Latest news with #CIF
Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Los Angeles Times
Daily Pilot Boys' Volleyball Dream Team: Sage Hill's Jackson Cryst could do it all
Jackson Cryst has likely always been the big man on campus. The 6-foot-10 outsider hitter took the Sage Hill boys' volleyball program to new heights during an unbelievable two-year stint that was no tall tale. While much remains ahead for Cryst, who is joining reigning national champion Long Beach State to continue playing volleyball, his high school career closed three weeks ago with the highest of highs. Sage Hill, largely because of Cryst, went down in history as one of the inaugural boys' volleyball state champions, as the Lightning beat San Francisco International 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 for the CIF State Division III title. Cryst had 23 kills, three service aces and 1½ total blocks in the state final, the last game in an extended winning streak that spanned more than six weeks. The season-saving streak began on April 17 with a five-set win over Portola that got the Lightning back to the .500 mark after an 0-5 start. Sage Hill (22-11) grabbed an at-large bid into the Southern Section's Division 4 bracket, then made good on that chance by edging Santa Barbara in five sets for its second consecutive CIF title. After winning back-to-back CIF titles and earning divisional player of the year honors in his two seasons at Sage Hill, Cryst is the Daily Pilot Boys' Volleyball Dream Team Player of the Year. Cryst insisted that winning championships was not a byproduct of 'the Jackson show,' saying that he learned about how to lead a team and make others around him better. Junior Connor Gapp, who split his playing time between setter and opposite, and junior outside hitter Ryan Manesh became key contributors. 'I think that was a really surprising challenge that I wasn't ready for, that I'm not just going to be able to jump my way and hit my way out of everything,' Cryst said. 'That helps in crunch-time matches, but volleyball is the ultimate team sport. I can't hit a ball without someone setting it, and you can't set it without someone passing it, so I think it was really incredible to actually be able to understand that. Now, if I can apply that to a higher-level team, then it makes the game so much more fun to play, and then also we're just so much more effective at winning volleyball matches.' Arriving at Sage Hill as a junior transfer from Long Beach Millikan, Cryst had an immediate impact on the fortunes of the Lightning. Sage Hill needed all of Cryst's eye-popping 54-kill performance to come out on top in a five-set Division 5 final against San Marino for the program's first CIF championship in 2024. 'Jackson is a great leader,' Manesh said. 'It's truly a blessing to be on the same team as him because the amount of volleyball knowledge that he spreads and preaches to us, it's so helpful to our game. … I remember our five-set match against [Simi Valley] Royal, he was talking to us about what Karch Kiraly, the greatest volleyball player of all time, told him. … 'Before the fifth set, he said Karch Kiraly told him, 'Nobody wants the easy 3-0 experiences. The best champions, they live for the five-set matches,' and that helped push us to the win against Royal. Just inspirational words like that, the knowledge that he has, the skills. He's 6-foot-10, but his ball control is insane.' As a two-sport athlete, Cryst also played in the post for the boys' basketball team. Sage Hill advanced to the Division 3AA quarterfinals in his junior year, and this past season, they were the runner-up in the same division. So much of that was challenging. First came frustration with transfer sit-out periods. Then as a senior, the physicality and the time commitment of a senior basketball season that extended into the early part of March with regional playoff qualification was eating away at a volleyball season already underway. Cryst credited D'Cean Bryant, Sage Hill's boys' basketball coach, with helping him to understand the life lessons involved while navigating those situations. 'I think that he was really right there with me through all that, and not in a way where he's just trying to make me feel better, but in a way where he's telling me what I need,' Cryst said of Bryant. 'This last year, too, where I'm committed to college for volleyball, and I'm in basketball season, going well into volleyball, and I'm frustrated. I'm voicing to him that I'm extremely frustrated. 'I'm a volleyball player. Why am I doing this? I'm getting double- and triple-teamed in games, getting beat up.'' Bryant's message was one of honoring your commitments and being where your feet are. 'He was like, 'I don't know when this is going to serve you, but it's going to because at a certain point in your life, you're going to have to do something that you don't want to do. How are you going to respond to that? Are you just going to show up and not be there, not really do it, or are you going to be all-in to whatever you're doing?' It's a character thing, and I think that did really serve me well,' Cryst said. Jordan Hoppe, who took over as the Sage Hill boys' volleyball coach this year, called Cryst a 'student of the game' and also referred to some of the athleticism he displays on the court as incomprehensible. He said he has seen Cryst do the splits. 'The athletic ability, being 6-10, is something you only see in a few athletes to ever live — I think Wilt Chamberlain being number one,' Hoppe said. 