Category Archives: Progress

Nikki Spoelstra, the wife of Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra, is offering an inspiring update on the couples four-year-old son Santiago, who was first diagnosed with cancer during the Heats 2021-22 season.

Back in March, Santiago Spoelstra underwent what was described at the time only as a medical procedure. His father missed one game because of that issue.

The serious nature of Burkitt lymphoma required quick efforts on the part of the medical staff that was treating Santiago Spoelstra, Thats because its a form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma that begins in the immune cells and can spread rapidly.

Despite the uncertainty of his sons situation and the chemotherapy that was required to bring the disease into remission, Erik Spoelstra continued to coach the team, though he offered no insight on what he and his wife were enduring.

In retrospect, that makes Erik Spoelstras efforts to coach the Heat into their second finals in the past three seasons a remarkable accomplishment. The Heat fell in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season to the Boston Celtics, who subsequently lost in the finals to the Golden State Warriors.

Of course, Nikki Spoelstra was also enduring her own pain and was forced to do it as she carried the couples third child, That pending arrival was announced by her last month, with the baby, a girl, due this fall.

Santiago Spoelstra and his younger brother Dante will be ready to welcome their new sister when she arrives. The hope is that some point in the future that his medical issues will be a thing of the past,

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Erik Spoelstras wife shares inspiring progress after revealing that their son was battling cancer du... - Heat Nation

Just days after winning the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award, the Department of Energys highest honor for mid-career scientists, Rachel Segalman, professor and chair of UC Santa Barbaras Chemical Engineering Department, learned shed received another top honor the Andreas Acrivos Award for Professional Progress in Chemical Engineering, among the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) most prestigious prizes.

The AIChE annually presents the Professional Progress Award in recognition of one researchers sustained intellectual leadership and significant contributions to the field of chemical engineering. Segalman was recognized for pioneering studies of functional soft materials including semiconducting block polymers, polymeric ionic liquids, and hybrid thermoelectric materials.

Much like the Lawrence Award, the Acrivos Professional Progress Award is special because some of my personal heroes have won it, said Segalman, referencing Frances Arnold (2004) and Matthew Tirrell (1998), the former dean of UCSBs College of Engineering. While the Lawrence Award is special because of its stature in the U.S. government, the Acrivos Professional Progress is a recognition from my peers.

Segalmans research focuses on controlling the self-assembly, structure, and properties in functional polymers. Structural control over soft matter through microscopic length scales is a key tool for optimizing properties in applications ranging from solar and thermal energy to biomaterials.

An elected member of the National Academy of Engineering and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, Segalmans work has provided key insights into the molecular basis for the thermoelectric effect in organic molecules, an essential step to subsequent advances in organic thermoelectrics, a field in which she has emerged as a pioneer through her fundamental advances in the science of molecular thermoelectrics and engineering their design.

Segalman also has made important connections between the molecular and mesoscale structure of polymers and their ability to transport electronic and ionic charge, most recently demonstrating superionic conduction in polymers. She is associate director of the Materials for Water and Energy Systems, which seeks to make similar connections with application to the purification of water from perniciously contaminated sources.

We are extremely proud to congratulate Rachel Segalman on receiving one of the highest honors awarded in chemical engineering, said Tresa Pollock, interim dean of the College of Engineering and the Alcoa Distinguished Professor of Materials. Peer recognition of her pioneering studies on functional soft materials and their impact in the chemical engineering and materials science disciplines is well deserved.

Acrivos is an internationally recognized educator and researcher who helped transform the field of chemical engineering, especially in the areas of fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer. His research on the flow of viscous fluids made it possible to model, analyze and engineer chemical and fluid processes, with applications in industries such as microelectronics and petroleum recovery.

Segalman briefly shared an office with Acrivos while she was an assistant professor at UC Berkeley and he was on sabbatical.

He was visiting Berkeley for my first few months on faculty, she recalled. His mentorship and especially his warmth and welcome to academia made a lasting impression on my career to this day, they remind me how important that first welcome is in a career. So, it is particularly thrilling to receive this award that is named after him.

