ELK
GROVE, CA (MPG) – National Championship Sports’ youth baseball tournament Sept.
6-7 included age groups from 9U to 14U in Elk Grove along with Rancho Cordova,
Suisun City and Martinez.

The 10U age group played at the
Laguna Community Park behind the Wackford Aquatic Complex, while the other age
groups competed in the three other cities.     

All the other age groups had six
or more teams that were competing over the weekend, where the 10U group only
had five teams. With the smallest number of teams, the 10U age group still
competed and played good baseball.                       

The
teams that competed were Blast Davis, Brentwood Blast, Golden Spikes Huskies,
Heavy Hitters and the WTBC Titans that had traveled from out of Elk Grove and
Sacramento for this tournament.

On
Saturday, they had pool play where each team played two games to decide the
seeding for the rest of the games. Then on Sunday, they entered a bracket
format for the rest of the tournament. The first game was at 8 a.m. and the
championship game was at 2:45 p.m.  

Friends and Family Gathered to Watch Championship Game

After
Saturday the top two seeds for the tournament were Blast Davis and Brentwood
Blast.

The Sunday championship was a
great game with back-and-forth action throughout it all. Blast Davis was able
to prevail against Brentwood Blast, winning 8-7. Winning the championship meant
being able to travel back home on a high note.         

There
were back and forth games as well as great plays made over the weekend with
friends and family in attendance. Each team and each player was able to take
key moments from each game to learn from.

National Championship Sports did
a great job with the tournament, creating a family environment for each team. The
tournament played walk-up songs for batters, music in between innings and just
allowed the kids to enjoy their time playing baseball.               

National
Championship Sports provides an outlet for youth baseball and includes outlets
for youth softball and adult slow-pitch softball as well. It provides a
platform for players to compete in local tournaments as well as throughout the
nation.           

Brentwood
Blast Pitching to Blast Davis 

Sponsored

One of Huntsville’s most recognizable residents received the inaugural Star of Sports Award from the City of Huntsville today. David Nast, a businessman and community leader here in the Rocket City, was honored with the award Wednesday morning at City Hall.

Here’s more on Star of Sports Award winner David Nast:

Inaugural Star of Sports Award winner David Nast

Nast is best known in the business world as a founder and longtime CEO of Progress Bank. He holds a B.S. and M.B.A. from Jacksonville State University and banking certificates from LSU and Georgia State. These attributes alone are enough to warrant recognition, but his civic involvement is an impressive resume by itself.

He has served on the following boards in the Huntsville area:

• Junior Achievement
• Land Trust of North Alabama
• Boys and Girls Club of Huntsville
• North Alabama Boy Scouts
• Huntsville Hospital Foundation (former Chair)
• Committee of 100
• Huntsville City Schools Foundation

Nast also is an alumnus of Leadership Huntsville and Leadership Alabama.

Currently, Nast is involved with:

• Huntsville Rotary Club
• Alabama Bankers Association Board
• Huntsville Sports Commission
• Leadership Alabama
• Huntsville Museum of Art

His community contributions are also augmented by his involvement with local sports. He was a past Chair of the Huntsville Sports Commission, but has also been actively involved in youth sports here in the Rocket City.

“I first met David when he was coaching youth sports and I was an official. It always stuck out to me that he stressed sportsmanship, teamwork and dedication to the young athletes he coached and mentored.”

Mark Russell, Director of the Huntsville Sports Commission

Those of you who are runners here in the Huntsville area likely know Nast as an avid marathon runner. In addition to distance running, he is also a duck hunter and golfer.

In essence, David Nast is about as well-rounded a Huntsvillian as one can find and certainly a worthy recipient of this new award.

About the Huntsville Star of Sports Award

This new award will be given annually to Huntsville residents who display exemplary performance, sportsmanship, service, contribution and leadership, and must be an individual or team that:

• Has a unique or memorable moment, experience or career in sports
• Makes the Huntsville community better through sports
• Advances the mission of the Huntsville Sports Commission

“This award is incredible. I am humbled and gracious to receive it, and to continue to contribute to the success and growth of Huntsville.”

