Angel City Sports partners with UK-Based Goalfix Sports

Angel City Sports is pleased to partner with Goalfix Sports to provide high-quality adaptive sports equipment for the Visually Impaired.

Goalfix Sports is committed to providing safe, easy-to-use and long-lasting equipment and accessories for blind participation sports including goalball, torball and blind soccer. Goalfix products are recognized as some of the best on the market, having been designed and made in the United Kingdom to the highest British safety standards.

Highlights include their products being used in the 2020 Tokyo and 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, and multiple world championship events for Blind Soccer and Goalball. They are officially endorsed by: IBSA (International Blind Sports Federation), USABA (United States Association of Blind Athletes) and the English FA (Soccer Association).

Goalfix was founded by a father and son duo, John and Russell Warnock. Now the President of Goalfix–John Warnock spent 28 years as a Director of Football (soccer) and Futsal for the International Federation for University Sport (FISU). He has also spent nearly 30 years as the Deputy Director of Sport and Recreation at Sheffield Hallam University.

Russell Warnock now leads the charge as Goalfix CEO and Head Product and Development Designer. He believes there are four important factors when it comes to ensuring their products look the part and also get the job done–equality, safety, usability, and durability.

Los Angeles Rams Wheelchair Football Tournament Recap - Phoenix, AZ

3 weeks ago, Angel City Sports’ Los Angeles Rams wheelchair football team competed in their first tournament of the year, in Phoenix, AZ. This tournament marked the launch of the USA Wheelchair Football League (USAWFL) supported by the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Move United.  
 
Day 1, the LA Rams came up against the Greater Buffalo Adaptive Team. As it was the first game of the tournament, our guys came out with high energy and excitement. The Rams had a stellar game and started off the competition with a 41-0 win. 

The next game of the day, the Rams went up against the Lakeshore Foundation Team. Bart Salgado led the team at quarterback, while also doubling as the head coach. The Rams brought forth another solid team effort, with a couple of deep throws getting completed to push them ahead, displaying an overall great game from the receivers. The Rams really gelled together to come out of day 1 with their second win, 25-6. 

Day 2 started off with a worthy opponent in the Midwest Adaptive Team out of Kansas City. The game was extremely fast-paced and intense, giving the Rams team their first big test of the tournament. With a few big penalties, and some plays given up on defense, Kansas City came out on top with a 24-13 victory. They went on to be undefeated in the rest of the tournament. 

The second game of day 2 had the Rams playing a brand-new team, Adaptive Sports Ohio, out of Cleveland. The Rams put down a deciding win of 41-0, making the team 3-1 in regular play. 

On the final day of play, The Los Angeles Rams went up against the Ability 360 Team out of Arizona to vie for third place. This was another fast and aggressive game, and Arizona could not keep up with the pressure the Rams put on them. The Rams jumped out to a big lead and shut out Arizona in the first half. Rams took a third-place finish with a final score of 35-6. 

With this being the first tournament of the year, the Rams made an excellent debut. The guys started to come together, fall into their roles, and learned a lot about their positions and how to work collectively as a team. Going into the next tournament at the end of October, there’s no doubt they will be chasing down Kansas City who will also be the next host team. Stay tuned for their next tournament in 2 weeks! 

Supporters:

Move United

Bob Woodruff Foundation

Xenith Helmets

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More from our blog:

Tenth Day on The Ground - Post Mortem on the Heartbreaking High Jump Competition - August 30th, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton Frech’s personal Facebook page.

Yes, it took me an extra couple of days to get this post out. I have to say this has been an incredibly tough couple of days for Ezra, myself, and our family. I’ll try to walk you through the day without getting too emotional.

So in case you missed news, Ezra came in 5th in the High Jump competition. This was NOT the place he was hoping for, planning for, or expecting. It was a thrilling competition nonetheless, but unfortunately Ezra watched the final heights from the bench, where Sam won gold in dramatic fashion – he needed one jump to win Gold, and he did it!

When Ezra missed the 3rd attempt at 1.83…. I could feel every ounce of shock, disbelief, sadness, and disappointment as I watched him from the stands. I felt like I got punched in the gut, and the feeling didn’t go away for a long time… It was brutal. I honestly didn’t know what to do with myself. I wanted to scream, cry, run and hug him. I honestly just wanted to curl up and cry... But I also wanted to pay full attention to Sam and his grind-it-out victory, but man, it was hard to concentrate on anything but Ezra.

Here's how the day went down... That morning, I got up early as usual and was pretty anxious. Writing is good therapy for me, so I cranked out a couple blog posts and got myself caught up. I was quite ambitious and wrote up a very detailed timeline of Ezra’s highs and lows in life and sport. Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

I wanted you all to understand, while he makes sport and life look easy, it really hasn’t been easy. He’s fallen hundreds of times, maybe thousands, because of his prosthetic leg. He’s had two major surgeries to improve functionality. He's had ICU Psychosis where he ripped the IVs right out of his arm. He’s been teased and bullied because of his disability. He’s been counted out. He’s NOT made teams because of his disability, where they overlooked his ABILITIES. He suffered a potentially career-ending injury at the age of 11, in 6th grade. Most of you may remember seeing him in a wheelchair. But you probably didn’t know the extent of the fracture and the risk to his future sport career. This was a very dramatic moment in his career. Simply put, none of this is easy. Literally none of it. And the sacrifices he made starting in 6th grade, accelerating through 8th, and then going into overdrive in 10th grade... It's hard to put it into words...

Anyhow, I wrote this long blog and then packed up and headed over to the village a little after lunch time. He was pretty busy packing and getting ready so I didn’t really see him until he came down to meet the coaches and walk down to the bus. I just hung out in the lobby and tried to work, but mostly just watched some sport on TV. I was too pumped up to do much of anhything. Eventually it was 4pm and time to head out. Ezra and Sam came down. Coach Mack did an equipment check for him and Sam. Then we started heading to the transport area.