'I think it's a good comparison because I think Wilt was one of the most athletic 7-footers to ever play basketball. I think Jackson is not only arguably the best player in the country, but he's arguably one of the most athletic players in the country, even at 6-10, which is even more remarkable.' Craig Pazanti Huntington Beach Huntington Beach (36-5) enjoyed a season to be proud of, even if it fell short of the ultimate goal. The Oilers spent the season looking up to Mira Costa as the nation's top team, but they earned multiple bites at the apple in the postseason, meeting the Mustangs in the Division 1 section final and the Division I regional final. Huntington Beach went undefeated in the Sunset League, securing its first league title since 2016. The Oilers advanced to their first CIF final since 2021. Ben Brown OH | Corona del Mar | Jr. What can Brown do for you? For the Sea Kings, the answer was a lot. Brown, who transferred from Elmhurst York in Illinois, paid immediate dividends for CdM (24-7), which came one match shy of reaching the Division 1 final. The All-CIF Division 1 and Sunset League first-team selection compiled 451 kills, 144 digs and 42 aces. Henry Clemo OPP | Newport Harbor | Jr. Clemo packed a punch from the right pin and the service line, rarely holding back on a swing. A fiery competitor, the junior opposite provided infectious passion that helped elevate Newport Harbor (27-12), which was one of three Sunset League teams to qualify for the Division 1 playoffs. Clemo was a first-team all-league honoree. Kai Gan S | Huntington Beach | Sr. After sharing the setting duties with Jake Pazanti as a junior, Gan handled the role in all rotations as a senior. Gan, a Harvard commit, shared the Sunset League MVP award with Logan Hutnick, his top option and an emerging star for the Oilers at outside hitter. The All-CIF selection churned out 1,454 assists to go with 175 digs, 54 blocks, 39 kills and 29 aces. Nick Ganier Jr. MB | Huntington Beach | Sr. Ganier Jr. had the effect of opening up the entire offense, as teams could not lock in solely on Logan Hutnick and Ben Arguello on the pins. When opponents made that choice, they paid a price for doing so. Ganier Jr., a first-team all-league selection, supplied 212 kills on a .403 hitting percentage and contributed to 68 blocks. Brogan Glenn L | Corona del Mar | Sr. A three-year starter for the Sea Kings, Glenn's passing contributions were vital with his team breaking in a new setter in Drake Foley. Glenn, a UCLA-bound libero who earned All-CIF and Sunset League first-team honors, provided 263 digs, 22 kills and 16 aces. Logan Hutnick OH | Huntington Beach | So. Huntington Beach fell one set short of its first section title in a decade, but Hutnick will surely be at the forefront of the revenge tour. Hutnick finished with 560 kills on a .318 hitting percentage, adding 204 digs, 72 total blocks and 30 aces. The All-CIF honoree had 22 kills, 13 digs and 2½ blocks in the Division 1 final. Position, Name, School, Year OPP Ben Arguello, Huntington Beach, Jr. L Aiden Atencio, Huntington Beach, Sr. MB Jack Berry, Newport Harbor, Sr. L Nathan Jackson, Edison, Sr. OPP Connor McNally, Edison, Sr. OH Kai Patchell, Laguna Beach, Sr. OH Hudson Reynolds, Pacifica Christian, Sr. OPP An Nguyen, Ocean View, Sr. OH JP Wardy, Newport Harbor, Jr. S Charlie Von Der Ahe, Newport Harbor, Jr. MB Billy Watkins, Fountain Valley, Jr.
Business Insider
10 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Mind Money Joins Global Leaders at IMpower 2025 With Breakthrough Weather Model
Leading European center for investment technologies and financial engineering Mind Money (CIF license 115/10) is joining over 1,500 industry leaders at IMpower FundForum 2025, taking place this week at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. The event brings together top names from asset and wealth management, including fund selectors, asset owners, and senior executives from the world's leading financial institutions. Representing Mind Money at the forum are Dr. Igor Isaev, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Analytics Center, Anastasia Volkova, analyst (LSE) and Ksenia Lazure, long-term client of the company and member of the Women's Club of Monaco. The team will be sharing insights from the company's standout innovation this year — a quantitative weather model, which was recently recognized as one of the world's top financial innovations by Global Finance Magazine. This award-winning model was named a laureate of the Global Finance: The Innovators 2025 award in the category Top Innovations in Finance – Western Europe. Built to track and model the impact of weather and climate on global commodity markets, the system is already being used to guide trades in calendar and inter-commodity spreads — helping Mind Money maintain six consecutive profitable years without a single losing year. 'Our goal was to create something that connects real-world weather patterns with real-time trading decisions,' says Dr. Isaev. 'From short-term events like sudden frosts or hurricanes to long-term shifts like drought cycles, the model helps us spot risks and opportunities early — before the market prices them in.' Anastasia Volkova adds, 'We're excited to share this innovation at IMpower FundForum and show how weather data can be a powerful tool for investors looking to manage risk and find new opportunities.' The model uses satellite data and global climate indicators to help predict how markets might move over time. It is created based on a mathematical method for modeling events with uncertain probability, which makes it especially useful for trading in markets affected by the weather — like natural gas, oil, grains, livestock, and other commodities. Performance data of the strategy is publicly available in the Bloomberg Terminal under FIGI: BBG00T87Z5T1. About Mind Money Mind Money (ex Zerich Securities) is a leading European investment technology hub headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus, and regulated by CySEC CIF License 115/10. Mind Money provides seamless access to stocks, exchange-traded funds, bonds on major stock markets, and opportunities for pre-IPO and IPO investments in the global markets. Established in 2010, Mind Money has evolved into a dynamic financial technology hub with a strong focus on innovation and data analytics.
