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'They know she's doing it, too'

This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune, to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through student journalism. The first time that University of Utah basketball assistant coach Dasia Young saw Lindsey Kirschman, the reaction was visceral. “I was like ‘dang, she’s jacked, like she’s ripped,’” Young said. It’s […]

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'They know she's doing it, too'

This story is jointly published by nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune, to elevate diverse perspectives in local media through student journalism.

The first time that University of Utah basketball assistant coach Dasia Young saw Lindsey Kirschman, the reaction was visceral.

“I was like ‘dang, she’s jacked, like she’s ripped,’” Young said.

It’s not easy to create a body that looks like that. It’s even harder to maintain it at 37 years old. But Kirschman loves a challenge.

Now, as she ends her third season as the director of sports performance for women’s basketball at the University of Utah, Kirschman’s challenge is keeping the team in shape. That includes daily workouts, lifts, conditioning, or anything else she thinks the athletes need.

The Utes finished the regular season with a 22-7 record, good enough for sixth place in the Big 12 in their first year in the conference. In the postseason, they scored a No. 8 seed in last month’s NCAA Tournament and lost in the first round to Indiana.

Much of the team’s work happens when no one is watching. In the summertime, college basketball players are restricted by NCAA rules that govern how much they can practice on a court, so that’s when they spend the most time strength training to prepare for the upcoming season.

The workouts can be grueling. But Kirschman said she won’t ask anything of a player she wouldn’t do — or that she wouldn’t be excited to do.

“A lot of my hobbies involve physical discomfort,” she said. “My best days are the days where I am just physically exhausted at the end of them.”

That’s what assistant coach Jordan MacIntyre said the players need, too.

“We play a really fast, up-tempo style of basketball, and we have to be able to get up and down the floor and be in our best physical shape to play the brand that we want to play,” MacIntyre said. “That is so much of a credit to the work that she puts in with people outside of our season.”

All of that effort, MacIntyre said, permits the team “the ability to play the style we want to play.”

(Natalie Newton | Amplify Utah) Lindsey Kirschman, at left, strength coach for the Utah Utes women’s basketball team, explains the day’s workout to team members.

Kirschman ‘absolutely motivates them’

Kirschman’s days have early starts. She wakes up around 4 a.m., reads, writes in her journal, goes on a run with her dog, works until 2 p.m., does her own workout, and then goes to bed around 9:30 p.m. She’ll often go to the athletic facility at 4 or 5 in the morning to do the workout that she’s planning on putting her athletes through later that day.

“She actually knows what she’s talking about, which is nice, because, you know, sometimes strength and conditioning coaches don’t look like what they preach,” Young said.

Even though she has often already gone through the workout, Kirschman doesn’t hesitate to jump in alongside the players. At a team lift in late February, for instance, she was stretching, planking and demonstrating different exercises to athletes who needed help. The workout culminated in Kirschman pushing a sled that carried Alyssa Blanck, the Utes’ 6-foot, 2-inch sophomore forward, across 20 yards of turf while the team cheered on the sideline.

“I know that they see her own drive. She can have them do whatever in their workouts because they know she’s doing it, too, and she’s probably done it already before we’ve done it,” MacIntyre said. “That absolutely motivates them and she has such an element of respect because of it.”

Strength coaches at the collegiate and professional levels often have degrees in athletic training, kinesiology or sports medicine. Kirschman, on the other hand, earned her bachelor’s degree in environmental science at the University of Washington, where she also competed in track and field.

She then began graduate school for rangeland management. During this period, she started coaching at a high school in her free time and found herself pulled back to the world of sports.

“I would sneak out every afternoon to go volunteer coach at a high school in town,” Kirschman said. But soon she thought, “Why am I sneaking around to do something that I could just do for my job?”

She switched programs to start studying education. After finishing her master’s program, she taught science and coached track and field, cross country, and strength and conditioning at Poudre High School in Fort Collins, Colorado.

“I think a lot of my own coaches have been role models and that’s part of the reason why I wanted to be a coach, because as an athlete I thought about who has had the biggest impact in my life in a positive way and it’s always coaches,” Kirschman said. “I wanted to be that for other athletes.”

