(SEATTLE) — Sue Bird said her goodbyes to fans Tuesday night as the Seattle Storm lost to the Las Vegas Aces in Game 4 of the WNBA Semifinals.
The 97-92 loss marked the end of the 41-year-old guard’s legendary two-decade career in Seattle. She wrapped up the night with eight points and eight assists.
Bird began her career in 2002 when she was chosen by the Storm as their first overall pick in round one of the WNBA draft. She closes out her time in the league with four WNBA championships and five Olympic gold medals.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Atlanta 10, Oakland 9
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 8, Boston 4
Cleveland 4, Kansas City 1
Baltimore 9, Toronto 6
Texas 4, Houston 3
LA Angels 5, Detroit 4 (10)
Seattle 3, Chi White Sox 0
Minnesota at NY Yankees (Postponed)
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Pittsburgh 8, NY Mets 2
Philadelphia 3, Miami 2
St. Louis 4, Washington 1
Chi Cubs 9, Cincinnati 3
Colorado 10, Milwaukee 7
San Diego 6, Arizona 5
LA Dodgers 6, San Francisco 3
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Connecticut 104, Chicago 80
Las Vegas 97, Seattle 92
(LOS ANGELES) — It’s been a long time in the making — 27 years to be exact — but the girls’ softball team at James A. Garfield Senior High School in East Los Angeles brought home a championship trophy and plaque for the first time since 1995 earlier this summer.
If you were following the team this past spring, you would probably have never guessed that the Lady Bulldogs would come out on top. The victory was unexpected and a long shot because after all, they were on a losing streak and had lost all of their preseason games.
But Karla Bernal, the head softball coach and a physical education teacher at Garfield, never lost faith in her young players.
“It did start pretty rocky and it was really discouraging for our players because we did play a tough preseason game. We were playing top schools and schools that compete at a high level and unfortunately, we didn’t get any wins in our preseason and we went 0 and 7,” the 26-year-old coach told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Bernal, who’s also a Garfield alumna herself, said she knew the team had talent and the potential to win. They just needed to put things into perspective and not get discouraged by their past record.
She recounted telling the high schoolers before the playoffs, “‘You know what? They seeded us 20 [out of 22]. No one expected us to actually make the playoffs so we have nothing to lose.'”
“‘We just need to go in there, keep doing what we’ve been doing, that’s believing that we belong and believing that we can compete at this level, not letting our failures define who we are, and always putting our teammates first because when we do that, we are going to get the results out,'” she continued.
The Lady Bulldogs had a lot of challenges to overcome during their season, which ran from January to June. They had player injuries and morale issues to work through and then their big disadvantage was that they had no home field to play on as their field was under reconstruction.
“Some schools, they have their own field and you’re on your field, you’re in your batting cages if they have batting cages throughout the fall … from August to December. We didn’t have that. We were actually practicing in our football field, on our outdoor basketball courts, on our tennis courts,” Bernal explained.
“This team never had to face anything like that. And also, coming back from COVID, we [were] still transitioning from those obstacles and those struggles that they had to go through as a person. So it was hard for my team knowing that we couldn’t get field time,” she added.
Arnie Carrillo, whose two daughters were on the Garfield team this past season, put it simply.
“It seemed like everything that could go wrong, did go wrong,” he said.
Despite it all, the Lady Bulldogs kept practicing and squeezed in field time at nearby East Los Angeles College, which loaned their softball field to the teen players.
Their turning point came at their play-in game, which the Lady Bulldogs had to win in order to qualify for playoffs.
“We came into a play-in game and it seemed like everything that went wrong started to go right and so we went on a run where we upset the no. 5 team, the no. 3 team, the no. 1 team, and then we ended up in in the championship game, and what a beautiful day, what a beautiful moment,” Carrillo recalled.
“I think the fact that the odds were against us, once playoffs started, it just lit something up for my team,” Bernal said. “I think they just started believing in their capability and their preparation and they just took off and represented our school really well.”
Garfield’s Bulldogs would go on to win 5-3 against the Panthers of Gardena High School, who at the time were the defending champions in the division.
One of Carrillo’s daughters, pitcher Nadia Carrillo, helped secure the Bulldogs’ victory by driving home the double runs that clinched their title.
For Carrillo, who like Bernal, is a Garfield alumnus, watching his two daughters thrive in softball has been especially meaningful. Back in 1995, he was in the stands watching Garfield win their championship and softball has become an important bond for the family.
