MILWAUKEE – Julian Swartz has joined the staff of the Milwaukee men’s basketball program, head coach Bart Lundy announced today.
 
Swartz, a veteran of over 20 years in the coaching profession, will join the Panthers as the Special Assistant to the Head Coach.
 
“We are thrilled to be adding Julian to our program,” Lundy said. “He is a Wisconsin native and a seasoned veteran in the business. His experiences as a player and a coach will add to all the areas of our program. Julian has a humble demeanor and fits perfectly with our staff.”
 
Swartz has many ties to the area as both a coach and as a player, dating back to when he was named the 1999 Associated Press Wisconsin Player of the Year at Waukesha South High School.
 
“I am extremely grateful to Coach Lundy and Milwaukee for this wonderful opportunity and am excited to help the program pursue excellence in all areas,” Swartz said.
 
Swartz’s coaching career spans 20+ years, including 14 years at the NCAA Division I level, most recently at Georgia Tech (2016-23) where he was on Josh Pastner’s staff, spending one season as the director of basketball operations before being elevated to assistant coach.

One of two members of head coach Pastner’s staff at Memphis to follow him to Georgia Tech, Swartz arrived at Georgia Tech in May of 2016 after four years with Pastner at Memphis. During his time at Memphis, the Tigers compiled a 92-44 overall record while transitioning to the American Athletic Conference from Conference USA.

Prior to Memphis, Swartz spent three years as a graduate assistant at Marquette (2005-08) with head coach Tom Crean and one as an intern at Indiana (2008).

From 2009-12, he served as a counselor in the West Allis/West Milwaukee school district, counseling kids and teaching character education, while also serving two separate stints as an assistant coach for the Waukesha South High School varsity hoops squad (2003-05, 2009-11) along with coaching youth basketball (2009-12).

A native of Waukesha, Wis., Swartz graduated from Carroll College in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He earned his master’s degree in school counseling in 2008 from Marquette, which made him the recipient of the 2016 Marquette University Alumni Counselor Education and Counseling Psychology Achievement Award.

A highly-successful high school player, Swartz scored 2,123 points in his career at Waukesha South to break the county scoring record. He was inducted into the Wisconsin Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2021 and received one of the highest honors when he had his No. 42 jersey get retired by the Blackshirts in February of 2024.

 

A three-time First-Team All-State selection and the 1999 AP Wisconsin High School Player of the Year, he was also named academic all-state. Swartz began his collegiate playing career at the University of Wisconsin in 1999-2000 and was a member of the Badgers squad that advanced to the 2000 NCAA Final Four.

 

 

MCLEAN COUNTY— A man from Normal accused of slipping abortion drugs to his girlfriend to prompt a miscarriage against her wishes will remain in custody as he awaits trial.

Emerson Evans, 31, appeared before Judge Amy McFarland on Monday afternoon for a pretrial detention hearing on two counts of intentional homicide of an unborn child. Prosecutors argued Evans should be held in McLean County Jail awaiting trial; McFarland agreed.

Evans was formally charged Saturday after the girlfriend told police he drugged her with the abortion pill mifepristone without her knowledge to terminate the pregnancy. She was seven weeks pregnant at the time.

Public defender John David Nairn sought Evans’ release from custody, citing Evans’ lack of criminal history. He was charged with driving under the influence in 2023, though the court did not consider it since Evans had completed court supervision in July.

Nairn also noted Evans’ longtime residence in McLean County, his employment at Bridgestone and children as reasons his client should be granted release. Nairn said three of Evans’ four children live with him and he coaches youth sports. He also said Evans posed no threat to society because the alleged victim, in this case a fetus, could not be accessed by the defendant.

McFarland appeared visibly befuddled by that comment. In counter arguments, McLean County assistant state’s attorney David Fitt said the statement was akin to saying Evans is “not a threat because he was successful,” and noted the woman’s statement to police that she feared the defendant.

McFarland apparently agreed, saying the violent nature of the alleged crime outweighed Evans’ lack of criminal history and showed an ongoing threat to society.

