestleMania as the champion for the first time and I know that I would do everything in my power to bring the Winged Eagle title back but I also know that with the Intercontinental Title, the original design took a lot of conversations and right now I definitely don’t want to jinx myself or put the cart before the horse by having conversations when I’m not champion and the current champion has held the belt for almost 1,000 days but I can say WWE has let me do whatever I want. That’s been amazing and I’m blessed for that. So when we get to this match and depending on how I leave it, hopefully, that tradition will continue when I ask to bring back what to me is the greatest-looking championship there ever was.

Q: How excited are you to participate in the Make-A-Wish event at Universal Studios this week and interact?

A: That’s the best part of the job. Any time you can take this modicum of fame that you get from sports entertainment and pro wrestling and you can help someone with it, that’s an absolutely beautiful thing and for me, I believe exactly what I’ll be doing is speaking with families and inviting them to WrestleMania. I can look at other things and say its really special but I bet you I leave this week thinking “that’s the most important thing I did” when you really put it all in perspective.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Friday, March 31

• March 31, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Friday, March 31

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

FRIDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL (Cary, NC)

Semifinals

Huntington Beach 3, Bishop Gorman (NV) 2

JSerra 4, Santa Margarita 1

NONLEAGUE

Cypress 10, Ayala 1

SOFTBALL

CAREW CLASSIC

Round 1

Pacifica 1, San Bernardino 0

Pac: Nally (W, CG 1H 0R 9K).

Note: Pacifica’s Bella Rippe scored freshman Abigail Amezquita on a squeeze bunt for the only run of the game.

​ Orange County Register 

The Book Pages: Who branded these library books?

• March 31, 2023

This week in books, let’s talk about branding.

I don’t mean the marketing buzzword, but a literal branding iron used on books, as if libraries were maintained like herds of cattle.

Let me explain: A few weeks ago, the @lapubliclibrary Instagram posted a fun, Wes Anderson-inspired reel by social media librarian Keith Kessler to promote “LAPL150: Our Story Is Yours,” a new exhibit celebrating the 150-year history of the L.A. institution through curated photographs, documents and artifacts.

And a branding iron.

Obviously needing to know more, I went downtown to check it out, meet the co-curators and talk to John F. Szabo, the city librarian of the Los Angeles Public Library, who gave me an overview of the exhibit.

“It tells a very remarkable story about an institution in L.A. for 150 years, and you know there aren’t many things in Los Angeles has been around for 150 years, so there’s a lot of pride in this exhibit,” says Szabo, who listed off the range of materials that have been stored and protected by the library staff, from notes from an 1872 library meeting to some fun, library-related T-shirts. (The unofficial “Shelvers From Hell” T-shirt was a personal favorite.)

“It also says really wonderful things, I think, about people who work in the libraries.”

I got a guided tour from the exhibit co-curators: Christina Rice, the senior librarian for the library’s photo collection, and James Sherman, adult librarian in literature and fiction (both of whom star in the Instagram reel).

“This exhibition tells the story of the Los Angeles Public Library, which is actually the story of Los Angeles,” says Rice, who also managed to include a sweet photo of her mother at a library event into the exhibit.

The co-curators are both engaging and excellent guides; Sherman took me through the documents and historical items lining one wall, and Rice showed me a range of images, artifacts and a video wall that shows the evolution of the system’s 72 branches. She also provided a closer look at the special wallpaper created for the exhibit, which is composed of largely unseen images from the 1986 library fire.

But the brand, let’s talk about the brand.

“This Dickens and Balzac would have been from that era,” said Sherman, pointing to editions in the exhibit bearing its mark. “And there’s the brand.”

Sherman explained that Charles Lummis, the larger-than-life former city librarian in the early 1900s, was the believed originator of the first brand, which has since disappeared. Sherman said librarians “would always talk about” it, which suggests the legend had been seared into the minds, as much the books, of those who heard about it. (OK, maybe I’m suggesting that.)

“[Lummis] came up with this idea of branding,” said Sherman, noting that there was precedent for protecting books from theft this way. “It wasn’t a totally original thing; it come out of nunneries, priories and monasteries.”