“It comes back full circle with me being there in ’95. And then, in 2022, almost 30 years later,” Carrillo said. “My daughters are part of something beautiful as far as winning a championship for your community.”
Carrillo is now hosting an online fundraiser to get the Lady Bulldogs their well-deserved championship rings.
“It wasn’t an easy feat and so now, that puts us into trying to commemorate them with the rings, to have something that said, ‘You know what? I was a part of this program at this certain time of Garfield’s existence,'” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Monday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
AMERICAN LEAGUE
NY Yankees 5, Minnesota 2
Toronto 7, Baltimore 3
Tampa Bay 4, Boston 3
Toronto 8, Baltimore 4
Chi White Sox 3, Seattle 2
Houston 1, Texas 0
Cleveland 6, Kansas City 5
LA Angels 10, Detroit 0
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Washington 6, St. Louis 0
Milwaukee 6, Colorado 4
Arizona 5, San Diego 0
San Francisco 7, LA Dodgers 4
NY Mets at Pittsburgh (Postponed)
TOP-25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Clemson 41, Georgia Tech 10
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Sunday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Toronto 4, Pittsburgh 3
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Oakland 5, Baltimore 0
Boston 5, Texas 2
N.Y. Yankees 2, Tampa Bay 1
Kansas City 3, Detroit 2
Minnesota 5, Chicago White Sox 1
Seattle 6, Cleveland 3
Houston 9, L.A. Angels 1
NATIONAL LEAGUE
Colorado 8, Cincinnati 4
Atlanta 7, Miami 1
Washington 7, N.Y. Mets 1
St. Louis 2, Chicago Cubs 0
Cincinnati 10, Colorado 0
Arizona 5, Milwaukee 1
San Francisco 5, Philadelphia 3
L.A. Dodgers 9, San Diego 4
WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION PLAYOFFS
Chicago 76, Connecticut 72
Las Vegas 110, Seattle 98 (OT)
MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Portland 2, Atlanta 1
Colorado 0, D.C. United 0
CF Montreal 4, Toronto FC 3
Sporting Kansas City 2, LA Galaxy 2
Orlando City 0, Miami 0
New England 3, New York City FC 0
Seattle 2, Houston 1
San Jose 2, Vancouver 0
Los Angeles FC 2, Real Salt Lake 0
(UVALDE, Texas) — As cheers roared through the stands of the Honey Bowl Stadium in Uvalde, Texas, on Friday night, it was a flashback 50 years in the making for some men on the sidelines.
Before May 24, the most memorable event in Uvalde was winning the 1972 high school football state championship. The teenagers became local celebrities, and this weekend, those champions, now in their late 60s, returned home to Uvalde for a 50th anniversary celebration.
The tight-knit championship team grew up together, from grade school to high school, ’72 player Buck Lanning told ABC News.
“We had a real good class. … We were running the same plays and same program that we’d been doing since junior high,” Lanning, 67, said. “We didn’t have any real stars. Uvalde had just a real good set of athletes — every position we had good players.”
He stressed the team’s camaraderie, recalling a time he got into some youthful trouble, and the coaches wanted the mystery culprit to “fess up.”
“I didn’t fess up. And they’re like, ‘Alright, the whole team is gonna run punishment drills.’ The whole team were in punishment drills for me,” he said.
Lanning said the coaches told them, “Until we get the culprit on this, we’re gonna run every day.”
Uvalde:365 is a continuing ABC News series reported from Uvalde and focused on the Texas community and how it forges on in the shadow of tragedy.
Years later, Lanning said the coaches told him they were impressed that the boys were “willing to sacrifice for each other.”
Lanning called the ’72 season “magical,” and said they “played some real good teams.”
Carla Hamilton Gerdes of the class of ’72 was on Uvalde’s dance team.
At the championship, she said, “The first time we went onto the field in Austin — Memorial Stadium — our mouths hung open. To be in something that huge was amazing.”
After the win, “We were all down on that field — it was one big ol’ party!” Gerdes said.
The 1972 team was honored during halftime at Friday’s high school football game, the first home game of the season.
“For those guys to come back and talk to our kids — and a bunch of them still live in the community — they’re just great guys,” current Uvalde football coach Wade Miller said. “We want to honor them and play well.”
On Saturday, the ’72 champs served as Grand Marshalls of Uvalde’s Palomino Fest parade. Then came their biggest event of the weekend: a replay of the championship game at the Uvalde High School auditorium. Players brought their wives, children and grandchildren to experience the “magic.”