It was a fairly quiet bus ride down, with Sam and Ezra playing video games and listening to music. We got to the warmup track with a fair amount of time before they need to go to the call tent. The weather was actually kind of nice, cooler than it has been. They did some very light workouts before going to the call tent. They knew they would have a lot of time on the track prior to the event starting, so they didn’t need a full workout. We all just sat on the lawn and hung out for a while with some of the other athletes and coaches. It was calm, cool. A few rain drops hit. There was lightening 10-15 miles away or so. We were debating what conditions would warrant a postponement. My nerves were firing inside but I tried to play it cool. Ezra and Sam both seemed to be in really good spirits, ready to take on the competition.

At around 6pm we walked Ezra and Sam over to the call tent and they were quickly absorbed into the tent matrix. Mack and I opted to go get seats – we were worried about the prospect of rain and figuring it all out. We had great seats, right behind the pit. The Brazilian coaches were there. Literally moments after we sat down a huge crew of Indian coaches arrived, sitting on three sides of us. They had 3 jumpers in the event and this is a HUGE event for their track team. Sam was silver behind one of their jumpers in Rio. These guys are good. Really good.

Eventually the athletes all came out from underneath the stadium and started to measure out their marks and do some warm-up jumps. Ezra looked great. Comfortable. Confident. Happy. Strong. Ezra did one last practice jump before 7:17 when they took them behind the jump screen for the intros. The athlete intros were awesome. Ezra did a bottle flip, landed it, and ran out. So cool.

So here’s how the event went down. Ezra was the first jumper listed, but he didn’t come in at the lower heights. There were amputees who don’t use their prosthetic jumping at the lower heights… Going in, we figured medals would be won above 1.8M. we weren't sure how high, but that is sort of the number we thought you needed to be above.

Ezra's Jumps Progression

• 1.69 Cleared (5 ft 6.5 inches) This is a pretty comfortable height for him. His first height. Didn’t give him any trouble.

• 1.73 Cleared (5 ft 8.1 inches) This is essentially the height (1.74) that he cleared at the angel city games presented by the Hartford in 2019 which hit the B standard and made the US team. He then went on to compete at Junior Worlds, Para Pan American Games, and the World Championships. He’s a vastly improved jumper. He’s bigger, strong, and has much better technique. A relatively easy height for him now.

• 1.77 Cleared (5 ft 9.7 inches) – Getting this on his first attempt was a great sign and momentum builder.

• 1.8 Cleared (5 ft 10.8 inches) on his 2nd attempt – this is the height he cleared at Trials that punched his ticket to Tokyo. If you got the video feed, you can see it is starting to really pour at this point. The track is completely soaked with puddles everywhere. This seems to account for the first miss.

• 1.83 (6 ft) – This is where the medals would be decided. 3rd place was a 1.83 jump. However, Ezra missed all three of his attempts at this height. He has cleared this height a number of times recently. We have evaluated what happened and there’s definitely something to the rain/water challenges. I was even just looking at the videos I took and the rain is just dumping… and the entire track is one big puddle. It looks completely different, with the water reflecting back, which could be a little disorienting. It also was a slip risk – Ezra has had his blade slip out before, so he was a little worried about this. These are all small little things that can add up to a jump not going perfectly to get over the bar. His third attempted is the heartbreaker. He had TONs of height over the bar, but his blade clipped the bar. You can see how stunned he is. He thought he cleared the bar clean, then he sees the red flag and the bar down. I swear this was like an out of body experience for me. I just assumed he would get over that bar. HE assumed he would get over that bar. He can clear this height!! He has done it before! Devastating…. No other word.

The look in his eyes, the sheer disappointment, broke my heart. I couldn’t keep my eyes off of him. I wanted to hug him. I wanted him to know I loved him and the result simply didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I wanted him to know everything would be ok, everything would work out, and that his dreams are just that much closer to being a reality. But there was no way to communicate this…. At one point he walked over, I think at the end of the competition. I just told him I loved him. What else can a father say in a moment like that?

He watched Sam grind to the gold and was incredibly supportive given how crappy he was feeling in the moment. He did get to watch some serious history with that final jump for gold by Sam.

While Sam and the other medalists ran over to grab their flags, Ezra just stood there. We are hoping somebody got a photo of him. Sam kept telling him, take it in, remember this feeling. So Ezra just stood there. Staring. Watching. Taking it in. Watching 3 Paralympians prance around with their flags. Of course, we were beyond thrilled for Sam. But Ezra is not going to let that happen again, trust me...

I was super anxious to meet him after the meet. LaTi and I waited for quite some time. Eventually he came out… and he was really upset. It was one of the saddest moments in my life, to see your child crushed in this manner. He felt like he had wasted the last 5 years and sacrificed for nothing… Oh gosh it was so hard to sit and listen to this… I knew it was just emotions talking, so I tried not to respond to everything he was saying. What could I even say? I don’t know this kind of heartbreak, at least I can’t think of anything like this in my life. This moment was so big, so public, and had such a significant personal investment. Most of my personal let-downs have been much quieter. I hugged him as much as I could. LaTi and he hugged for quite some time. The entire moment, right outside the stadium, in the pouring rain, with an inconsolable child... I again felt like, this isn't really happening is it?

We eventually packed it up and headed to the bus. LaTi took a taxi to the hotel but I stayed with Ezra to get him back to the village. It was a quiet bus ride. We dropped his gear off in his room and went to the cafeteria. He didn’t want to see anyone, so we grabbed food and went to the far corner. We sat there for over two hours. We didn’t leave until after 2am. It was pretty quiet much of the time. I just let him process.