Since the original brand couldn’t be located – there are theories about where it might reside now – Sherman, with the financial support from library boosters Photo Friends, found a business in Canoga Park that made brands and was able to get a replica made for $400.

“It’s really just fun to connect a simulacra of this thing that people have talked about for years but no one’s seen,” he said.

And it is, it’s really fun – even if I didn’t get the chance to sear the library’s name into a few stray James Patterson novels. So if you’re in the area or exploring the beautiful library building, walk up to the second floor to check out the materials.

Szabo, while happy to talk about the institution’s history, also pointed to its ongoing attempts to respond to the needs of the community it serves.

“We’re able to do some really amazing forward-thinking things today that really help Los Angeles meet some of the biggest issues are facing,” said Szabo, who notes that the library’s first social worker started a few weeks ago.

“I hope visitors take away that, Wow, this is an institution that’s been incredibly nimble over 150 years,” he says. “Because we’ve been nimble, we’ve evolved with new technologies. We’ve been an institution that has said, ‘You’re welcome here; we’re here for everybody.’ I think there have been times we didn’t do that as well as we should have, but we’ve learned from it and we’ve gotten better. I think that’s why we’ve lasted.”

For more information, check out the LAPL website.

Thar be dragonriders (and killer angels) for Todd McCaffrey

Author Todd McCaffrey on the exhibition floor of WonderCon 2023 at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, March 26, 2023. (Photo credit: Diya Chacko / SCNG)

Todd McCaffrey is the son of the late science fiction author Anne McCaffrey, best remembered for her massively successful “Dragonriders of Pern” series. While he’s continued to co-author books in the “Pern” universe, he’s also created stand-alone fantasy and speculative fiction including “L.A. Witch” for middle-graders and the “Canaris Rift” series. Our friend and colleague Diya Chacko caught up with McCaffrey on the exhibition floor of WonderCon 2023 at the Anaheim Convention Center on Sunday, March 26.

Q. You’re here representing the work of you and your mother – do people come up to you and say, “Oh, I’m so excited to see this?” 

Yeah, people love her, and while there are other events more centered around books, it’s fun to meet them here at WonderCon. It’s really nice that we’re meeting in Southern California – I lived in LA for over 30 years.

There are a lot of people who don’t realize that there are more books (in the “Pern” universe). Mom and I collaborated on five of them, and I wrote three solos. I’m looking at writing even more.

Q. Is there a person – apart from the obvious – who made a big impact on your reading life?

Science fiction has been a very welcoming open community, and the same is true for fantasy. I was very lucky to know writers who made an impact on a lot of people: I knew Isaac Asimov. I knew Harlan Ellison. I know David Gerrold, who is also here at WonderCon; he wrote the famous Star Trek episode “The Trouble with Tribbles.”

Other people who’ve made an impact: Robert Heinlein, Roger Zelazny, obviously Frank Herbert and JRR Tolkien.

 Q. Is there a book that you would always recommend to other readers?

I have read a lot of books I’d recommend, but for middle grade, I would highly recommend Carlos Hernandez’s “Sal and Gabi Break the Universe.” It’s just so marvelous; it’s one of my new favorites.

Q. Do you remember the first book that made an impact on you? 

There are many, but one children’s book that’s had a lasting impact on me is “The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet,” by Eleanor Cameron. In fact, there are a lot of science fiction authors who say that’s the first book that really got to them.

Q. What is something that stayed with you from like a recent reading or an event or you know, something like this? 

We did a panel here at WonderCon called “How to create your own novel,” that goes into the different paths you can take to become a published author. What stays with me is how much it resonates with people, and they start realizing they can actually write a novel themselves. It’s so much fun to see.

Q. What book do you plan to read next?

I just read “The Killer Angels” – again. What am I reading now? There’s a book that I just picked up. I’m not sure if it’s going to be a fit for me, but it’s got a great title: “Oh, Great! I was Reincarnated as a Farmer.” It’s in the LitRPG genre; it’s literature based on role-playing games. There’s an element of game-playing as part of the story – leveling up and taking damage and all this other stuff. It’s becoming a huge subgenre.

Q. If you could ask your readers something, what would it be?

“Did you like the book?” No seriously though. I write in a lot of genres – space operas, middle-grade fantasy, alternate history, steampunk. I’m just kind of exploring the universe, and I hope my readers enjoy my work and like the characters that I’ve brought to their attention.

Please write me at epedersen@scng.com to share news, comments and what you books you’re enjoying, and your comments may appear in the newsletter.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

More about books

FILE – A pile of challenged books appear at the Utah Pride Center in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2021. Attempted book bannings and restrictions at school and public libraries continue to surge, according to a new report from the American Library Association. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Book bans

Book ban attempts hit a record high in 2022, a library organization says. READ MORE

• • •

Victor LaValle is the author of, most recently, “Lone Women.” (Photo by Teddy Wolff / Courtesy of One World/Penguin)

‘Lone’ ranges

In Victor LaValle’s new novel, a homesteader leaves San Bernardino with a secret. READ MORE

• • •

“Poverty, by America” by Matthew Desmond is among the top-selling nonfiction titles at Southern California’s independent bookstores. (Courtesy of Crown Publishing Group)

The week’s bestsellers

The top-selling books at your local independent bookstores. READ MORE

• • •

Bookish (SCNG)

What’s next on ‘Bookish’

The next free Bookish event is April 21 at 5 p.m. with guests including Sharon Gless, Ari Shapiro and more talking books with host Sandra Tsing Loh.

• • •

Sign up for The Book Pages
Miss last week’s newsletter? Find past editions here
Dive into all of our books coverage

​ Orange County Register 

Transgender Day of Visibility rallies held amid political backlash

• March 31, 2023

By Wilson Ring | Associated Press

MONTPELIER, Vt. — Hundreds of young people gathered on the lawn of the Vermont Statehouse on Friday as part of a nationwide series of events to help build support for transgender rights amid what they denounced as an increasingly hostile climate.

Chanting, “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” many draped themselves in pride flags or carried posters with messages like “yay gay” or “protect trans kids.”

Similar events were planned at capitols in states including South Carolina, Alabama, Minnesota, Nebraska and Montana, and at other venues Friday and this weekend.

Young people, some as young as middle-school, stood in front of the Vermont crowd and told of their struggles with their sexuality at a time when many people across the country refuse to acknowledge them.

Charlie Draugh, a 17-year-old high school senior from Chisago, Minnesota, who attends a boarding school in Vermont, said he was angry that groups are trying to control his life and turn him into a political pawn that he is not.

“My life is not your debate,” Draugh said. “It is not a political issue. I am not hurting anyone and I am certainly not hurting myself.”

The rallies — dubbed “Transgender Day of Visibility” — come as Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have pursued hundreds of proposals this year to push back on LGBTQ+ rights, particularly rights for transgender residents, including banning transgender girls from girls’ sports, keeping transgender people from using restrooms in line with their gender identities and requiring schools to deadname transgender students — requiring they be identified by names they were given at birth.

At least 11 states have now enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota and West Virginia. Federal judges have blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and nearly two dozen states are considering bills this year to restrict or ban care.

In North Dakota, the state Senate voted Thursday to override a veto by Republican Gov. Doug Burgum of a bill that would generally prohibit public school teachers and staff from referring to transgender students by pronouns other than those reflecting the gender assigned to them at birth. It’s unclear if the North Dakota House will also vote to override the veto.

On Friday, President Joe Biden issued a statement supporting Transgender Day of Visibility. The president said transgender Americans deserve to be safe and supported in every community. He denounced what he called hundreds of hateful and extreme state laws that target transgender kids and their families.

“Let me be clear: These attacks are un-American and must end,” Biden’s statement said. “The bullying, discrimination, and political attacks that trans kids face have exacerbated our national mental health crisis.”

Dana Kaplan, the executive director of Outright Vermont, which helped sponsor Friday’s event at the Vermont Statehouse, said the level of targeted hate for transgender youth is unprecedented.

“There are over 450 bills right now that are specifically targeting the LGBTQ community and trying to strip trans kids of their right to exist — when it comes down to it, their rights to play sports, their right to gender affirming health care,” Kaplan said. “These are sort of basic pillars of what we all need to be able to live our lives and and for trans young people, they are having to shoulder way more than any young person ever should.”

Vermont was the first state in the country to pass a law allowing civil unions for same-sex couples and adopted one of the first gay marriage laws. It has been known for being generally welcoming to the LGBTQ+ community.