Kirschman taught and coached for eight years in Colorado. Eventually she began thinking about how she could take herself to the next level. Being a high school strength coach often means having a lot of teams to oversee, and Kirschman grew tired of working with that many athletes at once.

“I was coaching before school, teaching all day, coaching after school, coaching all summer, but I had hundreds of athletes,” she said. “You can only do so much with each one individual athlete when you’ve got 300 more coming.”

She found a new opportunity at the University of Central Arkansas, as the school’s assistant strength and conditioning coach. Kirschman took a 50% pay cut — and was still training hundreds of athletes — but the prospect of a new mountain to climb was enticing.

“The challenge of that was appealing to me. I wanted to be held accountable to the highest standard possible, and have that risk of, if you’re not good at your job you’re going to get fired,” Kirschman said. “It’s kind of hard to fire someone at the high school level. … I want to see if I have what it takes to hang.”

Kirschman’s teaching experience has been a benefit.

“She comes with a lot of different experiences that a lot of other strength coaches don’t have… she does a lot of teaching of exercises,” Utah women’s basketball athletic trainer Christina Jones said. “She has all of those fundamentals down very well and can connect with the athletes and really hones into the teaching aspect.”

After one season in Arkansas, the University of Utah women’s basketball program hired Kirschman. In Utah, she finally got her wish of working with athletes on an individual level.

“First time in my career that I only had one team to work with,” she said. “I went from working with 300-plus athletes to working with 14, and that’s been a huge blessing and learning experience.”

(Natalie Newton | Amplify Utah) Lindsey Kirschman, at left, strength coach for the Utah Utes women’s basketball team, joins the team during a morning workout.

Tough in the weight room, but ‘kind-hearted’

Her one-on-one work with athletes doesn’t go unnoticed. Jones noted that Kirschman is especially focused when it comes to injured players. Any time the team is on the road, she gets up early with the athletes who are injured to put them through a workout in the hotel gym before breakfast.

“I think it’s a cool thing that she does, and the ability to adapt and be able to do that in the hotel,” Jones said. “It’s hard to do that when your other teammates aren’t doing that when you’re hurt.”

It’s that attentiveness that gives Kirschman one of her greatest strengths as a coach. Those who work with her say she has an innate kindness, an ability to make connections with people, that lifts her to the next level. Anyone who works with or plays for Kirschman will sooner or later be likely to receive a valentine in their locker, a note, a treat she’s baked, or a moment where she genuinely checks in because she cares.

“She’s probably one of the most, if not the most, kind-hearted people I’ve ever worked with, let alone met,” MacIntyre said. “She really is someone that cares to be there for other people, and wants her impact to be so much more than just teaching people how to get stronger.”

Kirschman gets the best results from people, Young said, because she has their best interests at heart.

“Nobody’s ever going to listen to their teacher if they don’t like them or if they don’t believe in what they do,” Young said. “She mastered that perfectly — to get people to do hard things and enjoy it at the same time.”

Kirschman said she knows that players respect her because she is a good strength coach but, she said, “people love me because of the impact I have on their lives and in their heart and that I have a relationship with them.”

That love can be leveraged into the sort of trust she needs, from her athletes, to get them to do things they might not do otherwise.

“She just always made sure that we didn’t settle. I could be curling 25s and she’s like, ‘Babe, you can definitely go to 40.’ I’m like, ‘I could but do I want to?’ and she’ll come pick up those 40s and hand them to me,” Young said. “I can do more. That’s probably what I took away from her the most: that I can do more. Whatever that is.”

Natalie Newton wrote this story as a journalism student at the University of Utah for a capstone course focused on women’s sports. It is published as part of a collaborative including nonprofits Amplify Utah and The Salt Lake Tribune.

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Owls Drop Match to Hurricanes

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic women’s soccer team fell to Miami on Thursday evening by a score of 4-0.   Five minutes into the first half, senior Morgan McDonald attempted the first shot on goal of the match. The shot from McDonald marks her first shot on goal of the season. The first […]

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CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The Florida Atlantic women’s soccer team fell to Miami on Thursday evening by a score of 4-0.
 