Segalman will receive the award in November, at an honors ceremony during the 2022 AIChE Annual Meeting.

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In the Name of Progress | The UCSB Current - The UCSB Current

Justin Fields regularly trends on Twitter. Doesnt matter if the Bears are in hibernation. Doesnt matter if a scientist has come up with a cure for cancer. The Bears quarterback is always there, like your conscience. Ill ask myself, Its March, the season is months away and what could people possibly be saying about him?

Silly me. Theres always something to be said about Fields even when there really isnt. Undeterred by his rocky rookie season, Bears fans have kept up a tidal wave of love for the kid. It will carry him to the start of training camp Tuesday. On social media, the reason to talk about him can come from any number of inspirations video of a perfect, 15-yard minicamp pass that launches a thousand odes. An experts quarterback ranking that outrageously libels Our Man. A report that shows Fields jersey as one of the top sellers in the NFL.

If he lives up to even a fraction of what people see for him in Year 2 of his career, hell letter in four sports this year.

And all of it the love, the strident defenses, the virtual stalking is OK. If you cant be hopeful during training camp, you cant be hopeful ever.

Im about to ask whats realistic for Fields in 2022, knowing full well that realism has about as much to do with training camp as goat yoga does. The reality is that, as physically talented as his biggest backers say he is, the Bears talent level on offense isnt expected to be commensurate with that of a good NFL offense. That side of the ball could be really bad this season.

Now, before the true believers jump on me for injecting negativity (realism!) into what should be a joyous occasion (the start of camp), I want to point out that I have graciously given you an out. If Fields doesnt live up to your Year 2 expectations, youll be able to say that new general manager Ryan Poles has saddled the poor guy with linemen who cant block and receivers who cant receive.

Last year, you were able to say that Fields struggles were all Matt Nagys fault. Nagy is the former Bears coach who, his detractors say, wouldnt know a pass from a run, an X from an O or a quarterback from a nickelback. In this reading of the situation, Fields seven touchdowns, 10 interceptions and 73.2 passer rating were Nagys doing.

Id like to say that well soon find out if Nagy was to blame for everything, but I dont think we will. Not that Nagy will escape condemnation. His ship has sailed, and its called the SS Offensive Ineptitude. But with the Bears talent level expected to be so low on offense, its going to be hard to pin all of the planets woes on Nagy. I know youll try.

The excuse game can last only so long, however. There has to be real progress from Fields, and just because the offense isnt expected to be great, it doesnt mean he has to spend a season running in place. I want to see his accuracy improve. He obviously has a good arm. Can that arm deliver footballs into the hands of receivers? Fields certainly didnt do that well enough last season.

The rest of it is merit-badge stuff what his teammates say about his leadership skills in the huddle, how he processes information, etc. Just complete passes more often. The hard ones and the easy ones. If he can do that, then maybe he can be the quarterback his legion of followers say he already is. Until then, its just a wall of sound on social media.

Again, thats OK for now. Training camp has two parallel tracks. One track is for the players and the coaches to gel. The other is for unreined optimism, even when logic tells you to hold your horses. So enjoy the next month or so. The Bears preseason opener is against the Chiefs on Aug. 13, with Nagy, now a Kansas City assistant, making his return to Soldier Field. If Fields has a good game, I wouldnt want to be Nagy. If Fields doesnt have a good game, Bears fans can blame everybody else. What a beautiful thing preseason is.

I dont know what you call what the Bears are doing. A rebuild? A rebuild gives sports franchises a license to stink while offering hope. Its a weird sell, but its all the rage these days.

The Bears should just get it over with and change their name to Justin Fields Bears. I think Ill put that on Twitter. Feel free to love it.

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Justin Fields progress is the only storyline heading into Bears camp - Chicago Sun-Times

The American Rescue Plan's$5 billion investmentin emergency housing vouchers (EHVs) is helping tens of thousands of people escapehomelessness.

The programis leasing at a rate faster than any previous HUD housing voucher programand is driving unprecedented collaboration between public housing agencies (PHAs), homeless services organizations, and victim services organizations.