Randy Gerdes of the ’72 team didn’t have to recount the historic season to his wife — she lived it. Becky Gerdes, who was on Uvalde’s drill team, has been with Randy since high school. The couple has two children and four grandchildren. She said she encouraged her husband to come back to town for the reunion.
The nostalgia brought a heartwarming reason to smile in the wake of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers.
“It’s still hurting me every day,” ’72 football player Carlos “Charlie” Ramos said of the massacre.
One of the children killed at Robb, 10-year-old Tess Mata, was a family friend, he said.
“But we’ve got to continue, we’ve got to be strong and we’ve got to keep going,” 69-year-old Ramos said.
Ramos, who still lives in Uvalde where he owns an auto body shop, said football taught him to not be afraid of a challenge.
“It’s an encouraging game. It’s a challenging game. You got to be smart and physical,” Ramos said. “I’ve had some difficulties and I just kept on going, and think I’ve done pretty good.”
Lanning added, “Our coaches commanded a lot of respect. You had to work hard. … It carried through the rest of my life. It was ingrained.”
Through tears, Lanning said he hopes the reunion is “a ray of sunshine in the darkness.”
ABC News’ Megan Streete and Kat Caulderwood contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — After an incredible run at the U.S. Open, Serena Williams’ professional career most likely ended Friday after losing to #46 Ajla Tomljanovic who defeated her 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-1.
The 23 time champion took a professional bow on the same court she won her first grand slam tournament in 1999 and from here she “evolves” to the next chapter of her career. Williams departs the sport having won the most Grand Slam titles in the open era and will go down as the greatest of all time.
The icon who transcended the sport changed the face of tennis – both on the court and in the seats.
The crowd’s support for Williams – which during this open was slightly different than many in recent years – cheered every point as if it were a championship point and every fault from an opponent much to the dismay of that player.
A couple nights ago, Williams said, “I’m from Compton California and I made it.” Made it she certainly did.
Williams, basking in the moment, took a chance to thank her family, team and fans as she likely closed out her professional career in an on court interview. “It all started with my parents. And they deserve everything. So I’m really grateful for them,” she said.
“These are happy tears,” she said as she cried, adding “I’m so grateful.”
Would she reconsider that retirement talk: “I’m literally playing my way into this and getting better. I should have started sooner this year. I don’t think so, but you never know. I don’t know,” Williams said.
How is Williams spending her first day post professional career – resting and probably some karaoke.
In the final post match presser of her professional steer, she said she looked forward to being with her daughter Olympia. “Yeah, it’s been really hard on her, my career. So it will be, you know, nice just to do that and spend some time with her, do things that I never really have done or had an opportunity to do.”
Could we see Williams on court – the door seems to be shut but not sealed.
“I don’t know. I’m not thinking about that. I always did love Australia, though…Clearly I’m still capable. It takes a lot more than that. I’m ready to, like, be a mom, explore a different version of Serena,” Williams said.
As she closes out her career, the champ says that she hopes to be remembered for her impact on the sport.
“I’m such a fighter…I feel like I really brought something, and bring something, to tennis. The different looks, the fist pumps, the just crazy intensity. I think that obviously the passion I think is a really good word,” she said. “I just honestly am so grateful that I had this moment and that I’m Serena.”
(UVALDE, Texas) — After a summer plagued with grief, anxiety and anger, Uvalde gets an escape, celebrating the high school’s first home football game of the season.
Residents will descend on the Honey Bowl Stadium on Friday night to watch the Uvalde High School Coyotes take on the C.C. Winn High School Mavericks. Uvalde’s stadium is just 2.4 miles from Robb Elementary School, where 19 elementary students and two teachers were killed on May 24.
Senior Uvalde linebacker Justyn Rendon was selected by his coaches and peers for the honor of wearing the No. 21 jersey this season, commemorating the 21 victims killed.
“I automatically started crying,” his mom, Venessa Rendon, said when she learned the news. “I was proud. It was a very humbling moment.”
Justyn Rendon said nearly everyone in town was impacted by the massacre, including his own family. His youngest brother was at Robb that day and survived.
“I was devastated, I couldn’t get here fast enough. All the ‘what ifs?’ started playing through my mind,” said his father, San Antonio police officer Eluterio Rendon.
Now football is “like a therapy,” Justyn Rendon told ABC News.
At practice “everybody didn’t have to feel the sadness and the sorrow. They just were able to feel the comfort of the family that we have,” the 18-year-old said.