David Nast, Star of Sports Award winner, 2025

The award itself was designed by local artist Jesse Andrews, and as Huntsville Sports Commission Director Mark Russell said, “A star shines bright like the recipients whose accomplishments differentiate them from others and is a nod to our city. The color changes as you pass by to reflect the ever-evolving growth of our recipients and sports.”

About the Huntsville Sports Commission

The Huntsville Sports Commission was established in 2000, and since then has organized, recruited and managed numerous tournaments, events and competitions here in the Rocket City. Led my Mark Russell, the organization has brought tourism dollars into the city through hosting these events.

The organization helped nring in more than $50 million in revenue in 2024 alone.

Huntsville has hosted a wide array of sporting events through the HSC, including:

• Conference USA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments
• SEC gymnastics
• NCAA beach volleyball championships
• AHSAA soccer championships
• NCAA soccer
• AHSAA cross country
• NCSA swimming
• The American Junior Golf Tournament
• Rocket City Water Polo Tournament
• USTA Clay Court Tennis Championships
• 2025 ACCC Basketball Championships
• USA Paralympics Cycling
• ASUN Women’s Golf Championship

To find out more on the Huntsville Sports Commission– as well as upcoming events — check out their website.

Sponsored by:

A 20-year-old Lancaster County man was charged last month after police said he abused his position as a youth church leader to convince a juvenile to perform sex acts with him, according to an affidavit of probable cause.

On April 22, the victim told Northern Lancaster Regional Police her youth church leader, Kelvin D. Perez, of Holtwood, used his position to encourage her to sneak out and meet for sex.

Between January and April, Perez would send messages to the victim on Instagram, complimenting her and asking to meet outside of church events, the affidavit said.

During those months, Perez would drive to the victim’s house and park down the road. He would then message the girl to sneak out of her house and meet up with him.

On at least one occasion, Perez convinced the girl to sneak him into her basement while her parents were away.

Police on Aug. 5 charged Perez with one count of corruption of minors, a first-degree misdemeanor. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 23.

The affidavit did not include the victim’s age.

Four months after the approval of a controversial tax financing deal, the Grand Sierra Resort announced it is breaking ground on its $1 billion arena project.

The Grand Sierra Resort in Reno is set to break ground on its $1 billion arena project four months after it secured a controversial tax increment financing deal.

The Trump administration’s laser focus on identifying and uprooting people without legal status in Los Angeles has disrupted normal life in whole swaths of the city since June.

Corridors typically alive with street vendors have been quiet. Volunteers have been monitoring Home Depots for federal agents. And across the region, some people are staying home from work and school, afraid they may encounter ICE agents.

That this is a fractured and frightening time in the region for immigrant communities is undisputed.

Getting a fuller picture of people without legal status who live and work here is more complex.

To better understand our communities and neighbors, LAist looked into what we do and don’t know about Angelenos without full legal status.

Who gathers this information?

The U.S. Census conducted every 10 years is supposed to be a head count of everyone living in the country at that moment in time — and agnostic on their immigration status. The population count affects a whole range of things, notably how political representation is determined and how federal dollars are allocated.

Since 1960, the Census has not asked respondents about their citizenship status. An effort to add that question in 2020 by the first Trump administration was met with significant pushback. Critics said it would have a chilling effect and depress participation of non-citizens and their relatives — ultimately leaving us without a full count of who lives here.

Still, the government keeps estimates of the number of people living in the U.S. without authorization. Academics and organizations also do the work of counting the people living in the U.S. without legal status. Their research offers a closer look at the many people who are undocumented in L.A. and the surrounding area.

More than 9% of people in LA County are undocumented

Recent research from the USC Equity Research Institute looks at L.A. County specifically, estimating nearly 950,000 undocumented immigrants live here. That’s more than 9% of people in the county who lack legal status.

When researchers widen the lens to include people who are undocumented or living with an undocumented family member, that number jumps to nearly 20%, or almost one in five people.

To compile their estimates, USC researchers use surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, take the number of non-citizen immigrants and remove the people that have legal status, according to Prof. Manuel Pastor, director of the Equity Research Institute. The latest data they used is from 2023.

The results indicate the depth and breadth of the impact of ramped-up immigration enforcement in L.A. this summer. Masked federal agents have detained parents, people who have been in the U.S. for decades, and even some U.S. citizens.