In the last year, EHVs have helped more than 26,000 householdssecure permanent housing, and nearly 35,000 are searching for a unit or completing the leasing process.87% of EHVs have been either leased or issued, and on average, the time between an EHV being issued to leasing a home is77 days.

President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan inMarch 2021,awarding70,000 EHVs to nearly 700 PHAs for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness; people fleeing, or attempting to flee, domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, or human trafficking; and people who were recently homeless or who have a high risk of housing instability. In September 2021, HUD and USICH launched House Americato help state, local, and tribal leaders make the most ofEHVs and other federal funding. To date, 100 communities have joined House America.

The EHV program is the first-ever special purpose voucher program within HUD to address overall homelessness and not specifically veteran homelessness. Itprovides communities new flexibilities and resources [... that include]robust administrative funding and a new service fee that allows program administrators to pay for costs necessary to help families find and retain housing, HUD stated in a new fact sheet. PHAs can also use service fees for landlords incentives, tenants security and utility deposits, housing search assistance, and even for furniture and household goods, which are often a forgotten expense for families who are directly transitioning from homelessness.

Through the EHV program, HUD is takingaggressive actions to address homelessness by:

For more onhow HUDis taking these actions, readthe full fact sheet.

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87% Leased or Issued: The Unprecedented Progress of Emergency Housing Vouchers - United States Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH)

No DLC has been confirmed for Horizon Forbidden West yet, but speculation that it might be in development has started after one of Aloys motion capture actresses,Peggy Vrijens, confirmed she was back in the studio for more mocap work. More evidence appeared after the actress also met up with Louis Van Beek, who provides voices for the game.

Peggy Vrijens was the actress who did a lot of the motion capture for Aloy during the action scenes in Horizon Forbidden West while Ashly Burch did the cutscenes and an anonymous stuntwoman did the most intense stunts. In an Instagram post (thanks Reddit), Vrijens revealed she was back doing motion capture, and when her only listed credits are for Horizon Forbidden West, fans started speculating DLC may be on the way. In another post (thanks GamesRadar), the actress revealed she had met up with Louis Van Beek, who provided Walla voices for the game, around the same time.

Many have speculated DLC would be released for Horizon Forbidden West, having found areas off the edge of the map that they suspect would make perfect locations. Theres a ruined fortress at the edge of the map to the east of Plainsong, as well as a strange unused area of water to the south of Latopolis. Of course, theres also the possibility the pair are doing some work for the upcoming VR game Horizon: Call of the Mountain. Aloy is not the protagonist in this game but is still promised to be making an appearance. Whatever it is, hopefully we find out soon enough.

In other news, the rumors about a battle royale standalone game set in the world of Tom Clancys The Division may just be about The Division Heartland. Elsewhere, reports claim the smaller game delayed alongside Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is Assassins Creed Rift.

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Horizon Forbidden West DLC Reportedly in Progress as Actress Heads Into MoCap - PlayStation LifeStyle

While Pavel Zacha filed for arbitration earlier this month, it appears that theres a good chance that his case wont come to a hearing. The centers agent Darren Ferris of Quartexx told Steve Conroy of the Boston Herald that a new deal for his client should be completed in short order.

Boston acquired the 25-year-old from New Jersey just hours before free agency opened up earlier this month in exchange for Erik Haula. Zacha hasnt been able to live up to his draft billing as the sixth-overall selection in 2015 but he has shown improvement over the last couple of seasons and is coming off a year that saw him collect 15 goals and 21 assists in 70 games with New Jersey; his 36 points were a career-high.

That was good enough for Boston to acquire and qualify him at a $3M cost although that number is likely going to go higher on his next contract. Zacha is in his final season of RFA eligibility since he already has six seasons of service time under his belt so it stands to reason that the sides are working on a multi-year agreement at this point which would at least give them a bit of depth down the middle.

It would also give them the cost certainty needed to move forward with the rest of their offseason planning. The Bruins have stated their interest in re-signing Patrice Bergeron if the soon-to-be 37-year-old is open to returning for a 19th NHL season. Theyve also been in talks with David Krejci about bringing him back to North America. But until Zachas deal gets done, GM Don Sweeney wont know what exactly he has left in cap space.

Either way, it wont be much. CapFriendly currently projects Boston to have $4.758M in cap room, the bulk of which will go to Zacha. Not surprisingly, Sweeney acknowledged earlier this month that if Bergeron and Krejci return, it will need to be on a low-salary deal with performance bonuses. They will likely need to clear out a contract as well, even with several veterans (Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk) likely to start the year on LTIR. Ferris also told Conroy that theres lots going on so a Zacha contract may be the domino that gets things going on the rest of their offseason moves.

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Bruins and Pavel Zacha making progress on contract talks - Yardbarker

The New England Journal of Medicine reported an important finding in 2019 from a Yale-led clinical trial: for the first time, researchers showed that a drug, teplizumab, could delay the development of type 1 diabetes by two years.

Kevan Herold, MD, C.N.H. Long Professor of Immunology and professor of medicine (endocrinology), and the principal investigator of the trial, said teplizumab likely will be FDA-approved in mid-November for people who are at high risk of diabetes, not only those with a family history of the disease. Once approved, all children should be screened for diabetes risk so that those at high risk will have a chance to prevent or at least delay the disease, Herold said.

Any delay in the onset of a chronic disease is valuable, Herold said. If youre eight years old, and you delay diabetes by two years or longer, thats a long time, he said. Kids become more mature. Theyre better able manage the disease.

The teplizumab trial is just one example of how Yale School of Medicine is a leader in the study and treatment of diabetes. At the Yale Diabetes Research Center, founded in 1993, researchers work to better understand type 1 and type 2 diabetes. At the Yale Diabetes Center, founded in 1994, physicians translate that knowledge into patient treatments.

An estimated 34.2 million people in the U.S., or 10.5% of the population, have diabetes. Characterized by abnormally high blood sugar levels, diabetes occurs when the body cannot make or becomes resistant to insulin, which the bodys cells need to take in and store blood sugar, called glucose. To manage their blood sugar, people with diabetes must take insulin and watch what they eat. Complications of type 1 and type 2 diabetes can include cardiovascular disease, as well as eye, foot, and kidney problems.

Preventing type 1 diabetes

The Yale Diabetes Research Center, funded by the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), is one of 16 NIDDK-funded diabetes research hubs nationwide. Researchers investigate type 1 and type 2 diabetes in children and adults and gestational diabetes. They also study the immunobiology of diabetes, cell and vascular biology, and obesity. The center is the site of 23 NIH-funded diabetes clinical trials.

In people with type 1 diabetes, the body mounts an autoimmune attack against the pancreas cells that produce insulin. Teplizumab is an antibody that counteracts that response and will be the first drug that prevents an autoimmune disease. Were very excited about that, said Herold, co-director of the Yale Diabetes Research Center.

In Herolds trial, 76 participants who were at high risk for type 1 diabetes and had diabetic relatives, were randomly assigned to take teplizumab or a placebo for two weeks. They took periodic glucose tolerance tests until they developed diabetes, or the trial ended. By the trials end, 57% of participants who received teplizumab were diabetes free, compared with 28% of those who received the placebo.

The results of the trial represent a paradigm shift for autoimmune research, Herold said. If diabetes can be prevented, perhaps other autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis, can be, too. Herold is hopeful that researchers can begin to shift the way we think about these widespread diseases and find people who are going to develop them and stop the disease before it actually happens.

Insulin Resistance in type 2 Diabetes

Gerald I. Shulman, MD, PhD, MACP, MACE, George R. Cowgill Professor of Medicine (endocrinology) and professor of cellular and molecular physiology, and co-director of the Yale Diabetes Research Center, has spent the past 30 years investigating what causes insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Shulman and colleagues began investigating these findings using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), combined with stable isotopes as a noninvasive way to trace metabolic flux in an organ-specific fashion in humans and transgenic rodents. They found insulin resistance in muscle could be attributed to reduced insulin-stimulated glucose transport and that people with insulin resistance have fat stored in places in their body, such as the liver and muscle, where fat is normally not stored.