As the team gathered for a pre-game dinner Thursday night, they were greeted by surprise visitors: Houston Texans coach Lovie Smith and Texans linebackers Christian Kirksey and Kamu Grugier-Hill.
“Whenever you have the opportunity to be of help, to be of inspiration, or just to be a person that can get, you know, things of these young men’s minds. You can talk ball with, or talk life with, you just want to be there,” Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey told ABC News. “I think that we have a job not just playing football, but to be role models and to be a helping hand.”
“I think it’s awesome,” Uvalde coach Wade Miller said of the NFL visit. “It makes us feel the love that we’re getting from around the world and especially the state of Texas. And to have those guys here and keeping up with us, makes our kids feel really special.”
The surprises kept coming on Good Morning America Friday. The Texans are gifting Uvalde with new uniforms and equipment for the season, and will honor the team with “Uvalde strong” stickers on their helmets at their first home game on Sept. 11.
“We’ll always be in you corner, we’ll always have your back,” Kirksey said.
The Texans are also hosting a football clinic for the Uvalde community on Friday.
“The guys just enjoy giving back,” Texans owner Cal McNair told ABC News. “All these guys have really embraced that as what they do and what they believe in.”
The special NFL visit was made possible by the Texans’ athletic trainer, Roland Ramirez, who is a Uvalde native.
“It’s been tough. Some really close friends have lost loves ones … so it hits home for me,” he said.
Ramirez said he’s glad the Texans can extend support and encouragement to the high schoolers — and he’s especially excited to watch his alma mater take the field Friday night.
Uvalde football ended last season 2-8. But already this year is off to a new start.
The season began last Friday with an away game. Uvalde beat the Carrizo Springs Wildcats, scoring a total of 21 points — a poignant and powerful reminder of the 21 lives lost.
“It was just a sign that the 21 angels are looking down at this community, and saying that they’re here, that they’re still present, and that they will remain present. So that was a pretty, pretty special moment,” Eluterio Rendon said.
Defensive end Jonathan Elizondo, 17, said the tragedy has brought the team together and that they’re mentally stronger now.
Elizondo transferred to Uvalde in the wake of the shooting to lend support to his family. He has cousins who attended Robb.
“I just don’t want them to see this as, like, a tragic town, you know? I want there to be positivity again,” he said.
Football “brings everybody together” in Uvalde, and Justyn Rendon said he’s excited to “bring the joy back to this town” at Friday’s home opener.
“It’s gonna mean a lot more this season. … It’s gonna be very emotional, very exciting,” he said. “And hopefully those little kids get to come out and watch us win. And that they don’t have to feel like scared, or have to be sad, but they get to feel the joy of being around their friends, their families.”
“This team means a lot to me,” added 16-year-old quarterback Brodie Carnes.
Carnes said Friday night’s game is “gonna be packed. Our community is kinda down … we’re gonna go out there and play for them.”
“It took us a while to be able to smile again without feeling guilty,” Eluterio Rendon said. “I believe that football will hopefully bring the community out … find a reason to smile, by enjoying watching our kids do what they love to do.”
ABC News’ Olivia Osteen, Jenny Wagnon Courts, Katie Conway and Kat Caulderwood contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Venus Williams and Serena Williams, a pair who first walked onto the national stage of professional tennis in the 1990s, have most likely walked off the court together for the last time.
The legendary sister act likely came to a close on Thursday night after the pair lost 7-6(5), 6-4, to the Czech team of Linda Noskova and Lucie Hradecka.
The first-round game marked, most likely, the final time Serena Williams and her older sister Venus Williams would play in a Grand Slam doubles tournament together. Serena Williams had announced that she was “evolving away” from tennis in a personal essay in Vogue in August.
Venus Williams had told reporters earlier in the week that the idea to play together was her sister’s.
“She’s the boss so I do whatever she tells me to do,” she had said while smiling.
The two sisters have dominated the tennis world for nearly three decades, ending their go as a pair on the same court they had won their first U.S. Open Doubles title in 1999. The duo would go on to win 22 titles, 14 Grand Slams and three Olympic gold medals while playing together.
(SAN DIEGO) — The woman who has accused ex-NFL punter Matt Araiza and two of his college teammates of raping her during a party last year talked about the alleged incident in an interview with “Nightline.”
The alleged victim, who was 17 at the time of the incident and asked not to be identified, said the sexual assault took place last year during an off-campus party at San Diego State University and she said it lingers in her mind.