“ I think it’s useful for Angelenos to realize how ubiquitous it is to be without documentation,” Pastor said.

Immigrants in California by the numbers

California has more immigrants than any other state — around 10.6 million people out of a total population of more than 39 million in 2023, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Most immigrants in California have legal status. More than half are U.S. citizens, according to California officials. In 2022, 83% of immigrants in California either were citizens or had other legal residency status, such as a green card or a visa.

Estimates of exactly how many undocumented people are living in California vary. The Department of Homeland Security estimated 2.6 million unauthorized immigrants were living in California.

According to Pew Research Center, in 2023, California was home to around 2.3 million immigrants without full legal status. That number includes people in a variety of situations, including those with some level of legal protections, like asylum applicants, DACA recipients, and people who have been granted temporary protected status.

California is home to the largest cohort of DACA recipients in the nation. As of 2024, more than a quarter of the around 538,000 active recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals live in California, according to government data. That status protects undocumented young adults who were brought to the U.S. as children from deportation and allows them work authorization.

People without full legal status in California have a wide range of national origins. Nearly half of the state’s undocumented population is from Mexico, according to a report from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute and UC Merced. The vast majority of that group — 80% — have been in the U.S. for more than 15 years.

In recent years, more people have arrived in the state from Central America and Asia. The report attributes the shifting demographics of new arrivals to improved economic prospects in Mexico and growing economic and political instability in Central America and countries like China and India.

A growing population

The Trump administration ran on a campaign promise of mass deportations, in part in response to a rise in immigration to the U.S. after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Estimates of exactly how many undocumented people are in the country and how that number has changed vary. According to the Pew Research Center, the number of unauthorized immigrants in 2023 was 14 million, up from 10.5 million in 2021 — a 33% increase.

By comparison, California’s unauthorized population grew around 23% in that time period, according to Pew’s estimates. In 2023, the state was home to around 2.3 million undocumented immigrants, a bump of around 425,000 compared to 2021.

The increase specifically in Los Angeles was even smaller around that same time period — 15% according to USC’s Pastor.

“We did not get the gigantic influx of shocking new immigrants that the rest of the country did,” Pastor told LAist. “We got some, but mostly they went to other parts of the country.”

Focusing on LA County

USC estimates that 948,700 people in L.A. County are undocumented, out of a total population of 10.1 million. Most people without legal status have been in the U.S. for more than a decade, according to those estimates. Some 73% arrived in the country more than 10 years ago, while 18% of people have been here for 31 years or more.

Most undocumented immigrants in L.A. County — 83.8% — are Latino. The next largest group is Asian Americans, who make up 10.6% of the county’s undocumented immigrants.

Where are people from?

The largest share of undocumented immigrants in L.A. County come from Mexico, followed by Guatemala and El Salvador. USC estimates that more than 343,000 Mexican people without legal status live in the county.

A share of L.A.’s undocumented population are Indigenous migrants from Mexico and Central America, but the number is difficult to estimate, according to USC. According to a separate report from the Equity Research Institute and advocacy group CIELO, the county is home to at least 24 Indigenous migrant communities, including Zapotec and K’iche’.

Chinese people make up the fourth-largest group of undocumented people by ancestry, according to the report. That estimate is 32,600.

Who is being targeted for deportation?

As the federal government has ramped up deportations across the country, it has made a particularly visible effort here in L.A.

Federal officials have defended the enforcement actions, saying they’re targeting people with criminal records.

LAist found that as an average since last October, only about 18% of those detained in California ICE facilities have had any criminal convictions.

Mixed status families

Hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens in L.A. County live with family members who are undocumented — more than 863,000 according to USC estimates.

Those numbers are particularly striking for children. More than half of citizens living with undocumented family members are younger than 17 years old. In the county, 20% of children under the age of 5 have at least one parent who does not have legal status.

As federal immigration raids in Southern California have separated workers from their families and children, many left behind are struggling with making ends meet and paying rent. Eighty percent of undocumented immigrants in the county are renters.

“With fears around ICE raids and the possibility that undocumented workers may choose not to show up for work, there is also a great risk of missing rent payments and becoming even more vulnerable to losing housing,” the USC report reads.