Its really not how much fat a person has that drives insulin resistance, its where the fat is stored, Shulman explained. When fat is stored ectopically, in liver and skeletal muscle, thats what drives insulin resistance and leads to the development of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. The most striking example are patients with lipodystrophy. They have virtually no fat but are profoundly insulin-resistant due to fat accumulation in their liver and muscle cells. When we treat them with leptin, the fat in these organs disappears and their insulin resistance and diabetes resolves.

As reported in a 2007 paper in the journal PNAS, a study led by Kitt Petersen, MD, professor of medicine (endocrinology), found that in lean people with insulin resistance -- but who did not yet have diabetes -- the liver accumulated unusually large amounts of fat. The study also found that fat built up in the blood of insulin-resistant subjects, setting the stage for cardiovascular disease. In 2022, Petersen published a paper in JCI Insight that showed that even lower liver fat content than previously believed is associated with insulin resistance and increased cardiometabolic risks.

However, the researchers also have found that diet and exercise can combat both ectopic fat storage and insulin resistance. A 2011 PNAS article from Shulmans group found that in lean, insulin-resistant but non-diabetic people, 45 minutes of leg exercise led skeletal muscle to respond to insulin again and decreased liver fat storage after a meal. In a 2005 study led by Petersen and published in the journal Diabetes, obese, diabetic patients who lost about 10% of their body weight saw their diabetes and insulin resistance go away and their liver fat return to normal levels.

Shulmans group has elucidated the molecular basis for lipid-induced insulin resistance in liver, skeletal muscle, and white adipose tissues, which has led to several new drugs for NAFLD/NASH and type 2 diabetes. One of these new drugs rids the liver of its excess fat. The drug, a controlled-release mitochondrial protonophore (CRMP), revs up the mitochondria in the liver, causing them to burn more fat. Studies have shown that CRMP can totally reverse these conditions, and CRMP is undergoing IND enabling studies.

Improving Diabetes Treatments

The increased risk of cardiovascular problems for diabetes patients remains even when patients control their blood sugar, said Silvio Inzucchi, MD, professor of medicine (endocrinology) and medical director of the Yale Diabetes Center.

Even though it's intuitive to think that good control of diabetes could mitigate those complications, that actually does not end up to be so, Inzucchi said. It's been a little bit of a conundrum as to why, if you fix the major underlying problem with diabetes, can't you decrease the rates of these complications. This has been one of my interest areas for many years.

Two relatively new classes of type 2 diabetes drugs can mitigate cardiovascular symptoms while helping control blood sugar. In 2015, Inzucchi and colleagues reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that type 2 diabetes patients randomly assigned to the type 2 diabetes drug empagliflozin had a lower risk of dying from cardiovascular causes than those assigned to the placebo. Empagliflozin, which the FDA approved in 2014, is an SGLT2 inhibitor. SGLT2 inhibitors reduce blood sugar by causing the kidneys to release more glucose into the urine. The drug also decreases the risk of kidney problems, Inzucchi said.

A different class of type 2 diabetes drug, the GLP-1 receptor agonists, has also been associated with reductions in cardiovascular complications as well as significant weight loss, Inzucchi said. GLP-1 receptor agonists stimulate the body to produce more insulin but also do several other things like reducing appetite, leading to weight loss. William Tamborlane, MD, professor of pediatrics (endocrinology), led the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2019, leading to the pediatric indication of one such GLP-1 receptor agonist, liraglutide, for youth with type 2 diabetes.

Between those two drug classes, we now have solid evidence that these medications can not only lower the glucose to help with diabetes control, but also prevent heart complications of diabetes, Inzucchi said. With these multi-functional drugs, clinicians at the Yale Diabetes Center can tailor diabetes treatment regimens to patients needs, Inzucchi added. Thats been a real sea change in our field.

Additionally, a novel GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist, tirzepatide, was recently shown to be extremely effective for weight loss. People with obesity treated with tirzepatide lost about 52 pounds on average, according to results of a study that were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Ania Jastreboff, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine (endocrinology) and pediatrics (pediatric endocrinology), was the lead author of the study.