Irish Times
17 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Irish construction firms working on projects abroad amid planning snarl-ups
Irish builders are increasingly deploying resources towards big international projects and away from the domestic sector, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) has said, due to uncertainty in the infrastructure pipeline here amid planning snarl-ups. The lobby group's latest outlook survey for the sector reveals that one in four big construction firms in the Republic are currently exporting their services. Of the more than 220 builders the CIF surveyed, slightly over half said their export revenues had remained stable in the first quarter of the year compared with the previous three months. A significant 31 per cent, however, said export revenues had increased compared with the first three months of 2025. Almost half of the construction firms surveyed said they anticipate a jump in export revenues in the second quarter. READ MORE Data centres and pharmaceutical plants were the most common foreign projects that Irish construction companies delivered in the first quarter of the year, according to the survey results. CIF director general Hubert Fitzpatrick said the research evinces a clear trend within the industry to redeploy resources to international projects 'due to persistent uncertainty in Ireland's infrastructure pipeline'. Mr Fitzpatrick said workforce capacity within the sector is not 'a limiting factor' to delivering Irish projects, despite public commentary to the contrary. Rather, the 'key barriers' to companies delivering projects in the Republic 'lie outside the industry, with persistent planning delays, a lack of zoned land and slow delivery of enabling infrastructure like water and electricity'. Mr Fitzpatrick said: 'Irish construction companies want to work in Ireland and deliver for the population. It is in the national interest that constraints, particularly around planning and funding, are removed by Government to unlock vital construction projects. 'The sector has the labour capacity and capability to deliver critical major infrastructure, including water, energy, new housing, transport, educational and commercial development. But consistent roadblocks mean that for many companies, a reliable pipeline of work is not available in Ireland.' Just 29 per cent of construction firms surveyed reported a year-on-year increase in new orders in the first three months of 2025, with half of respondents in the civil engineering and infrastructure subsectors saying new orders fell. All other sectors, including residential and commercial construction, expect an uplift in new orders in the second quarter, but smaller firms are generally less positive about their prospects. Almost half of the respondents said the pricing of projects had increased year-on-year, while 41 per cent expect further growth in the three months to the end of June. Six in 10 builders told CIF they also expect the cost of raw materials to increase in the second quarter of the year.
Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
California girl athletes to rally at sports league meeting to fight trans athlete law after track season chaos
California girls, their families and other activists will march to the offices of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Friday to protest the state's laws that allow biologically male trans athletes to compete in girls sports. The protest was organized by the California Family Council, which announced the rally in a press release Thursday. Multiple female athletes will speak at a press conference at the event, including Taylor Starling, Kaitlyn Slavin and Celeste Duyst. Starling and Slavin are engaged in a lawsuit against their school district, the Riverside Unified School District, after a trans athlete took Starling's varsity cross-country spot last fall, and they allege school administrators compared their "Save Girls Sports" T-shirts to swastikas. Duyst went viral for a speech she gave at a Lucia Mar Unified School District board meeting in April, where she cried while recounting having to share a locker room with a trans athlete before track practice. "This is about justice," California Family Council Outreach Director Sophia Lorey said in the press release. "Girls across California are being sidelined by policies that ignore biological reality. CIF must answer for that." The rally will come weeks after the state was rocked by the presence of a trans athlete at the CIF track and field championships, where Jurupa Valley High School's transgender student AB Hernandez took first place in the high jump and triple jump. President Donald Trump sent a message to the state in the week leading up to the event, warning of potential federal funding cuts if a trans athlete was allowed to compete in the girls championship. The CIF amended its rules to allow girls who finish behind a trans athlete to be elevated to the spot they would have finished otherwise, but Hernandez was still allowed to compete. Girls who finished behind Hernandez in the championships then had to share the same podium spot with the trans athlete during medal ceremonies. Trump then vowed to impose "large-scale fines" on the state of California for allowing a biological male trans athlete to win multiple girls state titles on June 3. "A Biological Male competed in California Girls State Finals, WINNING BIG, despite the fact that they were warned by me not to do so. As Governor Gavin Newscum fully understands, large scale fines will be imposed!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. The Department of Justice announced a federal probe of California over potential Title IX violations regarding its policy allowing trans athletes in girls sports in late May. The state had already been under a Department of Education investigation over the issue since February. The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta provided a statement to Fox News Digital addressing the U.S. Department of Justice sending a letter warning of a June 9 deadline to amend its policies to bar trans athletes from girls sports. "We're very concerned with the Trump administration's ongoing threats to California schools and remain committed to defending and upholding California laws and all additional laws which ensure the rights of students — including transgender students — to be free from discrimination and harassment. We are reviewing the letter and closely monitoring the Trump administration's actions in this space," the statement said. A bipartisan survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found the majority of California residents oppose biological male trans athletes competing in women's sports. That figure included more than 70% of the state's school parents. "Most Californians support requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching the sex they were assigned at birth," the poll stated. "Solid majorities of adults (65%) and likely voters (64%) support requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with. An overwhelming majority of public school parents (71%) support such a requirement." Newsom said trans athletes competing in girls sports was "deeply unfair" during an episode of his podcast in March. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Zawya
3 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa gains access to $1bln green industry fund to accelerate industrial decarbonisation
South Africa has been selected as one of seven emerging economies to benefit from a $1bn concessional financing programme aimed at decarbonising heavy industry and supporting green economic development. The funding, made available through the Climate Investment Funds' (CIF) new Industry Decarbonization Investment Programme, positions South Africa to unlock significant opportunities in clean energy, low-carbon manufacturing, and circular economy innovation. The CIF initiative—described as the world's first large-scale concessional fund focused on decarbonising industry—targets high-emitting sectors such as steel, aluminium, cement, and chemicals. Alongside South Africa, other beneficiary countries include Brazil, Egypt, Mexico, Namibia, Türkiye, and Uzbekistan. Catalysing industrial transformation This funding comes at a pivotal time for South Africa, which is seeking to balance its global decarbonisation commitments with a just energy transition that safeguards jobs and economic growth. The CIF programme will work closely with multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the private sector to co-develop national investment plans. These will prioritise technologies such as green hydrogen, waste-heat recovery, low-carbon materials, and carbon capture and storage. The concessional nature of the finance makes the programme particularly attractive to the private sector. It allows for up to 100% funding of projects, with at least 50% of investment guaranteed. According to CIF, each dollar of concessional capital is expected to mobilise an additional $12 in public and private co-financing, potentially catalysing more than $12bn in total investments across the seven countries. Implications for the local market South Africa's inclusion is expected to accelerate the rollout of flagship initiatives such as the SA-H2 fund—a $1bn blended-finance platform launched in partnership with Dutch and Danish investors to support green hydrogen infrastructure. The CIF programme may also support decarbonisation pilots in South Africa's hard-to-abate sectors, particularly mining, cement, and steel, which together contribute significantly to national emissions. For South African financiers and industrial players, this opens up a pipeline of bankable projects, many of which will require strong public-private partnerships, rigorous environmental criteria, and scalable technology platforms. Furthermore, the emphasis on circular economy models presents new avenues for innovation in industrial waste reuse, energy efficiency, and material substitution. A Just Transition focus CIF's chief executive officer, Tariye Gbadegesin, emphasised that the programme is not just about reducing carbon emissions, but about building long-term industrial competitiveness and resilience. As such, the initiative includes a strong focus on social safeguards and workforce reskilling to support communities dependent on carbon-intensive industries. This aligns with South Africa's Just Transition Framework, which advocates for inclusive development and community protection as the country shifts toward a low-carbon economy. Stakeholders will need to ensure that decarbonisation projects integrate training programmes, job-placement mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement strategies from the outset. Strategic outlook As global value chains become increasingly green and regulated, access to CIF funding provides South Africa with a critical lever to modernise its industrial base and retain relevance in export markets—particularly in the EU, which is tightening carbon border measures. The next steps involve co-designing South Africa's national investment plan in consultation with MDBs and private-sector partners, followed by project rollouts that will likely begin in 2026. For financiers, developers, and corporate leaders, this marks a strategic opportunity to engage in scalable, socially responsible green industrialisation. All rights reserved. © 2022. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (
