What Up, Long Beach?!

We were at the 2025 Dirtbags Leadoff Dinner last Friday at the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach to celebrate the start of the season and talk to new coach TJ Bruce, his mentor and old coach Mike Weathers, emcee John Rami and PGA Tour golfer John Mallinger who is helping with the Dirtbags Collective.

We caught up with Wilson and St. Anthony coaches and players at the CIF Southern Section Championship Luncheon to talk about playing for titles on Saturday.

The Terry Donahue Memorial California Showcase has been the official sponsor of football coverage here at The562 and on the podcast we’re talking about how high school football players can take advantage of this opportunity to continue their academic and athletic careers in college.

We’re previewing the five Long Beach high school football games on Friday for Millikan, Long Beach Poly, Lakewood, Wilson and St. Anthony.

There are many rule changes for the NCAA and its member schools that will impact college athletics for years to come. It’s unclear if that makes life easier or harder for mid-major universities without football programs, and that’s what we sat down and talked to Long Beach State athletic director Bobby Smitheran about last week.

We’re breaking down the Long Beach Poly and Millikan football game coming up Friday night by talking about the players and matchups we’re excited to see.

We sit down with Long Beach State men’s basketball guard Ramel Lloyd Jr. and his dad Ramel “Rock” Lloyd Sr.   Ramel Lloyd Jr. transferred in from Nebraska where the 6’6” 210-pound guard sat out last season with a serious knee injury. He is also the son of Ramel “Rock” Lloyd Sr. who was All-Big West for LBSU in 2001. Lloyd Sr. is one of only 10 Beach players to score 600 points in a season, and he ranks eighth in career scoring with 1,527 career points.

We sat down with Long Beach State Athletic Director Bobby Smitheran to talk about NIL collectives, fixing the Walter Pyramid roof and much more.

We sat down with new Long Beach State Dirtbags baseball coach TJ Bruce to talk about his journey back to the Beach before his introductory press conference on Friday.

We sat down with Long Beach State men's basketball coach Chris Acker to talk about building his roster with exciting transfers who have local ties. 

We sat down with new Long Beach State Athletic Director Bobby Smitheran  and new men’s basketball coach Chris Acker to discuss the basketball program they’re building and everything else going on at the Beach.

We’re talking about Long Beach State men’s basketball improbable run to a Big West Conference Tournament championship and trip to the NCAA Tournament just a week after it was announced that coach Dan Monson and LBSU would be “parting ways” after the season.  

We interview former Wilson girls’ basketball coach Erin Carey about stepping down because of bad parents behavior.

We're talking about the top Long Beach High school winter sports teams and storylines with boys' basketball ball (1:30), girls' basketball (13:20), boys' soccer (19:45) and girls' soccer (27:30).

We’re talking about the high school soccer referee strike and how it will chance everything for the CIF Southern Section and the Moore League.

We’re talking about the CIF Southern Section football quarterfinal games for Long Beach Poly and St. Anthony this week.

We’re breaking down the CIF Southern Section playoff openers for the five Long Beach high school football teams to reach the postseason.

On this episode we're talking about how the CIF Southern Section football brackets are decided and trying to figure out which division your favorite school will be in.

This week we’re talking about the behavior of high school and college coaches— from what we’ve seen change to what we think should change.

This week on the show we're talking about how and why the amount of transfers in the CIF Southern Section has been increasing.