Advances in Technology

Diabetes used to be a disease of daily shots: fingersticks to check blood sugar, then injections of insulin. But according to Inzucchi, the toolkit he and his colleagues have for helping type 1 and type 2 diabetes patients has expanded in recent years.

For type 1 diabetes, I think the major advancement has been the technology, Inzucchi said. In 2016, for example, the FDA approved a device that measures patients blood sugar levels every five minutes through a continuous glucose monitor and sends the information to a pump that delivers insulin accordingly. The system, called a hybrid closed loop insulin delivery system because the person with diabetes still needs to take a bolus of insulin before a meal, is connected to patients 24/7 and allows for more physiologic insulin delivery, Inzucchi said. Stuart Weinzimer, MD, professor (pediatric endocrinology and diabetes) and the interim chief of pediatric endocrinology, led the Yale site of the trial that led to this devices approval. Tamborlane, chief of pediatric endocrinology for over 37 years, guided pioneering studies in the development of insulin pump therapy, continuous glucose monitors, and automated insulin delivery systems. Weinzimer also has conducted longitudinal studies characterizing the effects of diabetes on brain development in youth with type 1 diabetes.

Pediatric Partners

Jennifer Sherr, MD, PhD, professor in pediatrics (endocrinology), Michelle Van Name, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics (endocrinology), and Laura Marie Nally, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and of pediatric endocrinology and diabetes, are national leaders in helping youth with type 1 diabetes to manage this chronic medical condition. They have conducted continued work on new automated insulin delivery systems and new treatments for type 1 diabetes. Sonia Caprio, MD, professor of pediatrics (endocrinology), has studied obesity and type 2 diabetes for 25 years, and her work has brought the magnitude of the childhood obesity problem to national attention. Stephanie Samuels, MD, instructor of pediatrics has also focused her work on the care of youth with type 2 diabetes.

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Diabetes Treatment and Research at Yale: 30 Years of Progress - Yale School of Medicine

GettyTre'Davious White looks on before a Buffalo Bills game.

TreDavious White is steadily progressing toward his return with the Buffalo Bills, even if that exact date remains uncertain.

As the Bills started training camp on Sunday, head coach Sean McDermott offered an update on the All-Pro cornerbacks recovery. White went down with an ACL tear in a Thanksgiving night win over the New Orleans Saints, missing the remainder of the season and continuing to rehab through the offseason.

McDermott offered a positive update on Whites progress, though did not reveal how much longer was left or whether White could be back for the teams September 8 season opener against the Los Angeles Rams.

As the Bills opened camp at St. John Fisher University on Sunday, White was on the physically unable to perform list. McDermott said that White was making good progress on his return.

Hes on schedule, McDermott said. He looks really good. Hes working his tail off. And Tre is a consummate pro. So that has not changed. Were excited to get him back when we can get him back.

McDermott would not go into further details, but did praise White for his dedication.

Hes on schedule with what the trainers are telling me hes on schedule, McDermott said. I think hes got a great look in his eye. I know what hes working back towards. And really other than that, thats all I can say.

Whites hard work in coming back had already caught the attention of his teammates. All-Pro safety Micah Hyde praised White back in June, predicting that hell come back even better than before.

I dont think anybody understands what hes been doing in the dark. That boyhes been working. Ive been fortunate enough to see some of the stuff hes been doing. Hes working. Hes working his a off. I know Ill put every single penny I have on TreDavious coming back a better player, Hyde saidvia video conference. Im that confident in him.

While the timeline for an ACL recovery can vary, most athletes take close to a full year to be able to return. That would put Whites return somewhere around or after the midpoint of the season, creating a big opportunity for the teams top draft pick.

The Bills traded up to snag Florida cornerback Kaiir Elam with the No. 23 overall pick, and the team is already placing some big expectations on the 20-year-old. Defensive coordinator Leslie Frazier praised his work, saying Elam will be placed in a big role right away.

We need Kaiir to step up and play well for us early, Frazier saidvia video conference.

Elam didnt seem fazed by the expectations, saying in May that hes excited to be able to contribute and not feeling the pressure.