At some point I could see he was turning the corner. Bahar called, equally emotional as I was feeling…. And we had a nice 3 way conversation…. I could tell he was starting to map out a game plan. It was definitely a different game plan than he was hoping for… But in some ways, when the medals start to flow, they will mean that much more to him now. He knows what it feels like to get close but to not achieve your dream.

It’s crazy to think that this will strengthen his resolve and his character… I know it will. But the kid has resolve and character in spades already! Did he really need this additional struggle? I guess he did. I can’t even begin to imagine the young man who emerges from this.

He walked me to the security checkpoint so I could grab a taxi. My security guard buddy Toyoda was there and had a gift for Ezra – a traditional Japanese robe. So cool! He was so honored to meet Ezra. So sweet.

By the time I left him, I felt really good that he was moving through the emotions and starting to reframe things and extract some of the nuggets for the future. The future is so tremendously bright for this kid… He’ll be 19 in Paris 2024, 23 in LA 2028, and a mere 27 in Brisbane 2032.

Watch out world, the kid is going to come roaring back, I promise you.

Clayton

PS - I know I owe a couple more posts and the final two days in Tokyo. I'll try to get them done while we travel. We leave late in the day 9/3 and arrive in the morning of 9/3! Gotta love going against the time change!

Tokyo News Day 7 Results, Day 8 Streaming Schedule, and Top News!

August 31st, 2021

Tokyo News Day 7

Day 7 had huge wins for Team USA in goalball, women's wheelchair basketball, swimming and more! Check out the results from the seventh day of competition below and find out what to watch next!

We have launched a worldwide campaign to make Tokyo the most-watched Games ever. To get the message of this campaign out to the world, we are using the hashtag #TokyoWatchParty and encourage everyone to post themselves tuning in. Tag 2 or more friends to challenge them to do the same. Invite everyone to turn their eyes toward Tokyo over the next couple of weeks and let's spur the change we know is possible!

Today's Top Results

Track and Field

• Team USA's Brittni Mason narrowly missed gold in the 100m T47 final. She was awarded the silver medal after it was seen that her opponent's torso crossed the line one millisecond before hers. Can't get closer than that!

• American Breanna Clark defended her gold from Rio 2016, by winning the 400m T20 final.

• Sam Grewe secured the gold on his final jump in the high-jump event. He is also a friend and mentor to Ezra Frech, who finished 5th.

• Roderick Townsend took the silver in the long jump, making this his second medal of the Tokyo Games.

Goalball

• After falling behind 4-1 to Ukraine with 8 minutes left in the second half, Team USA dug deep and fought back! USA tied the game 4-4 and that score held, taking the game into overtime. On the first throw in overtime, Calahan Young buried a beautiful shot to send Team USA to the semifinals!

• Calahan Young had 4 goals, including the game-winner in overtime.

Swimming

• American Morgan Stickney overtook her teammate Jessica Long to secure the gold in the 400m S9. Long took silver, making this her 26th Paralympic medal.

• 18-year-old Mikaela Jenkins won the gold –and her first Paralympic medal– in the 100m butterfly S10.

• McKenzie Coan, added to her collection with a silver in the women's 100m freestyle S7.

• American Matthew Torres won bronze in the 400m freestyle S8.

Wheelchair Basketball

• The USA women put on a stellar performance in the quarterfinal against Canada, with a score of 63-48.

• Rose Hollerman and Natalie Schneider were the leading scorers with 19 and 18 points. Courtney Ryan also had an amazing game with 10 points and 13 assists.

Wheelchair Tennis

• Dana Mathewson lost a very close quarterfinal match against Great Britain's Jordanne Whiley, 3-6, 6-3, 5-7.

Road Cycling

• Oksana Masters dominated Women’s H4-5 to win the gold medal, becoming only the fourth US woman to win gold at both summer and winter Paralympics. Oksana adds to her collection of eight Paralympic medals in rowing, cross-country skiing and biathlon.

• Shawn Morelli won gold in Women’s C4 with an impressive time of 39:33.79. Shawn adds to her Track Cycling silver medal, which was Team USA’s first medal of this year’s Paralympic Games.

• Aaron Keith bagged a silver medal in Men’s C1 in his first Paralympic Games. Aaron has won multiple medals in world championships in both Road and Track Cycling.

To follow along with the results in real-time, here are a few resources to help:
Daily Schedule of Events
NBC Sports App
TV and Streaming Guide

What To Watch

Catch some of the ACS Paralympians in action Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Matt Scott: Team USA Men's Wheelchair Basketball
Eliana Mason: Team USA Women's Goalball
Mallory Weggemann: Swimming
Lia Coryell: Women's Archery

Here is the TV Schedule for Tuesday Night/Wednesday morning:

Swimming, Track & Field, Wheelchair Basketball, Cycling

6p-12a PT NBCSN (Live Stream)

Swimming, Track & Field, Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Tennis

12a-6a PT NBCSN (Live Stream)

Individual Sports TV/Streaming Schedule:

Wheelchair Basketball

Quarterfinal: USA vs Turkey (M) 8:30 p.m. PT Live Stream

Track and Field
Session 1 5:30 p.m. PT Live Stream

Session 23:00 p.m. PTLive Stream

Swimming
Swimming Heats 5:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Swimming Finals1:00 a.m. PTLive Stream

Goalball
Quarterfinal: USA vs RPC (W) 3:30 a.m. PT Live Stream

Road Cycling
Road Races 5:30 p.m. PT Live Stream

Wheelchair Tennis
Center Court 7:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Court 1 7:00 p.m. PTLive Stream

Sitting Volleyball
USA vs RPC (W) 2:30 a.m. PT Live Stream

Today's schedule can also be seen at NBCOlympics.com

Top Stories

Angel City Sports Tokyo Blog

Sam Grewe of U.S. claims high jump gold on final clearance

USA defeats Canada in wheelchair basketball quarterfinals

USA stuns Ukraine with walk-off win in men's goalball

Afghan athlete evacuated from Kabul belatedly competes at Paralympics

Interviews with Paralympians -Angel City Sports Podcast - Sports Saved My Life

Today is the Day - A Dad's Diary - August 31st, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

So I woke up today with a lot of energy and nerves. My heart was definitely beating faster than normal. Since I wrote my blog posts last night for the last couple of days, I didn't have much to do. I started to scroll through my photos... I don't have all photos on this phone as I switched phones in 2016, but I have a lot...