McFarland also brought up the fact that abortion is legal in Illinois, noting that if both Evans and his girlfriend wanted an abortion, there was a safe, legal, medical way to obtain one. Evans allegedly inserted four mifepristone into his girlfriend vaginally. The recommended dose is one pill, taken orally.

“Frankly, the number of pills demonstrates lack of knowledge or consent,” McFarland said.

McFarland also used Evans own words against him, noting how he told police he “made the decision for her,” thus taking matters into his own hands to “effectuate his beliefs of what should occur in the absence of consent. That involved taking a life,” she said. “That is the broader threat.”

Evans is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 12.

Michael Gizzi, a criminal justice professor at Illinois State University, calls it a disturbing case and says the charge of intentional homicide of an unborn child in Illinois carries a minimum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count.

“It’s a very significant charge. This is not a manslaughter case,” Gizzi said. “I don’t think it would be a hard case for a prosecutor [to argue case law]. They have to be able to prove it.”

Gizzi adds the criminal code dates back to the 1960s and makes clear that it does not apply to legal abortions.

“And it doesn’t apply to cases where a doctor is forced – in order to save the life of the woman – to do an abortion,” Gizzi said.

ATASCADERO — Registration is now open for the City of Atascadero’s Winter Youth Basketball program, welcoming players from kindergarten through 12th grade of all skill levels. The recreational league emphasizes skill development, teamwork, positive attitudes, and fun in a non-competitive setting.

Skills clinics and player assessments for grades K–8 will be held Saturday, October 4, and Saturday, November 1, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at drop-in times. Practices start the week of December 1, with games running on Saturdays from January 10 through March 7, 2026.

The cost is $118 for Atascadero residents and $129 for non-residents. Registration closes October 24. Volunteer coaches and program sponsors are also needed.

For more details, or to sign up as a coach or sponsor, contact the Recreation Team at 805-470-3360 or email sports@atascadero.org

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LOS ANGELES — With the new youth soccer season upon us, one SoCal girls team is coming off a historic accomplishment over the summer. 

The Brazil Soccer Stars traveled to Europe over the summer and won the prestigious Dana Cup in Denmark, which is one of the biggest youth soccer tournaments in the world. 

“We were really confident to winning because we all believed in each other and knew we could have came back home with the trophy and our medals, so yeah, we were pretty confident,” said 13-year-old Aalysa Mendoza. “But we were also really nervous. Who wouldn’t be nervous in a big stadium?”

For Aalysa, having the opportunity to travel overseas was the chance of a lifetime.

“It was very different, but it was also exciting because I never experienced something like that,” she said. “And I’m happy that I got the chance to because I know a lot of people don’t get the same chances that I had.”

The Brazil Soccer Stars are based in West Los Angeles. The nonprofit club trains at Penmar Recreation Center in Venice, and coach Toby Jones credits officials for adopting the team and giving them a space where they feel they’re a part of the community.

“The people have been great,” Jones said. “We come to community events and feel lucky to have this space.”

To help prepare his team, Jones has the girls regularly play against boys teams. The Brazil Soccer Stars play against boys teams not only locally, but they also had a chance to comepete against male teams in Europe as well. 

“We play against boys because they just want to go, go, go really fast,” Jones said. “And I also want them to understand that, like, girls are just as awesome as boys, right? There’s no thing about gender imbalance and stuff like that. Athletes are athletes. I think that’s something they carry their entire life, not just the football world.”

The team plays together and has a ton of support from their parents. The girls came together both on and off the field. The girls are getting ready to kick off their new season in a few weeks, and Aalysa wants to carry over the success from the summer into the fall.

“Win most of our tournaments and to win every team by a lot,” she said. “So that we can get more noticed.”

Good morning!🙋🏼‍♀️ I’m Nicole Fallert. Welcome to a special Daily Briefing Back to School Edition. 🎒

For too many young athletes in the U.S., the dream of playing collegiate or professional soccer is a game of privilege rather than potential. Unlike sports with robust high school and community pipelines, soccer has long relied on its pay-to-play model with increased costs at each threshold of success, shutting out skilled players from low-income backgrounds with scarce scouting opportunities. The better a player is, the more they pay until “elite play” yields to “elite pay.” Without intervention, the U.S. soccer industry risks losing generational powerhouses, not because they lack talent, but because they lack the financial resources to be seen.