Theres no pressure, Elam said. Football is football. I go out there, listen to my coaches, make plays and have fun. At the end of the day, help this team win, thats the most important thing.

READ NEXT: Former Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick Goes Shirtless at Frigid Playoff Win

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Bills Give Major Update on Progress of Tre White's Rehab - Heavy.com

In the annals of womens sports iconography in the United States, not many images hold greater space in the minds of a generation than Brandi Chastain, jersey off, screaming on her knees in triumph after scoring the game-winning penalty kick for the U.S. womens national team at the 1999 World Cup. That moment etched the teams second star, one they wouldnt add to for another 16 years, and it continues to loom large over the storied program.

Twenty-three years later, Chastain believes that victory set the USWNT on a path toward excellence, serving as one chapter in a long history of a team that always seeks to rise and meet the moment in front of them.

While theres never a bad time to commemorate a cornerstone of womens sports history, this year has thrown into sharp focus just how important the push for progress has been in the years since Chastain kicked the USWNT to glory.

We had an excellent balance, she says now of the 99 team. And I think its that kind of humility and grace and awareness, that if every company could have that, they would be Fortune 500. I know the significance and the depth of the well of resources that are women, and womens soccer players specifically. Its undeniable.

Just Womens Sports first conversation with the former defender came not long after the womens national team had settled its equal pay lawsuit with U.S. Soccer; by the second conversation, the USWNT had signed a historic CBA, the country had celebrated 50 years of Title IX, and the Supreme Court had struck down Roe v. Wade, which made access to abortion a constitutional right for nearly 50 years. To call the past few months an emotional rollercoaster for womens rights would be an understatement.

Within all of these historic moments, Chastain feels that the public has gained a better understanding of who the USWNT was in 1999, and what the players hope to be now. Recently, Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm and Abby Wambach participated in a roundtable for ESPNs Title IX documentary 37 words. Goalkeeper Briana Scurry, whose penalty save against China made Chastains winning moment possible, has come out with both a memoir and a documentary this summer to great acclaim.

In 2022, the movement the USWNT kicked off in 1999 is finally getting the widespread appreciation it deserved. Conversations around the team also appear to be more representative of what it took to transform a corner of the sports world with just one kick.

Part of the national team, if you play for the womens soccer team, part of your mandate is to raise the bar for equal pay, and the other part is obviously to play brilliant soccer and win everything, Scurry told Just Womens Sports in June. Those are two really high standards to hold.

External forces surrounding the team, however, havent always lived up to the moment. Even after the USWNT achieved prominence in 99, the needle never moved quite fast enough, and the players watched as the rest of the world moved on.

Youre winning big tournaments like the World Cup, and yet youre anonymous, Chastain says. You know that you need to continue to push forward, and you feel that your own group is not taking you as seriously or holding your value the same as they hold someone elses.

The players and coaching staff were the glue that held the team together during the years when it felt like nobody else cared. Chastain still speaks glowingly of Tony DiCicco, who led the team to the 96 Olympic gold medal and 99 World Cup title with a coaching style that was firm but kind, gentle but with high expectations.

I had some great coaches, great role models. They didnt always look like me, but they cared about the space a lot, they were willing to be in a space that was not traditionally that cool, she says. They wanted each one of the players to blossom into the best player that they could be.

Chastain also remembers the mental and emotional burden that fell on the players, the extent of which many are only beginning to speak about now.

The shoulders of Mia [Hamm] and Michelle [Akers], in particular, before anything really got traction, they carried the most weight, she says. And they may have carried the most significant weight.

The public didnt always get to see the team as people first, but merely what they represented to the larger cause. The patchwork that made up the quilt, I think, is really phenomenal, Chastain says. We had such a wonderful array of people, and we loved each other. And we competed hard.

The fight for relevance and equal pay took a toll on the whole group, and the marked progress this year comes with a mixture of gratitude and exhaustion. In a way, this years CBA marked both the long-anticipated closing of a chapter and the ushering in of a new era that will present its own challenges.

Ive said many times that I will have the conversation, and Im happy to have the conversation about equal pay, Chastain says. I will keep fighting and keep working and keep talking about it, but its exhausting.

