Eli Stokols attended the Celebration of Life for former coach Chris Conlin. (PHOTO: Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone).
Former University High School baseball standout Eli Stokols, who now covers the White House for Politico, has fond memories being coached by Chris Conlin, the long-time University High School coach who was honored during a celebration of life earlier this month.
There were plenty of life lessons, he said.
Conlin died on April 15, 2025 at the age of 71 after an illness surrounded by family friends.
“I was watching and listening to people and what Coach (Mike) Gerakos said about him with the red brick dust all over his feet I was thinking about this image of him on the field before practice, after practice, raking the dirt, watering the infield and the amount of time and care he put into just creating a place, a field, a program for not just me but for all these years and years and years of kids to come through and have a place to really grow but also to have just have fun,” Stokols said in an interview after the celebration at Friends Church in Yorba Linda.
“Being part of the Uni baseball program was the most important thing I did in high school, it’s the thing I remember the clearest, the friends I made and continue to be in touch with. It’s just a really special part of my life and my memories of growing up here and it was important to me. Coach, as people talked about, he was a pretty direct guy.
“As encouraging as he was he wouldn’t sugar coat things, so he was a big muscly guy and I came in at 14 years old and I was pretty spindly. I think he had a hard time seeing, ‘how is this guy going to develop and be anything in our program.’ I wasn’t the most athletic or the fastest and certainly not the biggest. And he would kind of let you know that you had a ways to go. And he was intimidating, especially coming in as a 14-year-old. He let you know, nothing was given and you had to earn it.
“It was really my first experience with that kind of situation and competition and being part of a program and having to work your way up to something. I can still remember some of our games our senior year in 1997, I can remember some of my better moments as a player and I can describe them to you very clearly. I think about the confidence I played with my senior year there and the way that team came together.
“You sort of appreciate it at the time but to go from a lot of self doubt and not being as good of a player but to being a better player and a more confident player on the field and being part of a group and all that confidence that I had on the field was because of the stuff that he and Coach (Paul) Serna and Coach Gerakos put me through and the challenge they laid down to you.
“High school baseball is sort of a singular experience but it does help you going forward whatever you do. To have someone who believed in you, but made you earn it, didn’t give you anything and let you know you were going to do it yourself and taught you how to be part of a team and a group, and we were really close.
“And it was also just fun. I think about all his little sayings and the ways he would kind of rib us. They had a good rapport and it was a really good environment and a good group and you feel all these years later lucky to be have been part of it.”
Celebrated league title
Stokols, who played two years with the varsity at University, remembers the 1997 season when the Trojans won the league title on the last day of the season.
“We all put a lot into it,” he said. “We won the league and we won our first CIF (playoff) game and then we had to play Mater Dei and we lost by one. I think Garrrett (Atkins) hit a ball that was caught on the warning track for the last out. I was on deck. It was sad when it ended, ends are tough, that was a really special group.”
Stokols then attended UC Berkley where he continued his baseball career and got his college education. He’s also a Columbia University School of Journalism graduate.
“I think maybe my confidence as a player going into a program that I really didn’t have any business playing in, a D-1 Pac-10 program as it was then, came from playing with Garrett and playing with this group and having a lot of success and being, ‘why not.’ I got to Cal and I thought these guys are really good, it was hard but I stuck with it and ending up traveling and pitching a little bit my senior year and earning a collegiate letter and I had times throughout college thought, ‘I don’t need to put the hours in, I don’t need to be a part of this program, it’s not my identity, I will go do something else,’” Stokols said.
“I stuck with it, in part because I had a lot of good friends in the program, as I did in high school, but I also probably stuck with it because of the experience I had in high school. You’re just building on the foundation you had already laid down, having people who push you and challenge you and support you.
“I got a (letterman) jacket that doesn’t fit me but it’s a nice symbol of my persistence in doing something that I probably had no business doing. I knew I wasn’t going to wind up in the Major Leagues but I’m glad I did it.”