Five minutes into the first half, senior Morgan McDonald attempted the first shot on goal of the match. The shot from McDonald marks her first shot on goal of the season. The first 30 minutes remained scoreless until the Hurricanes scored a goal with 30:08 on the clock to take the lead. At the end of the first 45 minutes, the Owls (0-2-1) trailed 1-0.
 
The Hurricanes (2-1-0) scored their second goal of the match early in the second half to extend the lead to 2-0. The third goal of the night for Miami came with 62:57 on the board. At 68:09 on the clock in the second half, there was a goalkeeper change for the Owls as transfer Megan Hogate checked in for the first time in an FAU uniform.
 
Sophomore Ashley Small finished the night playing a total of 68 minutes, registering two saves on the night to improve her season total to 15 on the year thus far. Freshman Keira Pabalan recorded 44 minutes for her freshman debut.
 
UP NEXT
FAU will return down south to face the Panthers of FIU on Sunday, Aug. 24, at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
 
FOLLOW THE OWLS
To stay up to date on all things Florida Atlantic women’s soccer, follow FAU on social media @FAUWSoccer.
 



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Dos Pueblos Boys Water Polo Pulls Away for Win Over Arroyo Grande in Season Opener | Sports

A balanced offensive attack powered Dos Pueblos boys water polo to an 18-10 victory over Arroyo Grande in the season opener on Thursday at Elings Aquatic Center. The Chargers (1-0) had seven different players score goals, as every player got minutes on a roster that will feature impact players from all four grade levels this […]

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A balanced offensive attack powered Dos Pueblos boys water polo to an 18-10 victory over Arroyo Grande in the season opener on Thursday at Elings Aquatic Center.

The Chargers (1-0) had seven different players score goals, as every player got minutes on a roster that will feature impact players from all four grade levels this season.

“Being able to rotate all the newer players through is really good for the team cohesiveness,” Dos Pueblos head coach Chris Parrish said. “What was great was when we had the juniors and the seniors sitting on the bench at the end of the game, they were cheering as loud as possible for the younger guys.

“We have a great blend on the team this year where we have a starting freshman goalie, we’ve got three other freshmen that are getting substantial minutes, we’ve got another three sophomores that are getting great minutes, and then we’ve got three juniors and three seniors.”

The Chargers wasted no time getting started, winning the opening sprint and immediately turning it into points as senior Eli Carnaghe found junior Lucas Neushul for the first goal of the season.

After a few minutes of back-and-forth play, Dos Pueblos tripled its lead with goals on back-to-back possessions.

On the first score, senior Aricin Marshall fed a wide-open junior Grant Nelson to make it 2-0. After a defensive stop, DP freshman goalie Koa Zertuche lobbed a pass ahead to fellow freshman Channing Wigo, who deposited the shot for his first high school goal.

“Koa has been great and he’s become a part of the team really quickly,” Parrish said of his goalie. “Channing is a wealth of talent. He’s really savvy in the water, and we know he’s going to bring a different aspect to our game.”

Dos Pueblos freshman Koa Zertuche reaches out for the steal in Thursday’s season-opening win. Zertuche will serve as the starting goalie for the Chargers in his first high school season. (Peter Young / Noozhawk Photo)

Arroyo Grande responded with a pair of goals of its own to cut the Charger lead to 3-2 with 2:43 left in the quarter. Dos Pueblos came back with another goal of its own as Marshall found Neushul in the middle for his second score of the day.

After the Eagles scored on a penalty shot, Marshall got into the scoring column off an assist from Carnaghe, scoring from the right side to bring the lead to 5-3.

Arroyo Grande came roaring back in the final minute of the opening quarter, scoring twice to even the game at 5-5 heading into the second.

The Chargers came out of the break on a mission, rattling off a 4-0 run in the opening three minutes of the second quarter to pull away for a 9-5 advantage.

Dos Pueblos’ offensive balance was on full display during the run as four different players scored. Neushul, Carnage, Wigo and Nelson all secured multi-goal performances with goals to begin the quarter, with assists coming from junior Adam Gelman and Neushul.