A number of police from the Vermont capitol were watching the Montpelier rally, but there were no problems and the rally gradually began to disperse about an hour after it began.

Aspen Overy, 19, of Burlington, who came out as transgender a couple of years ago, said they attended the Montpelier rally to show support for other trans people.

“I think there’s this myth of Vermont as like this lovely, perfect little state,” Overy said. “But as many of the trans kids said today… those kids still frequently face so much hatred and discrimination for being, for living their lives and that’s not okay.”

Overy, a student at the University of Vermont, said they hoped the rally would make it easier to support each other and build community among transgender people in Vermont.

“In addition, I think it also provides a place for these people to feel seen, which is so essential, and to feel welcomed,” Overy said.

​ Orange County Register 

Angels’ Anthony Rendon confronts fan after game

• March 31, 2023

OAKLAND — Angels third baseman Anthony Rendon had a confrontation with a fan following the Angels’ game on Thursday night, grabbing his shirt and swiping his hand toward the fan’s head.

The Angels had no comment on the incident, which was circulated on social media on Friday morning, but indicated that Rendon was prepared to address it with reporters on Saturday. The Angels are off on Friday.

The Angels dropped their season opener, 2-1, on Friday night, giving up two runs in the bottom of the eighth.

An MLB official said they “are aware of the video and are now looking into the matter.”

No idea what the full context is here, but it would appear that Anthony Rendon is about that action. Bro was a couple inches away from being able to say he caught a left in front of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani though. pic.twitter.com/jdFliAtvsr

— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) March 31, 2023

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Assistant pitching coach Bill Hezel brings high-tech background to Angels’ staff

• March 31, 2023

OAKLAND — A case can be made that the best addition to the Angels pitching staff over the winter was a guy who spent four years pitching at small colleges before beginning a career wearing a suit and selling retirement plans.

Bill Hezel did not follow the typical path to a major league coaching job, but those who work with him are ecstatic that the Angels hired him away from Driveline to be their assistant pitching coach.

“He is awesome,” left-hander Patrick Sandoval said. “Probably one of the best free agents that we got. He’s going to help us out a lot.”

Left-hander Reid Detmers, who boarded a plane to meet with Hezel at Driveline the day the 2022 season ended, agreed with Sandoval.

“He’s awesome,” Detmers said.

Hezel’s No. 1 pupil — perhaps the reason he’s now wearing an Angels uniform — is Shohei Ohtani. Much of the 2020-21 offseason, when Ohtani went from disappointment to worldwide sensation, was spent working with Hezel.

“The last two years the numbers are pretty good on the pitching side,” Ohtani said through his interpreter. “He helped me out.”

Hezel (pronounced HEE-zul) is the latest coach to be snapped up by a big league team after working at Driveline, the high-tech baseball training center that’s well-known for helping pitchers at all levels raise their games.

Hezel spent the 2-1/2 years as the director of pitching at Driveline. Detmers talked to him after 2022, which just happened to be a few weeks before the Angels hired him in November to replace bullpen coach Dom Chiti.

While bullpen coaches as recently as the 1990s may have simply been tasked with answering the phone and reminding relievers which hitters were due, the past couple decades have seen the role change. Now, a bullpen coach is exactly what Hezel’s elevated title suggests: an assistant pitching coach.

Hezel, 36, said the opportunity with the Angels scratched his itch to return to coaching after the time he’d spent at Driveline.

Hezel said as Driveline grew, “my responsibilities got pushed further and further on the business side of things.” Also, for as much as he enjoyed the freedom to push the envelope technologically, the trade-off was there was never the pressure of wins and losses.

“I’m a competitive person,” Hezel said. “I missed being on the field. I missed winning mattering a lot.”

Hezel was on the field as a pitcher at Lehigh University and East Stroudsberg University, both in Pennsylvania. He wasn’t good enough to play beyond that, so he started selling retirement plans to small businesses. A couple years into doing that, Hezel wanted to get back involved with baseball. His father was a longtime high school baseball coach, so Hezel started helping him. That evolved into assisting with Northampton Community College in Pennsylvania.

“I did what I think everybody does when they first start coaching, which is just do all the same things that their coaches did with them,” Hezel said.

Hezel said he was disappointed after the first year because he didn’t believe the pitchers got any better under his watch. At a two-year college, the job is helping the players improve enough to get drafted or to get a spot at a four-year school.

“That’s when I just decided I’m going to blow up everything I thought about pitching and try to learn as much as possible,” Hezel said.

One day Hezel was researching something completely different online when he stumbled into an article written by Driveline founder Kyle Boddy. Hezel was intrigued by the way Boddy looked at pitching, so he read more, and he began corresponding with Boddy. Hezel began using some of Boddy’s technique’s — specifically weighted ball training — with his players at Northampton.

Hezel then moved on to DeSales University, a Division III school in Pennsylvania, and he continued implementing what he’d read from Driveline.

All along, though, he was still working in financial services.

“I used all my vacation time, all my sick time,” Hezel said. “I was playing hooky all the time. My wife and I didn’t go on a honeymoon. Vacation would be spring break (baseball) trips. I would be ducking out of work all the time. During work, I’d be watching games of opponents and scouting other teams. Making recruiting calls. How I made it work was pretty insane. It was a sales job and they don’t care as long as you make sales.”

Hezel was also posting on social media about what he was doing, which was his way of attracting recruits and finding opportunities for his current pitchers to advance.

As it turned out, he was also marketing himself. The social media posts piqued the interest of coaches at Driveline, who offered him a job. Hezel convinced his wife to pack up their life and move from Pennsylvania to Seattle to begin a full-time career in baseball.

“I just thought this was the best way to fast-track and close the knowledge gap,” Hezel said. “At a DIII or a small college, you just don’t have the budget to buy a Trackman or a Rapsodo or any of these things. … You can read as many FanGraphs articles as you want, learn as much as you want, but if you never get the opportunity to apply any of these things, it’s really, really difficult.”

Hezel spent 4-1/2 years at Driveline. When Sam Briend was hired away from Driveline to become the New York Yankees’ director of pitching, Hezel was promoted to head Driveline’s pitching department.

Ohtani, Sandoval, Detmers and Tucker Davidson are among the Angels’ pitchers who worked with Hezel at Driveline before the Angels hired him.

Sandoval said Hezel was the key to improving his slider in 2022. When his vaunted changeup wasn’t working for stretches of the season, Sandoval leaned on his newly improved slider to remain consistently effective.

“He knows his stuff,” Sandoval said. “He knows how to translate it, which I think is the biggest quality to have, being able to translate the data to the players. He sort of dumbs it down for us, because there’s a lot of numbers that go into it. He knows how to filter it in and out and give it to us the way we need to get it.”

Pitching coach Matt Wise said that Hezel is particularly good at designing the weighted ball workout routines for each pitcher. During spring training, just about every pitcher would begin his day on the field by chucking weighted balls at a wall. Hezel said the balls are simply tools that help pitchers build up arm strength in a safer way than throwing baseballs.

“Heavier balls are somewhat less stressful because you’re not going to throw the ball as hard,” Hezel said.

That can help pitchers gain velocity on all their pitches, not just the fastball.

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Beyond increasing velocity, the pitch science popularized by Driveline includes using high-speed Rapsodo cameras and Trackman devices to help pitchers learn how to manipulate the action of the baseball. In spring training the Angels bullpen often looked like a Best Buy clearance sale, with electronic equipment and wires running everywhere. Pitchers and their coaches crowded around screens reading data after each pitch.

It’s natural to suspect that it could be all too much for some pitchers. Detmers said that he “doesn’t like to overthink stuff,” but he said Hezel has the ability to give each pitcher exactly what he needs, and no more.

Hezel said that’s simply a matter of communication.

“If you don’t have a good relationship with the player or understand how they want information delivered, understand how they learn, then it’s going to be extremely difficult,” Hezel said. “The most important thing is that you build a relationship with the player, develop some trust. It just makes how you communicate stuff much easier.

“If the player believes that you are invested in their success as much as they are, then they’re going to listen.”

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 6-9, 2.91 ERA in 2022) at A’s (RHP Shintaro Fujinami, major league debut), Saturday, 1:07 p.m., RingCentral Coliseum, Bally Sports West, 830 AM.

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