And it dawned on me that today is a major milestone. We are at the Paralympics, about to compete in Ezra's best event – the High Jump (3:25am 8/31 PST).

Regardless of how today shakes out, the journey has been amazing, difficult, and emotional. And despite the photos of a happy, kind, smiling kid, it has not always been easy or smooth. The kid has fought through challenges his entire life.

And I know he’s going to give it a great fight tonight on the track.

I know he’s ready.

So today I opted to provide some life/sport highlights of his first 16 years on this planet.

I hope this puts his story into perspective for anyone who doesn’t know our journey that well….

• 2005 – Birth Year. This could be a huge series of posts…. Tough couple of days in the hospital. We had no idea he would be born missing limbs. We start to figure it out. We map out a game plan. He’s a happy, charming little baby. He’s healthy otherwise, just has a different body than most of us. We get great advice from doctors and therapists along the way. Little did we know where he would end up. I would cry to myself while surfing because I didn’t think I could be the dad I thought I needed to be – doing sports with my kid. When he’s maybe six months old and starting to sit up, I realize he’s never seen a ball, so I stop at Toys R Us to get him a little ball to play with. I remember this like it was yesterday. His eyes lit up, he immediately caught it and rolled it back to me. He could do this for hours upon hours. I eventually found Challenged Athletes Foundation and our eyes were opened! In October 2005, we attend the SDTC and our lives are forever changed. We met Pirata the amputee surfer from Brazil, Rudy, Scout, and Sarah, all dear friends to this day. We started our journey in adaptive sports. His first word is ball, seriously. Throughout those early years, he hits all of his milestones. The kid is very coordinated. He figures things out.

• 2006 – He pulls himself to stand at about 10 months. We race him into Shriners to get him a prosthetic leg. He’s maybe 11 months old and immediately walks around the table with the leg, sort of looking at us like “where’s the leg been?” That summer, he learns to walk after pushing his toy lawn mower all around downtown Toronto while Bahar is filming Saw III.

• 2007/2008 – Surgery Year. This is also a whole series of posts some day in the future. We had a surgery booked, and cancelled it in the 11th hour. Bahar and I were literally going to puke for a couple weeks leading up to the cancelled surgery. My productivity ground to a halt at work. It was terrible. Fortunately, a doctor from Europe called us literally the night before we were going to the surgery to tell us to cancel, that the approach was all wrong. So we went back to the drawing board. Locked it in with the amazing Dr. Upton in Boston. Made it happen. Scariest thing imaginable – putting your child under for 15 hours in the hopes that they will have a better life. ICU was intense, brutal, emotional. I remember seeing him right after surgery and almost fainting… Bahar did an amazing job getting him back on his feet at home, with PT, OT, and event taking him to play bball on her hip while he was being fitted again for a prosthesis.

• 2009 – His motivational speaking career begins by speaking to local schools about his disability. He’s 4 years old. He’s also playing Toddler Bball at the YMCA because he’s not old enough to play at the recreation center. He’s featured on Good Morning America too and we meet Pau Gasol. Amazing relationships that is strong to this day. That Summer we attend Camp No Limits in Maine – it’s powerful. We see kids his age using knees, and resolve to get him walking on a knee asap to take a load off his hip. Shriner’s refused to give us a knee, so we switch to Hanger Clinic. They felt he was too young and prone to falling. We move on and join Hanger Clinic. He figures the knee out immediately and never looks back. Later that summer we fit him for his first running blade. Think about this, he’s 4 years old. That’s almost exactly 12 years ago. John Siciliano teaches him to run in a park in North Hollywood. He figures it out almost immediately.

• 2010 – By the time he’s 5 years old, he’s playing basketball, soccer, flag football, pretty much any sport he can get his hands on. He’s a great athlete, with a high IQ and a real ability to handle pressure and make the big shot, pass, or play. He’s the kid you want on your team, leg or no leg. In October October 2010 - Ezra wins the Rising Star award from the Challenged Athletes Foundation. The first of many accolades to come his way.

• 2013 – At the advice of John Siciliano (1996 Paralympian), we attend the Endeavor Games. He is 8 years old. He has a BLAST participating in a bunch of Paralympic sports. June 2013 - I take Ezra to the Endeavor Games, his first paralympic style competition. We meet many more Paralympians like Regas Woods and he breaks a bunch of records. He will continue to dominate his class, T63, throughout his entire junior career. He seems to shine on the track, and immediately falls in love with long jump and high jump. We make a commitment that weekend to come home and create something similar in LA, which becomes Angel City Sports by 2015.

• 2013-2015 – He tries out for a couple of different club basketball teams. His buddies who he plays recreation with, are all starting to play on clubs. He’s just as good as they are. Better probably than some of them. He doesn’t make any team. He keeps working. He’s playing both school and recreation sports. He’s not giving up on his dreams. He’s grinding.

• 2015 – We host the first Angel City Games. His grandfather, Bahar’s father, attends the first Games, and then passes away later that year. These two were incredibly close, inseperable. The night he passed, he attended a bit of Ezra's practice with me. I had a lot of work so we left after 15 minutes. But he sat there, smiling and cheering him on the entire time. Papa was beyond proud of Ezra, and we know he's with him today. Just look for the necklace around Ezra's neck.