The majority of Dos Pueblos’ second-quarter goals came off strong defensive stops on the other end, allowing the offense to get out in transition.

“The important part is that these guys are playing a little bit of defense, because all of them want to go score goals, and quite frankly, a lot of the guys are really used to knowing that three quarters of the possessions another team has against them are going to end up in a steal or a bad shot,” Parrish said.

“They find themselves just kind of eager, waiting for that whistle to just get out in the transition… The problem is, we’ve got to make sure the ball doesn’t go in the goal before they decide to go into offense. That’s the next step.”

The Eagles got on the board with 3:53 left in the half, but the Chargers immediately regained control as Carnaghe beat a trio of defenders and Neushul scored on a pass from freshman Skyler Carroll to give both players a first-half hat trick.

“Eli Carnaghe is going to find some open space in the pool, especially where he ends up playing on the offensive end because Lucas, Channing, and Grant are going to occupy so much of the attention of another team’s defense, that he’s gonna be able to get their shots off,” Parrish said.

Dos Pueblos junior Lucas Neushul evades a defender on his way to score one of his team-high five goals in Thursday’s season opener. (Peter Young / Noozhawk Photo)

Neushul deposited one more goal before the half expired, while Arroyo Grande found the back of the cage as well to bring the DP lead to 12-7 at the half.

The third quarter was a back-and-forth affair as the two teams exchanged three goals apiece throughout the period.

The Chargers’ three goals came courtesy of Wigo, Nelson and Neushul with assists from Nelson and sophomore Ty Abel. Wigo and Nelson’s goals came in transition, while Neushul’s gave his team a 15-10 lead with one quarter to play.

Dos Pueblos took full control in the fourth quarter, shutting out the Eagles on the defensive end and adding on three goals to bring the game to its final score of 18-10.

Nelson, sophomore Tyler Racine and Abel all scored in the final quarter to put the cherry on top of the season-opening victory. Racine was the seventh and final Charger to score in the win.

“What I really want to see is some balance, and I want to see everyone comfortable and confident being able to take that shot, because it’s not always going to be Grant [Nelson] and it’s not always going to be Lucas [Neushul],” Parrish said.

“There’s only 12 field players, so if seven or eight are scoring, it’s hard to guard us.”



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Northeastern volleyball hopes for comeback

Northeastern women’s volleyball is set to kick off its season with the Holly Young Invitational Aug. 29 to 30 in Durham, N.H. The Huskies are slotted against Saint Peter’s University, Holy Cross University and the University of New Hampshire.  During the offseason, the Huskies announced that Brendan McGourn would be the team’s new head coach, […]

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Northeastern women’s volleyball is set to kick off its season with the Holly Young Invitational Aug. 29 to 30 in Durham, N.H. The Huskies are slotted against Saint Peter’s University, Holy Cross University and the University of New Hampshire. 

During the offseason, the Huskies announced that Brendan McGourn would be the team’s new head coach, and Jaime Snyder was named associate head coach for this season. The changes came after a difficult season for the Huskies, finishing with a 10-16 overall and 8-10 in the CAA and a missed CAA tournament. 

In addition to new coaches, the Huskies are starting fresh with a completely different roster. Northeastern acquired seven freshmen, one redshirt freshman and one graduate student after six players from last season’s team graduated. Last season’s leaders in kills, blocks and assists are now gone, leaving senior libero Nadia Koanui as the only category leader in digs and service aces. 

Graduate student outside hitter Svenja Rodenbüsch and redshirt freshman outside hitter Valentina Meirelles are the Huskies’ only additions with previous experience on a college court. Meirelles appeared in five matches for the University of California San Diego before missing the rest of the season due to injury. However, she showed promise, tallying six kills in each of her first two games. Rodenbüsch won two national championships in Germany and was an NJCAA All-American in 2022 before ending her undergraduate career at Fairfield University. At Fairfield, Rodenbüsch averaged 1.78 kills and 1.27 digs per set, as well as 53 blocks last season. In the first round of the NCAA playoffs for the last two years, Rodenbüsch led her team in kills. 