This reality is disheartening for talented high school and amateur players looking to get recruited at the university and professional levels. The evolving landscape of professional American soccer provides ample opportunities for young players: the NWSL expansion, new professional USL leagues for men and women and the MLS developmental pipeline, with MLS Next Pro and youth academies. However, without improvements in player identification and support, many of these pathways remain out of reach for remarkably talented athletes whom we will never have the opportunity to see play at a professional or collegiate level.

Soccer’s recruiting infrastructure differs greatly from that of sports like football and basketball, wherein strong high school programs often serve as natural launchpads. In soccer, private clubs dominate the landscape, and the pathway to recruitment is largely shaped by costly showcases and travel tournaments. For families already navigating financial strain, these requirements create a hard ceiling on how far a child can go in the sport.

We see evidence of this through success stories of those who “beat the odds.” Take me, Lindsey Huie: My mother had neither the knowledge nor discretionary income for showcases and camps; I relied on donations and teammates’ parents. Thankfully, I was connected with the right people, earned a college scholarship and played on the U.S. women’s national team. But what if I hadn’t? Look further at María Sánchez. Now one of the highest-paid players in the NWSL, Sánchez also had to find creative ways to work within a system that was not built to work for her. She could not afford a travel team, but her outstanding high school performance and support system paved the way to success. Sánchez’s high school soccer coach chose to invest in her future, connecting her to Idaho State, which led her to Santa Clara, then to the pros! For many players, high school is not a feasible avenue; for Sánchez, it was the only way to achieve her dreams. It is players like her who demonstrate the need for support to ensure students don’t fall through cracks in the system.

From my perspective as a coach, the ability to recruit is only as strong as the system feeding into it. Unfortunately, many talented players are priced out of the game long before they reach our radar. We know this because of our work with nonprofit organizations that seek to alleviate the disparity. When an elite athlete from an underprivileged community is a standout at an ID camp, we wonder, “Where have they been? Why don’t they have more scholarship offers?” And the truth is, these athletes have been playing well the whole time; but with exponentially increasing costs of club participation, travel and exposure events, access to opportunity is often determined more by zip code than by ability.

Nonprofits like ACCESS U and Gritness have developed programs that focus on exposure to recruitment opportunities as well as mentorship, academic support and the tools to navigate the complex system. These partnerships have expanded reach from both coaching and athlete recruitment perspectives, creating connections with players not seen through traditional channels.

These programs further prioritize long-term development on and off the field, spotlighting broader implications. We want players to receive scholarships, graduate with little to no debt, earn degrees with academic support and feel equipped to give back — whether that’s through soccer or another professional pursuit. This helps players succeed, university programs grow stronger and elevates soccer culture in America.

Still, such organizations are not a substitute for broader, systemic change. Coaches, athletic departments and governing bodies must rethink how we scout, evaluate and support young athletes. We need to look beyond the usual tournaments and club pipelines and toward building authentic relationships with community-based organizations, local coaches and public school programs. We need to actively challenge the norms that have kept access to soccer skewed toward families who can afford it.

Policymakers also have a part to play. Youth sports are not just about competition; they are a proven vehicle for access to higher education, development of leadership skills, and building strong, healthy communities. Protecting and funding these pathways should not be seen as a luxury or an afterthought. It’s an investment in the future, not just of sports, but of education and opportunity.

If we want American soccer to reach its full potential, we need to reexamine how opportunity is distributed and commit to building a system where merit, not money, determines who gets a shot. Because when we only recruit from where it’s convenient or visible, we don’t just miss players. We miss the future of the game.

Leonard Griffin is head coach of men’s soccer at UC Berkeley. Lindsey Huie is the founder of Gritness and a former U.S. women’s national soccer team player.