EL SEGUNDO HERALD February 25, 2021 Page 3
Cross Country Teams
Lead Sports Comeback
Story and Photos by Gregg McMullin
The restrictions on high school sporting events
returning to full competition have allowed
some sports to start up, beginning with cross
country meets. Under normal circumstances,
the cross country season would have started up
last September with the culmination of the state
meet in late November. The normalcy of high
school sports was altered with the pandemic
essentially shutting down all sporting events
since last March.
The Pioneer League’s El Segundo and West
Torrance became the first schools in the South
Bay to officially have a meet. According to El
Segundo, high school’s Athletic Director, Steve
Shevlin, the cross country schedule has been
modified with only five dual league meets, no
Section finals, and no state meet scheduled at
this time.
It’s been some 300 or more days since the
last time an El Segundo high school team
competed in an event. That all changed on a
mild sunny Saturday morning at West Torrance
high school when the Eagles and Warriors cross
El Segundo and West Torrance cross country teams were the first South Bay high school teams to return to action.
country teams faced each other in a dual meet.
It marked the first sporting event for either
school since March of 2020. It also marked
the Eagle’s return to the Pioneer League for
all sports for the first time in seven seasons.
With careful planning by both schools to
ensure the athletes were safe and following
strict protocols, the cross country meet went
on without any problems or issues. Eagle
head coach Marcos Bolanos was eager to get
his teams back running competitively for the
first time since November 30, 2019, at the
California CIF State Cross Country meet.
Coach Bolanos has had his teams working
out since the fall on a club team he started.
“Nothing beats real competition, and today
is just the start,” Bolanos said. He continued
that he explained to his teams they were the
first to return to competitive sports and that
everyone would be watching. The meet itself
ran smoothly, and the athletes practice social
distancing and mask protocols.
The Eagles faced West Torrance, a perennial
powerhouse cross country program, to start the
season. The Warriors have won seven consecutive
Pioneer League titles and are a favorite to
repeat this season. The runners started strong
and had a sub-five-minute mile to start. One
of the Eagle’s top runners this season looks to
be senior Will Garrell. He stayed with the two
top runners from West and was running second
at the halfway point. He ended up finishing
third in 15:48. Junior standout two-year letterman
Ryu Iguchi ran a spirited race, Nasai
Rivas looked strong, while sophomores Luca
Romero and Luke Harrell and junior Daniel
Pop competed in their first varsity race. Marcus
Ortiz was injured during the race and pulled
out, but the injury doesn’t appear too serious.
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Do You Know Fred Hampton’s Story? Daniel
Kaluuya’s Portrayal in ‘Judas and the Black
Messiah’ Will Make Sure You Never Forget
By Ryan Rojas for cinemacy.com
If you, like me, were previously unaware
of activist Fred Hampton’s story, writer and
director Shaka King looks to educate audiences
with his biopic Judas and the Black Messiah
(now streaming on HBO Max). King brings
Hampton’s story to the big screen by telling
the real-life events of how an FBI informant
infiltrated Hampton’s Black Panther Party,
became the chairman’s confidante, and ultimately
aided in his politically-motivated death.
To tell this story, Judas and the Black
Messiah needs to start by telling the story
of Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield), a young
troublemaker who, after a run-in with the law,
is hired by an FBI officer (Jesse Plemons) to
infiltrate Fred Hampton’s (Daniel Kaluuya)
inner circle within the Black Panther Party
for the government’s tracking. Taken in by
the promise of expunging his record (and
eyeing the opportunity to attain a lavish
lifestyle), Bill starts attending meetings in
which Hampton–or “Chairman,” as his followers
reverentially call him–inspired the
masses through urgent, commanding visions
and plans of growing Black Power messages
in a post-MLK and Malcolm X world.
Daniel Kaluuya gives so much to embody
the Chairman, bringing primal urgency in his
wall-shaking speeches as well as quiet reflection
in more intimate moments. It’s clear that
while Judas and the Black Messiah is driven
by the central story of a rat in the henhouse,
Shaka King naturally veers from this plot to
show even more of Chairman’s life, which
includes a beautifully blossoming relationship
with Deborah Johnson (Dominique
Fishback). Their shared scenes, in which the
two exchange ideas of inspired poetry and
favorite speeches, are pure cinema magic
(and Fishback is a revelation in the film).
While Lakeith Stanfield does an admirable
job of bringing the ethically-compromised
Bill O’Neal to the big screen, the more the
film goes on (with scenes that feel impactful,
but standalone), the more it feels like his
story of snitching feels less like the central
reason we should be watching.
Sean Bobbitt’s (Widows) cinematography
captures this 60s era period with a distinct
and beautifully cinematic vision. Jesse Plemons’
presence adds further weight to the
film, and Martin Sheen also appears (with
noticeable makeup) as the power-hungry J.
Edgar Hoover. And on a poignant final note,
the film is framed by an interview with the
real Bill O’Neal right before the
The overall impact of Judas and the
Black Messiah–which ends in a painfully
powerful spree of gunshots–is overwhelming
and deep, as I still think about the film
regularly even after seeing it premiere at
this year’s Sundance Film Festival weeks
ago. Through telling Fred Hampton’s story,
Shaka King channels the entire spectrum
of the Black experience–from the beautiful
poetry and unshakeable perseverance through
the sadness and rage that protesting and
oppression bring, which is very much felt
in today’s America. Through Kaluuya’s bellowing
speeches and Shaka King’s direction,
Judas and the Black Messiah will echo for
a long time to come.
126 min. ’Judas and the Black Messiah’ is
rated R for violence and pervasive language.
Now playing on HBO Max. •
Ryan Rojas.
Film Review
Judas and the Black Messiah, courtesy HBO Max.
Tyler Matlosz finishes strong for the Eagles.
See Sports, page 8