Koanui, incoming sophomore setter Gabby Reeves and incoming sophomore outside hitter Brynn Smith are going to be key parts of the team’s success, carrying on their legacy from last season. Koanui was first on the team in digs with 459, first in service aces with 23 and third in assists with 96. Reeves ranked fifth in digs, fourth in assists with 72 and third in service aces with 18. Smith was fourth on the team in kills and fifth on the team in aces, with 168 and 13, respectively.

The Huskies begin conference play Sept. 19 at Stony Brook University and have their first home game Sept. 26 against Towson University at Cabot Center. 

 



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About Town Redondo: Home invasion, arrests; ocean water polo, Post Office upgrade

About Town Redondo: Home invasion, arrests; ocean water polo, Post Office upgrade – Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine Skip to content Police catch, arrest home invasion suspects Responding to a pre-6 a.m. disconnected 911 call about someone pointing a gun at another inside a car Aug. 17, Redondo […]

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About Town Redondo: Home invasion, arrests; ocean water polo, Post Office upgrade – Easy Reader & Peninsula Magazine



























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Police catch, arrest home invasion suspects

Responding to a pre-6 a.m. disconnected 911 call about someone pointing a gun at another inside a car Aug. 17, Redondo Beach Police officers tracked the report to the 1900 block of Matthews Avenue. 

Officers canvassed the area, learning that two residents had been victims of a home invasion, and the suspects fled on foot just before police arrived. Officers gave chase and took the two men into custody without incident. 

Jesus Velez, 31, from Rochester, New York and Draven Luna, 21, Queens, New York, were arrested and charged with robbery, burglary and kidnapping. Bail for each was set at $100,000.

RBPD detectives now prepare to present the case to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

The two victims were treated at the scene by the Redondo Beach Fire Department and taken to a hospital, listed in stable condition. Their identities were withheld as the RBPD investigates the specific circumstances and motives of the incident.

Detectives believe there are no outstanding suspects, and no further threat to the community. 

Anyone with information regarding the alleged crime is asked to contact RBPD Detective Coates at (310) 379-2477, ext. 3506.

 

King Harbor ocean water polo tournament coming; boat parade route expands

Ocean water polo in King Harbor will debut Sept. 20. A tournament with up to 10 teams, including at least two women’s, is set for a demonstration which may become an annual event.

Earlier this year, a water polo club approached Redondo Beach Mayor Jim Light about the idea, following a previous attempt at such an event by Redondo Beach Firefighter Grant Currie. 

The Sept. 20 tournament is meant as a proof-of concept, said the mayor, the idea being to approve a long-term event. Currie and Vedran Kaluderovic – City Councilmember Paige Kaluderovic’s husband, a longtime water polo player – are working together to organize the brackets.

Courts will be set up in the water between Riviera Mexican Grill and California Surf Club, a short-term location to take advantage of better spectator vantage points, before the proposed boat ramp goes in at the spot. Courts in the future are slated to be near the Joe’s Crab Shack site.

Ocean water polo is established in Europe but rare in the United States. 

“We’re trying to activate the waterfront,” said City Councilman Chadwick Castle. “We want to draw more people down so we can all use and enjoy it.”

In addition, King Harbor Yacht Club’s “Holiday Boat Parade” will have a new route in December, to go closer to the Pier and the corner by Riviera Mexican Cantina, to make it more spectator-friendly. 

“This is the only parade we have in Redondo Beach,” Castle said.

 

Post Office upgrades sorting and delivery center

The U.S. Postal Service has announced an update to the Redondo Beach Sorting and Delivery Center, to aid in operational precision and improve service performance.

“These new, state-of-the-art facilities will help make the Postal Service more efficient, more capable and more competitive for the future,” said Brian Cuellar, Redondo Beach Postmaster. “The investments we’ve made here represent more than just an upgrade; they represent a commitment to our employees, our customers and the future of the Postal Service.”

The modernized, local sorting and delivery center is one of 111 recently launched across the country, as part of a $19 billion investment to revitalize USPS processing, transportation and delivery networks. ER