Covered Little League
Besides baseball, Stokols also had an interest in journalism working during the summer for the Irvine World News and its sister paper in Mission Viejo at the age of 15. Stokols’ biggest story was covering South Mission Viejo Little League major all-stars, which wound up going to Williamsport for the Little League World Series.
“I do remember how much fun that summer was, taking the ride with those families all the way to the regional final in San Bernardino and being sad I had to go off to start college and couldn’t go with them to Williamsport,” he said.
“I can still remember a lot of the players from that team and the coach, Jim Gattis, was a lot of fun to get to know and talk to. When I told him I was going up to Cal to play baseball that fall, he invited me out to a team practice and tried to show me a few grips to play with to develop a cutter. Great baseball guy.
“That team was the first story I ever got latched onto that was a running story, not a one-off piece. And I got fairly wrapped up in it. Maybe that’s a no-no in journalism even when you’re covering a Little League team. But being only a few years removed from my own Little League days, which I shared with my own dad, it felt very personal watching these kids and families have so much success and joy on this journey together.
“I remember being so impressed by their abilities at such a young age, by Gattis who gave them so much baseball knowledge and helped them succeed while remembering that they were all just kids, by the connections between the families in the stands; and the way all of them were so welcoming to me. I don’t cover many ‘feel good’ stories these days, but I’ll always remember that one.”
White House reporter
Stokols path led him to work in Denver and then to Washington D.C where he has been covering politics for 10 years. He started at Politico, then the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times before returning to Politico about two and a half years ago. He’s also had guest television appearances on CNN and MSNBC.
Covering the White House and President Donald Trump has been demanding but fulfilling, he indicated.
“In some ways it’s easy because they make so much news you just try to catch up and there is always stuff to write about it but it’s challenging sussing out new information and finding out what’s going on as it is in any White House like that,” he said. “There’s a lot of people on the beat so it’s competitive. It feels like it’s important but it’s a grind. I would never say that I don’t appreciate the uniqueness of the opportunity to be in that building and to sit in the briefing room or to occasionally fly on Air Force One and to ask the president questions.
“But it’s a tough job and it’s a lot of work and there is a lot of competition. It is an intense beat. This president makes news at all hours of the day and sometimes you’re putting to kids to bed at 7:30 and your phone rings and your editor is on the line wanting to know why the hell you don’t have the story. You got to figure how to deal with that.
“I was lucky to come up with something when I was a teenager and sort of had a clear sense of what I wanted to do and to be able to go off and do it.”
Advice for others
Stokols also had advice for those wanting to enter the journalism field.
“Persistence, I guess. It’s not an easy time for the industry, people need journalism, they need to know what’s going on at the local level, I would say even more so than the national level, there are a lot of journalists in D.C. and New York talking about our federal government, he said. “There are not a lot of places who are still investigating local news and that’s hard.
“Don’t do it to get rich. But if you believe in it and you are good at it, we need people to come along who want to chase stories and find things out and shine a light on stuff and people who are good at that will always find that if you work hard, the information is still the commodity so the platforms are different and the business is different. But if you’re good at sussing out what is happening and telling a story, you will probably find somewhere to land and do that job.”
Stokols and his wife Elena have two boys Ryne, 2 (named after Stokols favorite players former Cub Ryne Sandberg) and Charlie, 4 and live in Washington, D.C.
“My parents are still in the same house I grew up in so a lot of ties there with them and their friends, trips are a little different now when you come out with two little ones, but they love running around going to the beach,” Stokols said.
Stokols acknowledged dealing with Coach Conlin’s death.
“This is obviously a sad occasion,” Stokols said. “You wish the circumstances were different but it’s been a while since I’ve seen a lot of these guys. Life takes you in different directions. It’s been nice the last day or so getting to catch up with guys you spend your entire high school years with, hour and hours at a time.”
Although we are only at the halfway point of the campaign, Real Madrid have already started planning for the season ahead.
It is widely considered that Nico Paz will be the club’s first signing of the summer, with Los Blancos set to activate the buyback clause embedded in the Argentine’s contract at Como.
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Paz will not just rejoin Real Madrid to fill up the squad numbers. He will be a critical player in the first team, having made a stellar impact in Serie A under Cesc Fabregas.
Paz’s return to the Santiago Bernabeu, however, may have major ramifications in the Real Madrid setup, potentially impacting the roles of existing stars.
Real Madrid set to axe Ceballos
A recent report from Defensa Central has offered key insight into Real Madrid’s plans to accommodate Nico Paz next season.
Dani Ceballos will be axed by Real Madrid next summer. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
With the Argentine set to compete for the first team, it could come at the expense of Dani Ceballos, the report adds.
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It appears Florentino Perez has identified Ceballos as the man to be axed in the wake of Paz’s arrival.
The former Arsenal midfielder has struggled to convince coach Xabi Alonso this season and has fallen behind other midfielders in the pecking order.
Real Madrid, therefore, are ready to sacrifice Ceballos, who has been linked with a move away from Santiago Bernabeu for a while. His current contract at the club expires in 2027.
Recent reports suggest Ceballos himself is contemplating his future after failing to prove himself at Real Madrid. With his contract running in 2027, a move away from the Bernabeu next summer could make sense for all parties involved.
Paz, on the other hand, continues to prove his credentials in Serie A. As a result, Real Madrid have completely ruled out the possibility of selling him permanently.
There aren’t many more indelible memories for members of a small-town championship team than a firetruck ride through the streets of their hometown.
Lights flashing.
Sirens blaring.
Smiles everywhere.
Residents wondering what’s going on.
Just an impromptu heroes’ celebration.
For them.
Like the ones they had in Weatherly in mid-July.
Reya Gregory doubled home the tying and eventual winning runs in the bottom of the fourth inning as Weatherly’s 8-10-year-old softball team edged Northwest, 5-4, in the Section 6 Little League Tournament title game at the West End Fairgrounds complex in Gilbert.
Briella Vanblargan starred in the pitching circle for Weatherly, scattering five base hits, striking out 12 batters and walking only two six innings as her team avenged a loss to Northwest from the night before to punch its ticket to the state tournament in Drexel Hill.
Northwest grabbed a 2-0 lead in the rematch on an RBI groundout in the top of the first and a run-scoring single to right in the third.
Back came Weatherly in the bottom of the third as two base runners stole home and a bases-loaded walk to Audrey Wagner forced home another run and gave the District 18 champions their first lead at 3-2.
After Northwest reclaimed the advantage with two runs in the top of the fourth, Weatherly went back on top on Gregory’s clutch two-run double in the bottom half.
Neither team scored again as Weatherly claimed the first sectional title for a local softball team.
Jenna Jones went 2-for-2 with two singles to pace the locals at the plate. Gregory contributed her double and two RBI and Vanblargan and Myah Makowiec chipped in a single apiece. Kenzie Clabia, Aubrey Clabia, Jones and Makowiec each stole multiple bases for the Lady Wreckers, who swiped a total of 14 as a team in the game.
Vanblargan, Jones, Makowiec, Mia Durham and Audrey Clabia scored a run apiece in the win.
Little League team makes run
A few weeks earlier, Weatherly’s 11-12-year-old Little League League all-stars enjoyed their own memoriable run.
They won their first two District 18 tournament games and led defending district champion-Franklin Township, 8-6, late in the district winners’ bracket final before an overflow crowd at their home field on a steamy summer evening. They were oh so close to hosting another game — for the district title.
However, Franklin Township rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth inning, scored more five in the seventh and held off Weatherly’s own comeback bid in the bottom half for a wild 13-10 victory in one of the most entertaining games at any level of the past year.
“We had our chance there at the end,” Weatherly manager Jeremy Witner said. “It just didn’t happen.”
It did happen for Weatherly earlier in the tournament and earlier in the game against Franklin Township.
Showing a ton of heart and guts, the locals twice overcame deficits to put them in position to play for the district championship. They scored five runs in the bottom of the fifth to erase a 6-3 deficit and get within three outs of advancing to the title game. Silas Zink blooped a two-run single to highlight the rally. Other runs came in on a baes-loaded walk and two wild pitches.
“They answered the bell every time,” Witner said. “They kept getting off the mat and coming for more.”
Weatherly’s dream of a Cinderella district crown died after Franklin Township made its own comeback and Tamaqua avenged an earlier tournament loss a few nights later, eliminating Weatherly.
“We’ve been trying to put Weatherly on the map for a while,” Witner said. “It’s always a couple teams we have to get through. … We’ll get there.”
In 2025, Witner and his team were at least pointed in the right direction.
Families seeking winter break activities can attend a free diving event Dec. 30 at the Goodyear YMCA, where a dive show and youth clinic will be offered at no cost.
The event is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. with a dive show featuring junior-level divers. The show is open to the public, and spectators may attend without participating in the clinic.
After the performance, a youth dive clinic will run until 5 p.m. The clinic is open to children ages 7 to 17 and is intended to introduce participants to the sport of diving. Instruction will include basic techniques and supervised practice on 1-meter and 3-meter springboards, as well as a diving trampoline, according to organizers.
The clinic will be hosted by the YMCA Silver Fins Dive Team and sponsored by USA Diving. Organizers said the sponsorship allows the clinic, which is typically offered for a fee, to be provided free of charge.
The clinic will be held at is 2919 N Litchfield Rd, in Goodyear. All community members are invited to attend.
Central Valley Empowerment Alliance founder and co-executive director Arturo Rodriguez said the fact the state of California has reinvested in what they’re doing when it comes to preventing youth substance abuse by renewing their grant shows the stewardship his organization has provided for its program.
The Poplar-based CVEA was among 57 community-based and tribal organizations to be awarded $47 million in grants to prevent youth substance abuse through leadership engagement programs. The grants were awarded as part of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Path & Purpose initiative. The program also has a strong emphasis on reaching struggling young men and boys.
“It speaks more volumes than anything that anybody can say,” said Rodriguez about CVEA’s $900,000 grant being renewed in the program. CVEA will be reimbursed $300,000 a year over the next three years, 2026-2027-2028, for its costs in implementing the program.
The state said the $900,000 CVEA grant is “To engage Asian and Latinx youth in Kern and Tulare counties through culturally relevant mentorship, civic engagement, and peer-led storytelling to foster resilience, prevent substance use and improve health outcomes.”
Two other organizations received $1 million grants to serve Tulare County. The California Health Collaborative received a grant to serve Two-Spirit Indigenous/LGBTQIA+ youth of color in the county “through healing-centered activities, peer-led talking circles, and youth advocacy to strengthen cultural protective factors, reduce stigma surrounding substance use disorder prevention and improve health.”
In addition the Latino Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services has received a grant “to empower Latinx youth in Tulare County through peer-led support, leadership development, and family engagement to strengthen protective factors against substance use and improve health.”
The program is designed to build leadership and community-building skills among youth and Rodriguez said that’s what their program is all about. He said it’s about more than just substance abuse.
He noted the development of Nagi Daifallah Park has led to a number of youth sports teams being formed in Poplar. As a result parents are taking more responsibility, serving as coaches and traveling with their youth to games.
Rodriguez noted as part of the program youth have been able to travel to Sacramento and have even met the Governor.
He said he and CVEA’s other co-founder and executive director Mari Perez-Ruiz are dedicated to serving the community.
“We pay ourselves just above minimum wage,” he said. “We make sure to put as much as we can back into the community and our young people.”
About the state renewing the grant Rodriguez said, “They’re really excited about what we’ve managed to do for young people. It speaks volumes to the work that we do and the trust that we have.”