She is suing Araiza, who was released by the Buffalo Bills last week, and two former San Diego State football players, Zavier Leonard and Nowlin Ewaliko, accusing them of gang-raping a minor. The alleged victim says she wants charges filed and the men arrested.
“I’m really just looking for the closure, because I can’t stop thinking about it,” the woman told “Nightline.”
The alleged gang rape took place during a party on Oct. 17, 2021, according to the lawsuit. The victim was a high school student at the time while Araiza, 21, and Leonard and Ewaliko, both 18, were on the San Diego State football team.
The alleged victim told “Nightline” she was intoxicated, in and out of consciousness that night, but there were several blocks of the night that she remembers “like they were just yesterday.”
The alleged victim said that she talked with Araiza outside of the house, where he gave her a drink and performed sex acts on her.
After that initial encounter, the alleged victim said she was led back inside into a bedroom, according to the lawsuit.
“When I walked into that room and I saw that there were several guys already in there, I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen, and I expected it,” she said.
There she said Araiza and his teammates violently gang-raped her, leaving bruises and bloody marks. She also said her piercings were ripped out. The victim told “Nightline” that she never once gave the men her permission for sex and said she was screaming during the incident.
“I feel like it should be clear to anybody that that’s not consensual sex,” she said.
The alleged victim said she contacted the police the next morning, filed a report and went to the hospital.
She said she didn’t initially know the identities of her alleged attackers.
Detectives in the sex crimes unit arranged recorded pretext calls with the men who were believed to be in the room when the gang rape took place. The alleged victim said that Araiza was on one of those calls.
“He told me that we had hooked up and he told me that I should get tested for chlamydia. I then was told by my detectives to clarify what he meant by hookup, and so I asked him if we had had actual sex and his tone completely changed from that point,” she said.
The alleged victim said that Araiza then denied having sex before hanging up, as was alleged in the complaint
The police finished their investigation in early August and turned it over to the San Diego District Attorney’s office.
No arrests have been made in the case, and police have not publicly identified any suspects.
“This case remains under review by our office for potential criminal charges,” the San Diego DA’s office told ABC News in a statement.
Araiza was signed by the Buffalo Bills as a sixth-round draft pick in April with a $4 million contract.
The victim said she threw up after hearing the news of Araiza’s signing.
“I was really upset because I thought that I had been doing everything that I was supposed to be doing in order to get them to face consequences,” she said. “I reported it right away and I was giving all my evidence to authorities and just to see him continuing on and thriving while I felt like my life was completely torn apart.”
The alleged victim’s attorney, Dan Gilleon, said he was in touch with the Bills in July about the suit. On Aug. 27, two days after the lawsuit was filed, the Bills released Araiza.
Bills General Manager Brandon Beane said in a statement that “our culture in Buffalo is more important than winning football games.”
“At this time, we just think it’s the best move for everyone to move on from Matt,” Beane said.
The accuser said the Bills and the NFL did the right thing by releasing him from the team.
“I can understand why [the NFL] might get backlash from those that may not believe what happened, but I know they did the right thing,” she said.
Araiza, however, has denied the accusations via a statement through his attorney.
“The facts of the incident are not what they are portrayed in the lawsuit or in the press. I look forward to quickly setting the record straight,” he said.
His attorney, Kerry Armstrong, released an additional statement contending the suit is a “money grab.”
“He is 100% adamant that he never forcibly raped this young lady or forcibly had sex with her in any type of way,” Armstrong said.
Armstrong also said in an interview with local station KFMB that his client did not know the victim was underage or intoxicated.
“He never gave her a drink, never gave her any intoxicating substance and she was not visibly intoxicated when he was talking to her,” he told the station.
Arazia’s parents also released a statement Monday defending their son and condemning the media.
“He has been extorted, discriminated against, harassed and the subject of multiple and continuous threats of violence and death. We have all been canceled. Every member of our family,” they said in their statement.
Marc Carlos, the attorney for Ewaliko, told ABC News his client denies the allegations while Jahmal Kersey, the attorney for Leonard, declined to comment about the accusations.
The alleged victim said even though she was intoxicated at the party her actions should not be used to minimalize what happened to her that night.
“I know I made mistakes that night. However, I don’t think that any sort of mistakes deserves what was done to me that night, and they still need to be held accountable for what they did,” she said.
The alleged victim said she’ll get real closure if arrests are made.
“I know this is something that’s going to stick around forever, but I think the closure will help. And I really do hope that I get it,” she said.