Economic contributions of undocumented workers

The vast majority of undocumented immigrants in L.A. County are of working age: 90% are between 18 and 64. Just 1% are 65 or older, according to USC’s data.

The report points to the major role undocumented workers play in the local economy. According to USC’s estimates, 37% of cleaning and maintenance workers and 25% of food preparation and service workers in L.A. County are undocumented.

The industry with the highest percentage of undocumented workers is construction (40%), which is already experiencing a labor shortage and will be key to rebuilding parts of the county destroyed in the January fires.

Immigrants without legal status in the county also contribute billions in taxes. In 2023, USC estimates undocumented immigrants paid more than $3.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes.

Jordan Rynning contributed to this report.

The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.

Two Wilson High School students are working to address an issue that often goes unnoticed until it’s too late: sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes.

Alexis Torres and Emmalie Arzate, both student-athletes and members of Wilson’s student athletic training staff, recently founded the Hearts on the Field Foundation – a nonprofit dedicated to improving cardiac safety in youth sports.

For Arzate, the mission is deeply personal. Her cousin passed away earlier this year due to cardiac arrest, a tragedy that reshaped how she saw the condition.

“That really opened my eyes,” Arzate said. “I knew about cardiac arrest before, but I never understood how deep and devastating it could be until it hit home. It made me want to learn more and find ways to prevent this from happening to other families.”

Torres, who serves as Board President and Executive Director of the organization, said that he’s always wanted to do something with purpose.

“I’ve always wanted to make an impact on my community,” Torres said. “This is such an important issue that doesn’t get enough attention. People know sudden cardiac arrest is serious, but many don’t know how extensive the problem really is. Our goal is to change that through education, prevention, and action.”

According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death in young athletes during sports activities. While considered rare the condition is devastating with studies estimating between one in 40,000 and one in 80,000 athletes dying each year.

The risk has drawn growing public attention in recent years following high-profile cases, including Los Angeles Lakers player Bronny James, who suffered cardiac arrest while at USC, and Buffalo Bills defensive back Damar Hamlin, who collapsed during a nationally televised game. Those incidents highlighted both the dangers of the condition and the importance of immediate medical action.

To support their vision, Torres and Arzate brought together a team of current Wilson students and recent alumni to help lead the effort with current students Alesandra Rocha, Emma Jade Garcia, Leticia Tovar and Wilson alums Malayah Terry and Jessica Medrano.

Together this group is working to shape Hearts on the Field into a sustainable organization with long-term impact.

The organization’s future includes offering free CPR and AED certification classes to athletes, coaches, and even team captains. Torres explained the reasoning behind this approach using his own experience on the cross-country team as an example.

“I feel that if the team captain knows CPR that can provide an extra protection,” Torres said. “They’re the ones that are with the team 24/7. They’re the first ones to notice when something’s wrong.”

The group’s immediate financial need is $300 to complete the 501(c)(3) application, but Torres and Arzate emphasize that fundraising is a much broader goal. They hope to secure funding not only to cover startup costs but also to expand programming and provide life-saving training across the community.

“It hasn’t been easy,” Torres said. “We probably should have asked for more guidance along the way, but we’ve managed to figure things out. Right now, our biggest hurdle is fundraising so we can become fully registered and start expanding our programs.”

Despite the challenges of launching a nonprofit, both co-founders continue to balance their school and athletic responsibilities. Torres is enrolled in an EMT program at a local college while also completing dual-enrollment coursework, and Arzate remains active as a golfer at Wilson.

Torres and Arzate hope that Hearts on the Field will outlive their time in high school. They envision expanding into colleges, creating chapters across different campuses, and building a network of student leaders who can continue the work.

“Of course, it’s a big dream,” Arzate said. “But we want to reach as far as possible. Right now, our focus is student athletes, but ultimately this can impact anyone, anywhere.”

To help cover start-up expenses and raise awareness, the group has already scheduled fundraisers, including local restaurant events in September. Their first fundraiser will take place on September 19 at Raising Cane’s location at the Traffic Circle in Long Beach.

For more information about the organization or how to help visit heartsonthefield.org.