• 2015-2016 (5th Grade). Ezra tries out for Sterling Basketball Academy to play with his buddies and he makes the team. Coach Brian sees the potential. He trains with the team and rides the bench for a while, until he finally sees some playing time. He starts an incredible club career, as an above knee amputee on a running blade. Really amazing. Referees and even other coaches would see him sub-in and their jaws would drop. I always felt like he had 3-5 minutes when a referee would first see him that he could foul and get away with it because the refs were so focused on his leg!

• May 2016 – Ezra gives a speech to the Golden State Warriors before the beat the Bulls regular season record and lose in the Championships. He tells them his goal is the be the first amputee to play in the NBA. He proceeds to get invited by Coach Kerr to join them for their practice, which is basically a shooting competition. He holds his own among one of the best teams of all time. At the end of the practice he stays around to do more shooting competitions and actually beats one of their players in a legitimate shooting game. Epic day.

• September 2016 – While watching the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, Ezra sets the dream in motion to make the Tokyo Paralympic Team. He sees Sam and many of our friends on TV. He wants to be here. That day he sets up a jumps course in the backyard. He starts training every day.

• 2016-2017 (6th Grade). In the winter of 2016, maybe December (?), Ezra fractures his femur training for T&F and competing at a high level in club basketball. There is some possibility that his leg doesn't heal properly and that sport will be taken away from him forever. Can you imagine going through that as an 11 year old? This is an emotional low point for him. I took him to play wheelchair bball with Michael Garafola at UCLA and we did some Angel City Sports events too. The good news is that he took the rehab VERY seriously, spending 3 months completely off his leg, using a wheelchair to navigate life. Once he was cleared to walk, legs were so weak, he could barely walk at all initially. He wasn’t allowed to run for another 3 months. This was a really tough time for young Ezra. We lost almost an entire year of sports due to this injury, but damn did we learn a lot.

• 2017-2018 (7th Grade). Fall 2017 - He does NOT make the A team in basketball at his school. He makes the B team instead and rides the bench much of the season. It’s beyond heart-breaking to see this kid deal with this. He’s been a star his whole life. Eventually the coach realizes how good he is, and he works his way into the line-up, and leads them to championship game. Bahar and I are so proud of him - He stuck with it, despite some really brutal times… It was a tremendous slight as he had been playing elite club basketball. He also swims on the Junior High Swim Team for cross training purposes. At this point, I feel like there’s a chance he’s a better swimmer than track athlete. He tolerates it, but he doesn’t love it. He wants to be out on the track. We do this to keep his fitness level high but to minimize the load on his sound leg.

• 2018-2019 8th Grade. He swims on the swim team again. At this point this is to keep him fit without loading the leg. We are just trying to protect his leg through his growth period. That spring at a junior high track meet, we meet Coach LaTi. She’s a coach for another team. She starts working with him, mostly in High Jump. Barely two months later he makes the US Team as a 14 year-old in a qualifying high jump at the Angel City Games presented by The Hartford in June.

• 2019-2020 – 9th Grade. The summer before 9th Grade he goes to Junior Worlds in Switzerland, Para Pan American Games in Peru, and World Championships in Dubai. He’s on the world’s stage now. He appears to be in really good shape to make the Tokyo 2020 Team. He convinces me to not do swimming. He wants to train for T&F to make the Tokyo Team. I relent, but am concerned about load on his sound leg. Then Covid hits that spring. The Games are delayed due to Covid.

• 2020-2021 – 10th Grade. Covid year. We don’t have access to a track for the first half of the year. He’s training in the park, backyard, and at the beach. Some beach trainings at 6am are pretty cold, dark, dreary. He’s all in. Finally, in January, we get access to his school’s track and facilities start to re-open in LA. He’s got almost exactly five months before Trials. He’s progressing all season long. Almost has a dangerous injury with his leg falling off in a meet (popular video on his instragram). We can’t find a good 100M mark to save our lives. His LJ is coming along, but slowly. High Jump is good, but seems to come and go. Lots of frustration along the way. He does well at Desert Challenge, and then does well at Trials. He makes the Tokyo team. We dedicate a lot of support resources to his preparation efforts this summer, with prosthetic issues, PT, massage, chiropractor, sports psych, meditation, yoga, stretching, etc. This is a tremendous amount of work for us to keep him going.

• 2021-2022 – 11th grade. Here we are. We are in Tokyo. Today is also the first day of school, which he is missing in order to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games in his favorite event, High Jump!

• Let’s GOOOOOOO Ezra. You Got This!

Clayton

Tokyo News Day 6 Results, Day 7 Streaming Schedule, and Top News

August 30th, 2021

Tokyo News Day 6

Day 6 was a huge day for the women of USA swimming and brought more medals across multiple sports. Check out the results from the sixth day of competition below and find out what to watch next!

We have launched a worldwide campaign to make Tokyo the most-watched Games ever. To get the message of this campaign out to the world, we are using the hashtag #TokyoWatchParty and encourage everyone to post themselves tuning in. Tag 2 or more friends to challenge them to do the same. Invite everyone to turn their eyes toward Tokyo over the next couple of weeks and let's spur the change we know is possible!

Today's Top Results

Track and Field

• Team USA's Hagan Landry took the silver medal in men's shot put F41.

• Daniel Romanchuck, winner of the close 400m race on Sunday, took third in his 1500m T54 heat. The final will be on Tuesday.

• Tatyana McFadden and US teammate Susannah Scaroni advanced to the final Tuesday as well, each winning their heats in the 1500m T54.

Goalball

• Team USA women finished pool play with a big win over defending Paralympic champions Turkey 4-3.

• Amanda Dennis netted 2 goals while Eliana Mason and Asya Miller added a goal apiece. The USA women finished pool play with a 3-1 record and secured the 2nd seed for the knockout round.

• Team USA men finished pool play with a loss to defending Paralympic champions Lithuania 13-3.

• Matt Simpson scored 2 goals and Calahan Young had the other tally. The USA men finished pool play with a 2-2 record and secured the 3rd seed for the knockout round.

Swimming

• Team USA's Mallory Weggemann came from behind to win the gold in the women's 100m Backstroke S7 Final. Her US teammate Julia Gaffney joined her on the podium with a bronze.

• Hannah Aspden won her first gold medal in another come-from-behind victory in the women's 100m backstroke S9 final.

• 4 other Americans made it onto the podium, making it a very successful day for the USA women. Leanne Smith and Colleen Young won silver medals in the 100m S3 final and 200m individual medley SM13 Final. Elizabeth Marks and Anastasia Pagonis won bronze.

Sitting Volleyball

• The Women’s Sitting Volleyball Team lost to long-standing rival the People’s Republic of China in three straight sets.

Wheelchair Basketball

• The men defeated Algeria, with a final score of 86-25 in their final round of pool play, making their record 3-1. Matt Scott put up his tournament-high of 16 points and 6 assists.

Judo

• American Katie Davis was defeated by ippon in the quarterfinals of the women’s +70kg division.

• Ben Goodrich won his quarterfinal match against Anatolii Shevchenko of the Russian Paralympic Committee and his semifinal match against Antonio Tenorio da Silva from Brazil to advance to the gold medal match!

• In that gold medal match, Goodrich lost a close contest against Christopher Skelley of Great Britain, securing the silver for Team USA in the men’s -100 kg division.

Wheelchair Tennis

• David Wagner suffered a tough loss to Koji Sugeno of Japan, 4-6, 2-6.

• Fellow quad men's player, Bryan Barten, lost to the number one seed, Dylan Alcott 0-6, 1-6.

• Dana Mathewson is the lone survivor for Team USA, winning her match against Sakhorn Khanthasit 6-2, 6-4.

Equestrian

• American Roxanne Trunell will be bringing home another gold from Tokyo after an excellent performance in the Grade I freestyle aboard her horse named Dolton.

To follow along with the results in real-time, here are a few resources to help:
Daily Schedule of Events
NBC Sports App
TV and Streaming Guide

What To Watch

Catch some of the ACS Paralympians in action Monday night and Tuesday morning.

Courtney Ryan: Team USA Women's Wheelchair Basketball
Trooper Johnson: Team USA Women's Wheelchair Basketball Head Coach
Calahan Young: Team USA Men's Goalball
Mallory Weggemann: Swimming
Ezra Frech: T63 High Jump
Lia Coryell: Women's Archery

Here is the TV Schedule for Monday Night/Tuesday morning:

Wheelchair Basketball, Road Cycling, Sitting Volleyball
6p-12a PT NBCSN (Live Stream)

Swimming, Cycling, Track & Field, Wheelchair Basketball

12a-6a PTNBCSN (Live Stream)

Individual Sports TV/Streaming Schedule:

Wheelchair Basketball

Quarterfinal: USA vs Canada (W) 8:30 p.m. PT Live Stream

Track and Field
Session 1 5:30 p.m. PT Live Stream

Session 2 3:00 a.m. PT Live Stream

*Ezra Frech competes in the T63 High Jump at 3:25 a.m. PST

Swimming
Swimming Heats 5:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Swimming Finals 1:00 a.m. PT Live Stream

Goalball
Quarterfinal: USA vs Ukraine (M) 11:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Road Cycling
Time Trial: Part 1 4:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Time Trial: Part 2 8:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Wheelchair Tennis

Center Court 7:00 p.m. PT Live Stream
Court 1 7:00 p.m. PT Live Stream

Today's schedule can also be seen at NBCOlympics.com

Top Stories

Angel City Sports Tokyo Blog

2021 Paralympics: Women have won 65% of Team USA’s medals in Tokyo

American Hannah Aspden wins first gold in 100m backstroke S9

Landry sets continental record with F41 shot put silver

USA's Mallory Weggemann chases down Canadian to win 2nd gold

Interviews with Paralympians -Angel City Sports Podcast - Sports Saved My Life

Ninth Day on the Ground: Another Day of Rest, Badminton, and the Golden Necklace - A Dad's Diary - August 30th, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

Another day of rest but a lot more going on. I got Ezra a gift of a badminton set, as he and a few of the guys were debating what sports they should add for Paris. I suggested badminton and few of them got excited to try and compete in a new sport. This was all half joking but half serious….

So I wrapped up the racket set and he had NO IDEA what it was. Kind of funny. Ezra told Trent to come down to the lobby and he surprised him with the set and they volleyed in the lobby for a few minutes. I am sure that set will be out as soon as Ezra is done with competition!

We filmed a couple things and then I headed out on a serious errand. To see if Ottobock could fix Ezra’s necklace that he wears at all of his meets? The necklace was his grandfather’s, who passed away in 2015. He has an angel wing in his grandfather’s honor, and a “road to Tokyo” intent charm that helps him remember the road he has travelled to get there, the sacrifice.

I found one of my contacts at the Ottobock repair center and he grabbed it and said, sure, we’ll figure this out. They ended up using a small copper wire and attaching the two sides. Then Jeff invited me back to see it and I helped him apply some tape to the break as well. It looks like a little necklace “cast” of sorts. Ezra called it a band-aid. It’s super cute. There’s no breaking Ezra’s connection to his father in law, that’s for sure.

Ezra got a massage, did some compression on his legs, and then did an ice bath. He’s got his pre-jump session routine dialed in. He loves ice baths, loves how he feels afterwards. He’s been doing ice baths for years. There was a time when we didn’t really understand the science behind them and he probably stayed in too long. But we have figured it out now.

After that, we grabbed dinner and Ezra went up to his room to relax and chill before going to bed. I watched a little more of the Games and then went to find a taxi… on the way to the taxi stand I got Ezra one last little gift for tomorrow. I’ll probably give it to him on the warm-up track or in the bus on the way. It’s something between us, but it will bring a huge smile to his face I know it.