Programs funded by the grants are designed to deal with isolation, trauma, and lack of access to supportive services which can be especially challenging for young men and boys. The funding is designed to help youth foster mentorship, leadership, and civic engagement skills.
“As a parent, I am committed to investing in healing and empowering our youth to be changemakers within their communities. These investments focus on mentorship, connection, and purpose — especially for young men and boys who are too often struggling in silence,” Newsom said.
The funding is being provided through the California Department of Health Care Services to strengthen the state’s substance use disorder prevention programs. The grants are awarded through Elevate Youth California, EYC, a statewide program that prioritizes youth leadership.
The state provides funding to youth-serving organizations that demonstrate community-driven approaches to support young people. “Programs funded are healing-centered, trauma-informed, and culturally and linguistically responsive, while prioritizing harm reduction and public health strategies that build resilience and prevent substance abuse,” the state said.
“This funding empowers youth to lead change in their communities,”said DHCS Director Michelle Baass. “By supporting culturally responsive, peer-led programs, we’re investing in the resilience and long-term wellness of California’s young people.”
The state added the investment builds on Newsom’s executive orderto improve mental health and wellness among young men and boys, and empower them through service and leadership.
Recently, California launched the Men’s Service Challengewhich calls upon 10,000 young men to step up as mentors, coaches and tutors to address the mental health crisis facing young men and invest in communities across the state.
Since this program launched in 2019, DHCS has awarded more than $370 million through 517 grants. EYC is funded by Proposition 64, passed by voters in November 2016, which legalized adult non-medical marijuana use in California. The program uses taxes from cannabis sales.
West Virginia First Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Board announces grant recipients in May. The foundation recently awarded another round of grants from the state’s pool of funding from settlements with opioid makers. (File Photo)
CHARLESTON — The West Virginia First Foundation has announced the latest recipients of funding through its Momentum Initiative Grant program, awarding nearly $18 million to support programs aimed at addressing substance use disorder, prevention, recovery and related workforce programs in the state.
“The Momentum Initiative Grant reflects a new way of responding to the substance use crisis; one grounded in evidence, shaped by local expertise and guided by accountability,” said Jonathan Board, WVFF executive director. “We traveled the state, listened to those holding the line in their communities, and answered the call to honor the lives lost by putting these resources into the hands of those ready to create real, lasting impact for West Virginia.”
Funding for 76 projects was approved by the West Virginia First Foundation board of directors earlier this month, with an eye toward supporting programs which include foster care, non-parental caregiver initiatives, youth prevention, recovery housing, behavioral health and workforce development and re-entry and diversion programs.
Eight grants were awarded to programs in Region 1, which includes Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties.
Those grants include $125,000 to Youth Services System for its Afterschool Youth Prevention Program; $249,397 to West Liberty University for its Hilltopper Pathways: Out-of-School Re-entry and Support Program; $216,065 to Northwood Health Systems for its Workforce for Wellness program; $125,000 for HoH-Share Inc. for the Mother Jones Center for Resilient Community Youth Prevention Program; and $250,000 to the Greater Wheeling Coalition for the Homeless for its Recovery First Re-entry Initiative Program.
The Young Women’s Christian Association of Wheeling received three grants, including $124,744 for YWCA Wheeling — Youth Prevention; $380,000 for YWCA Wheeling — Cathy’s Haven; and $186,450 for its Women Inspired in New Directions program.
“We were intentional in building a structure that reflects both feedback and best practices,” said Greg Duckworth, WVFF board chairman. “What emerged is a landmark opioid abatement model, distinct from any other foundation of its kind, made possible by volunteer Board Members and Expert Panelists dedicated to serving West Virginia.”
Statewide awards include $954,469.45 for National Youth Advocate Program for its Foster RISE project; $974,751 to Pressley Ridge for its Pressley Ridge Treatment Kinship Care Statewide Services; $975,000 to West Virginia CASA Association Inc. for its Continuum of Care for Children and Families Impacted by the Opioid Crisis; and $947,916 to West Virginia Wesleyan College for its WVWC and WV CASA Capacity Building Initiative.
With the start of 2026 comes New Year’s resolutions, and for many, that means looking for a new gym or personal trainer. At Better Bodies Inc., new members can get personal training, state-of-the-art exercise equipment, and a personalized plan to help them meet their goals.
“As far as the fountain of youth, this is the closest you’re going to come,” says owner and physical therapist Mitch Schroder.
Better Bodies Inc. offers a wide variety of memberships and programs to suit each client’s individual needs, from golf enhancement programs in the offseason to personal training for longevity or specialized coaching for youth sports. One of the staff members is a former special forces officer who will soon be teaching self-defense classes.
The gym has recently gone through renovations and major enhancements, including upgrading to shock-absorbent biometric floors and adding more Keiser equipment.
“You can adjust it by a fraction of a pound to get the right resistance for a client. I don’t know of any other place in Indy that has it,” Schroder says. “We’ve put a half-million-dollar investment into this place.”
He’s been in the business for more than three decades, and his passion for it has only increased with time.
“I wake up at four in the morning and can’t wait to get to work,” he says. “There’s a positive energy here, and we love being together.”
Schroder is proud of the staff he’s assembled and says it’s the most cohesive team he’s had in 30 years.
“I have really good people,” he adds. “They’ve taken ownership. I’m comfortable taking trips and traveling all over the world because I have people here who do a fantastic job, so I’m not worried when I leave that we’re going to lose clients. They’re asking themselves, ‘How do we get better every day?’ and we do get better every day.”
It’s important to him that his team is educated and stays up to date on their certifications so they can offer the best training and support to clients and remain well-informed.
“We do assessments and reassessments,” he says. “We get a baseline for our clients. It’s not safe if you don’t know their medical history. You can injure someone with an inept trainer. With the tools we have, we can show how people have improved in strength, muscular endurance, body fat and flexibility. We can rate them compared to others of the same age and sex. We’ve had people go from the 5th percentile to the 99th percentile with objective measurements.”
Better Bodies Inc. uses a holistic approach, monitoring clients’ nutrition, exercise, sleep and water intake.
“If they do the things we ask, we have a 100% success rate. Some people want to just say they have a personal trainer. This isn’t the place for someone who doesn’t want to change their life,” Schroder says.
Better Bodies Inc. has membership plans for individuals, couples, families and college students, as well as corporate-level options.
“Businesses benefit from corporate training and membership. It’s the very best benefit you can give your employees, and it’s very affordable,” Schroder says. “It causes them to be three times more efficient: they’re sick less, they’re more motivated, they notice it directly and appreciate that benefit. There have been studies showing whatever you invest in health and wellness for your employees, you get a three-dollar return. As people are healthier, their risk for heart attack goes down, and that’s the whole reason I started this.”
For Schroder, helping people improve their health is a personal mission and one close to his heart.
“I was going to go to medical school. I didn’t know much about physical therapy before, but then my grandfather had a stroke,” he says. “I saw what they did to give him back his quality of life, and I thought there’s got to be nothing better on this Earth than being able to do that.
“But at some point, I had an epiphany. I asked myself, if we’re trying to help people, why do we let them have heart attacks? I kept seeing the same group of people, men and women who worked their entire lives, get to their 50s and 60s, then have a stroke and are limited for the rest of their lives.”
That’s how Schroder got the idea for Better Bodies 30 years ago, and it’s still what drives him and his business today.
“This is preventative, and it’s about quality of life,” he says. “What you can do is determined by how well you take care of yourself.”
Better Bodies Inc. is located at 12775 Horseferry Road in Carmle. They are open 24 hours a day. To find out more, email betrbodiz@aol.com, visit betterbodiesinc.com or call 317-508-0839.
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