Watching the USWNTs youth movement blossom after the Tokyo Olympics last summer, Chastain has the perspective of both a former player and a current coach. She has been a volunteer assistant coach for the Santa Clara Broncos, her alma mater, since 2010. Chastains husband, Jerry Smith, has run the womens soccer program since 1987. Her experience on the other side of the equation has allowed her to evaluate the team with the same gentle but firm approach she got from her own coaches.

Chastain eschews the binary of old school versus new school (Id like to understand the definition of a modern player, she says with a smile), but she sees conversations about technology, outside expectations and player approaches as part of the natural evolution. While no one wants to go back to the days when womens soccer teams had to fight for facilities, staffing and other basic support structures, Chastain hopes that a level of discipline remains. Moving goals, setting up cones, working toward something bigger as a team she doesnt want that element to disappear even as the sport evolves.

I feel like I want the players to feel the ownership piece forever, not [just] for this team, but forever, because they own it, Chastain says of the USWNT. Theyre a part of the legacy of womens soccer, and they have to own that.

The external pressures on young players are mounting at the highest levels, as social media and name, image and likeness opportunities turn athletes into small businesses long before they even graduate college. With progress come expectations, Chastain says, and its all about how you meet the moment mentally.

External forces can really create chaos, and they can create problems if the group or the people are not prepared to handle them, she says, underlining the need for strong veteran leadership to help maintain a culture that feeds on a desire for progress.

On the field, Chastain has enjoyed the increased emphasis on versatility. Shes a big fan of rising USWNT star Catarina Macarios game, and how she both manipulates pressure from opponents and creates chances with her elite skills on and off the ball.

As the global talent pool deepens with each major tournament cycle, Chastain respects the difficult roster balance the current team is trying to strike. Having traveled to Monterrey, Mexico to watch the U.S. win the Concacaf championship Monday night in person, she recognizes how much work the USWNT has to do between now and the 2023 World Cup.

Its not an easy process, Chastain says. Just trying to decide what pathway to finding out who the best, most cohesive unit is, is not easy. I listen to the comments and I have my own, too. I just know how difficult it is.

The sport has changed in obvious ways since her playing days, becoming both faster and more technical. Chastain would have relished the opportunity to play that style in her prime. She references the four moments of soccer when a team is in possession, losing possession, out of possession or regaining possession.

Modern players [are] asked to be all things in all four moments of the game, really being asked for defenders to be attackers, attackers to be defenders, and in transition, we all have to be both of those things, she says. I would have liked to have been challenged to do a little bit more, maybe have our team be a little bit more sophisticated in that way.

Chastain, 53, sees the tactical aspect of coaching as the next step forward, as access to different styles has never been easier to obtain.

Her affinity for quick adjustments on the pitch echoes her guidance for the USWNT as they continue to push for progress off the field. While the team has achieved major wins in recent years, shes keenly aware of how quickly things can slip backwards if you let your guard down.

If you look at the state of the world, you dont get too close to anything. Because if you get too comfortable, the next thing you know, someones trying to pull the rug out from under you, Chastain says.

Its like in a game, you make a play, you dont get to spend time thinking about that play good or bad. You have to move forward, and you have to be ready for the next play.

Perhaps it makes sense then that theres no young player Chastain is harder on than her former self. With the hindsight of years of work paying off, and many of them in anonymity, she wishes she had known from the very beginning that she, with the same fierceness of her triumphant World Cup celebration, was up for the challenge. She hopes this next generation of players have the desire to overcome their own fears, too.

Now I look back, and Im like, God, you were so soft, Brandi. It wasnt that hard. It was challenging, but if you had just told yourself from the beginning, when you were scared, that you could do it yeah, you would have been fine.

Editors Note: This story is a part of the Just Womens Sports inaugural Legends Collection. Check out our stories on the other legends, Sheryl Swoopes and Billie Jean King.

Claire Watkins is a contributing writer at Just Womens Sports covering soccer and the NWSL. Follow her on Twitter @ScoutRipley.

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Brandi Chastain and the never-ending push for progress - Just Women's Sports

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