OK, that’s it for today!

Time to sleep for the big day!

Clayton

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Eighth Day on the Ground: A Day of Rest - A Dad's Diary - August 29th, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

Today was an all-important day of rest. Ezra tends to jump really well when he has two full days of rest. So that’s what we did. This would have been the 100m Prelim day, with the final being 8/30…. We made the tough decision to scratch from the 100m a few weeks ago to give him the best chance to medal in the high jump. We’ll come back to the 100m in the future. I know he can run with the big boys. He can do all three. But he honestly hasn’t been training too much for the 100m either… and we also have further leg alignment and dialing in to do. We know he’s just scratching the surface of what the blade can do for him. So we sit this one out, but we’ll be back!

We mostly just sat around the lobby in the US building and watched the Games. Sam Grewe was with us much of the day and was trying to do work on the table behind us. We all grabbed a quick dinner so we could get back to watch some the bigger games the US was playing that evening. We watched the men’s rugby team fall to a fast, talented Great Britain team in the gold medal match. It was a close one, but we couldn’t hold on. We watched teammates Hunter, Jarryd, and Jonathan all qualify for the 100M finals in the below knee classification. Good stuff!

And we called it a night by 9pm or so. Pretty mellow. Pretty chill.

Definitely a relatively boring day, but that’s exactly what Ezra needed.

Photos of the guys in the lounge and my friend Toyoda the security guard!

Clayton

Seventh Day: Long Jump Competition Part 2 - A Dad's Diary - August 28th, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

So the long jump competition day went by like a blur for me. I was up and moving fairly early and wanted to be at the village in case ezra needed me for anything. I got there late morning and Ezra was busy packing and getting ready. He came down around 2:30pm and we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the Casual Dining (Japanese food) cafeteria. On the way over there we got a message that we would leave at 4:30pm instead of 3:30pm. We were worried that 3:30pm gave us too much time in the sun and the heat. Apparently, there were some transportation issues the day prior. 4:30pm turned out to be perfect.

We met the coaches and a couple athletes at 4:30pm and walked over to the transportation area to grab the bus. The Olympic Stadium venue is not very far, maybe a 20 minute bus ride. Sam joined to get some training time in. It felt totally surreal to be in the bus heading the Paralympics…. We arrived near the warm-up track and could see the big stadium just a block away or so. LaTi hopped a cab from her hotel and met us there as well.

The US had a tent in a GREAT spot with some excellent shade. It was not too hot actually where we were in the shade. Ezra just relaxed. With this kind of heat, he doesn’t need as much of a warm-up. Eventually he put the blade on and warmed-up a little bit with LaTi. He said he wasn’t nervous at all, pretty much all day he was saying that. So amazing. I was nervous for him but tried not to reveal my nerves.

Coach Mack walked me around to show me where we would drop Ezra off at the Call Tent and where our seating section was. It reminded me of being in Rio so much. I only spent two nights at the Track venue in Rio, to watch Sam Grewe jump and win a silver medal, and to watch my dear friend Angela Madsen. I knew this was likely to be Angela’s last Paralympic Games (she passed away in the summer of 2020 rowing from LA to Hawaii solo unassisted).

Mack and I went back and got Ezra and we took him over to the Call Tent. I took some photos and video and then watched him walk off into the deep recesses of the Call Tent area set up for athletes. We didn’t see him for another 40-45 minutes until he came out to the track to warm-up.

We then walked over to the stadium and grabbed our seats literally right in front of the long jump pit. It was amazing. It’s such a beautiful stadium, I really wish we could have filled it with fans. There were a couple sections of VERY limited number of people – probably not fans but fellow athletes/coaches and maybe a few sponsors sprinkled in there.

The whole time, I really felt a sense of gratitude. For the moment, for the access, for the ability to be there and bear witness to his first Games, his first event… They all walked out and grabbed chairs in the staging area. They started to get some warm-up jumps and confirm their marks along the runway. And then they all walked back to get ready for the introductions. I have to say, watching Ezra walk out on that stage was powerful. Hearing the announcers mis-pronounce our name irked me a little bit. Often the swiss/german announcers know how to pronounce it, but this guy didn’t know how to pronounce our name. Oh well!

And then the competition started…. Ezra jumped well – his PR is just under 6m. In the meet you can see him building his distance. He jumped 5.63, then 5.78, foot faults and makes the finals. Basically, the top 8 guys move onto the finals. IN the finals he had a 5.85 and then he foot faulted the last two jumps. He looked great, looked fast, and definitely had a 6m plus jump in there… but for another day.

If you haven’t watched this event, I encourage you to find the replay. The top three guys jumped over 7m and Wagner was in the lead heading into the final jump. And then two guys jumped farther and dropped him down to 3rd. It was a riveting finale! Ezra got a front row seat to an epic showdown. He got to experience the Paralympics in a less stressful environment, where he was a low probability to medal. He got to get comfortable in the stadium.

And of course, if you read my prior blog post, you know how I feel about how he approached the evening, with joy, light, love, gratitude, and such a high-level of sportsmanship, it’s hard to describe. It can only be seen on TV I think. I was so proud of how much fun he had, and how much love he gave to his competitors. It was a highlight of my life for sure. A night I will never forget.

We know he can break 6m. He has done it in practice many times. But hasn’t done it in a meet. We actually know when he loads the blade right, he is probably able to jump 6.5m or even farther. But the blade thing is VERY tricky. The sport is not as much about athleticism – he’s SUPER athletic and probably one of the faster guys on the run-way. But it’s more about the technical aspect of loading the blade correctly. This is VERY hard. We are learning, but trust me, we will get there…

After the meet, we gathered our things and I waited for him outside of the stadium in the pitch black. He came out smiling… We enjoyed a light moment… and as we were walking out of the stadium I heard my name being called. Strange, I know very few people in Tokyo! It was our friend Risa – she bought Ezra a basketball because there is a running bet between Ezra and Coach Fischer about whether Ezra can make a particular shot… So I asked her to shop for me for a basketball! So nice! My few friends in Japan have been incredibly supportive, offering to help us shop or get whatever we need! Can't wait to come back and take them all out for a night of dinner and sake!

We packed our gear up, Ezra got a quick massage, and then we grabbed a taxi to the village. The bus stop looked way too crowded and we all wanted to get back.

We went straight to the dining hall for a late dinner. I could sense that he wasn’t pleased with his performance. He wanted to break 6m. He wanted to place higher. We talked for a long time, after everyone had left our table…. The various athletes he had just competed against kept walking by us. Sort of a strange thing how everyone is together!

Finally, well after midnight, we started walking towards the entrance. And then we saw our friend Heinrich, the grandfather and innovator behind what above knee sprinting and long-jumping is today. He’s a 3x Paralympian and a 9x medalist who competed in Athens, Beijing, and London. He loves Ezra and told him how proud he was of him. It was a great conversation and then Leon Schaefer, the silver medalist from the long jump, joined us. He was definitely bummed he didn’t get gold. Somehow, everyone left this super late night conversation for the better. And maybe most importantly, Ezra and Leon have continued to forge a relationship based on respect for each other and Paralympic sport. This will be a long term friendship I believe.

I walked Ezra to the US “block” and watched as he stepped into the elevator. Officially a Paralympian. A 16 year old Paralympian with the world at his finger tips. I am so proud of this child, so honored to be his father. As I walked in the dark to the taxi cab area (surprisingly far from the residences), I kept shaking my head… We did it. He did it. Amazing.

Clayton

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Seventh Day on the Ground: Long Jump Competition - A Dad's Diary - August 28th, 2021

This blog post originated from Clayton’s Frech’s personal Facebook page. He is chronicling his journey as a dad with his son that is headed to Tokyo.

As I write this post, I am really emotional… I am literally tearing up with pride. Yeah, maybe I am a little sleep deprived from a long day and long night yesterday too, maybe there’s a little delirium going on, but mostly just pride.

Pure pride. My son is officially a Paralympian. My son is the 8th best above knee long jumper in the world. I am trying to take this in and appreciate this moment. He’ll never be a 16 year-old Paralympian again.

But this kid, this child, this young man has given the sport he loves everything he could possibly give. He has sacrificed things that I would never have sacrificed as a teenager. He’s the hardest working 16 year-old you will meet, hands down, anywhere in the world. He’s a disciplined as they come. He hasn’t eaten sugar in well over a year, maybe two years. He’s dialed in his sleep schedule. His mental game is on point. His recovery process is strong. He does little exercises in between big workouts to strengthen parts of the body I didn’t know needed to be strengthened. He rarely goes out late with his friends.

He dreams big. He takes in guidance and coaching and wisdom from everyone around him. He researches ways he can be better, bigger, stronger, fast, more flexible. He’s fearless in pursuit of what he wants. He goes after his dreams with such fervor, such passion, and such relentlessness… that I think we can all learn a lot from him.

And last night, while he enjoyed the moment and did his best, he was definitely disappointed in his performance. He wanted to be the first American to break the 6M mark. He wanted a higher place (he was also 8th place in the Long Jump at World Championships in 2019). We knew it was a long shot to get to the podium.

But as I told him last night, I honestly don’t care about medals, placements, rankings, or records as much as I care about how he carries himself.

What I saw last night was a beautiful performance from a beautiful child. It reminded me of when he was 9 years old, in 2014, we were at Junior Nationals. He raced the 100M and he smoked all the other kids. Like, destroyed them. (side note, he’s been dominating at youth track meets since he was 8 years old and holds dozens of age group records in many events)

And I was filming him and I can’t remember if I turned off the camera or I kept filming. But I remember this moment so clearly. He finishes his race, whips around, and jogs back to the finish line to high-five the other kids as they crossed the finish line behind him. I started crying out of love, honor, and joy. To see the kindness coming from him made my heart melt.

This was the same boy I saw compete last night. Sure, he didn’t have the best jump day possible. That’s ok. He has to learn that not every day is your best jump day. The late, great, Angela Madsen counseled him after a so-so 100M race in 2015 or 2016 on this very topic. That day he was crying he was so upset that he didn’t set a personal record. I feel blessed that he’s literally had the benefit of learning from legends.

But that boy from junior nationals jumped last night. He was joyful, positive, and enjoying the moment. He was supporting his fellow competitors giving them love and encouragement.

And while he was captivating all night, the moment I will remember forever was after his 6th and final attempt, where he confirmed his 8th place finish, he didn’t walk back to the staging area and sulk. He sat right near the jump pit (near where I was), found a random chair, and watched the rest of the guys jump.

And as each athlete came off the pit and walked back towards the staging area, he would pop up, give them a hug or a handshake, congratulate them and offer some words of love and positivity.

I mean, seriously. Who does that?

This is what makes me proud. This is the boy we are raising, who intuitively understands his role is to lift up everyone else. To give everyone else support, love, and inspiration to chase their dreams. To be there when others are down. To celebrate when others achieve their dreams. To be engaging, present, and alive for these moments.

He accomplished this and more. He won a gold medal in my mind when it comes to bringing love, camaraderie, and demonstrating the highest level of sportsmanship possible. I am deeply honored to be his father.

I may try to write another blog post for this day, as it was pretty amazing and special to experience the preparation, the travel, the warm-up track, etc. with him. But I am going to leave it here for now.

God bless this child as he serves as a role model and example for us all to follow.

Photos attached of the infamous "chair" he found and his interactions with his fellow competitors.

Clayton

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