The Layup Drill

By Jason Cruz
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. November brought a lot of action from all over.

Tien wins first ATP title

Learner Tien won his first Association of Tennis Players (ATP) title. The 19-year-old Californian won the tournament in Metz, France. He is the first American teenager to win an ATP Tour title since Andy Roddick in 2002.

Tien is a Vietnamese American from Irvine, California. The win propelled him to his highest ATP ranking of 28th in the world. Tien’s coaching team includes former French Open champion Michael Chang.

His first full year of playing as a pro was highlighted by several wins in the Australian Open in January and bookended by his win in November in France.

UW women’s soccer team finish emotional season

The University of Washington (UW) women’s soccer team fell to Duke in the Elite Eight of college women’s soccer in late November. It was an emotional season for the Huskies as the team lost its goalkeeper, Mia Hamant, to kidney cancer. Hamant was 21. In 2024, she was one of the Big Ten’s best goalkeepers. In April, she was diagnosed with Stage 4 kidney cancer and stepped away from the team.

Two of her teammates that helped the Huskies make the Elite Eight were Kolo Suliafu and Avery Nguyen.

The team’s defense was spearheaded by Kolo Suliafu. The Tongan American was named as one of the Big Ten Conference’s Players to Watch. The Upland, California senior backed up her preseason hype as she earned Defensive Player of the Week twice during the Big Ten season. She was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Big Ten. The senior played in all 23 matches for the Huskies.

Nguyen, a senior from Lenexa, Kansas, scored her first Division I goal in the very first game of the season. Nguyen started her UW career on the club team at the University of Washington. She didn’t think that she would be able to play soccer in college after she was turned down by the team. Nguyen was the leading scorer on the club team and had played at a high level throughout high school. It was not until mid-July after her freshman year that the women’s coach reached out to her to ask if she wanted to try out as a walk-on for the team. Nguyen immediately said yes and the rest was history. While nothing was guaranteed, she impressed the coach and was offered a spot on the team. She played the last three years with the Huskies.

Last Chance U Coach, Beam killed in campus shooting

John Beam, the coach for Laney College in Oakland, California was tragically shot and killed by a former student in November 2025. Beam coached high school football in the Bay Area before coaching at Laney College. Beam was featured in the Netflix Series, “Last Chance U,” a reality show based on college football players attempting to achieve their dream of playing professional football. The show’s name is based on the inference that the school is the last chance before having to give up their dreams. Beam, the head coach, was seen as a father figure to many of the players he coached. Beam stepped away from coaching and remained at the school as its athletic director.

Beam was born in San Diego, California to a Korean mother and an American father. His father was in the Navy and spent some of his childhood in Japan.

Several of his former players paid homage to Beam, including punters Jinhyun Kang and Thomas Lee. Kang wrote on social media, “First time we met, he believed me. I love you coach…forever.”

A 27-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with murder in the shooting death of Beam.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr memorialized Beam during a pregame news conference on Nov. 14. Kerr wore a t-shirt with Beam’s name and a heart on it. He called the shooting “a sad day for the Bay Area.”

Princeton transfer Xavian Lee flourishing at Florida

This fall, Chinese Canadian basketball point guard Xavian Lee transferred from Princeton to the defending NCAA National Champions Florida. After a rough start, Lee is settling in as the starting point guard for the Gators.

Lee, who trained with Harvard alum and ex-NBA player Jeremy Lin last summer, chose to transfer from Princeton, where he had averaged 17 points the last two seasons.

The 6’4” guard from Toronto broke out of a semi-shooting slump. He scored 20 points and grabbed 7 rebounds, as the Gators defeated Providence College the day after Thanksgiving. He currently averages 9 points per game. Lee had been shooting 26% from the field, which is a drop from the 43% average he had the last two years at Princeton.

Whitmore Number 1 Draft Pick in Women’s Pro Baseball League

The inaugural Women’s Professional Baseball League is set for 2026 with teams in Boston, New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. The season begins in May which will include a four-week regular season, an all-star game, followed by a two-week postseason. The games will take place in one venue, Robin Roberts Stadium in Springfield, Illinois.

Over 600 women tried out to be considered for the league draft this past August.

The number one draft pick was pitcher/outfielder Kelsie Whitmore, a Filipino American who currently plays for the Savannah Bananas traveling baseball team. Whitmore was drafted by the San Francisco franchise. The 27-year-old from San Diego, California played collegiate softball at Cal-State Fullerton. Prior to that, she played high school baseball and was a part of the U.S. women’s national baseball team.

She helped Team USA win silver medals in 2014 and 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup. Team USA won a gold medal in 2015 and the Pan American Games.

Whitmore has played independent baseball on male teams since graduating from college. Whitmore and Stacy Piagno became the first female teammates to play since the 1950s when women played in the Negro Leagues.

Whitmore signed with the Savannah Bananas in August 2025. The Bananas, a barnstorming exhibition team, infuses entertainment with baseball. They have become wildly popular nationwide selling out venues wherever they go.

Californian wins Seattle Marathon

Luke Culabayan of Thousand Oaks, California won the men’s Seattle Marathon on Sunday, Nov. 30. Culabayan ran the 26.2-mile course in 2 hours and 17 minutes. He was almost 4 minutes faster than the second place runner. It was the first year of the revised Seattle Marathon course as it started at the Seattle Center and ended at the Seattle Waterfront. The last two miles of the race was on the recently updated waterfront trail. In years past, the marathon ended at Memorial Stadium but with the venue under renovation, the change had the course go through several neighborhoods including the Arboretum, the University District, Fremont, Magnolia and Downtown Seattle. Race organizers stated that over 8,500 people participated in the marathon and half marathon.

Jason can be reached at newstips@nwasianweekly.com.