Compton Ca Athletics

It's a long way from the streets of Compton to the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the Homies and Popz cricket team took tea with Prince Edward and performed their hip-hop cricket rap for him. It's a long way from the gangs and graffiti of their home turf to the iridescent green grounds at Lord's, the Yankee Stadium of cricket, where some of England's best tutored them in batting and bowling. It's a long way, but Steve Aranda is glad he made the switch "from gats to bats," as the rap song says.

It's a long way from the streets of Compton to the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the Homies and Popz cricket team took tea with Prince Edward and performed their hip-hop cricket rap for him. It's a long way from the gangs and graffiti of their home turf to the iridescent green grounds at Lord's, the Yankee Stadium of cricket, where some of England's best tutored them in batting and bowling. It's a long way, but Steve Aranda is glad he made the switch "from gats to bats," as the rap song says.

Making good on a promise to take a more active role in addressing social issues in urban areas, the National Football League has started extensive renovations of a commercial site for the NFL/Youth Education Town scheduled to open in June. The NFL facility, in the Gateway Plaza at Rosecrans and Central avenues in Compton, will include game rooms, a weight room and showers. A 10,000-square-foot Astroturf playing field will be installed next door.

It's when standing between the wickets that Ruben Campos, a 15-year-old from Compton, finds a bit of inner peace. You've got to be patient up there, he says, and keep a steely focus. "Life is a heck of a lot like cricket," Ruben said of his newfound favorite pastime. Cricket? Few Americans have played it, and almost nobody has even heard of it in Compton, Ruben said. "Waiting to bat in cricket is like being on the street when a drive-by happens," he said.

It's when standing between the wickets that Ruben Campos, a 15-year-old from Compton, finds a bit of inner peace. You've got to be patient up there, he says, and keep a steely focus. "Life is a heck of a lot like cricket," Ruben said of his newfound favorite pastime. Cricket? Few Americans have played it, and almost nobody has even heard of it in Compton, Ruben said. "Waiting to bat in cricket is like being on the street when a drive-by happens," he said.

Busy as she is with the nurturing of more than a hundred Compton teenagers, the barking at their intruders, the worrying about slow computers and dwindling funds and neighboring storefronts that are barred and trashed, Shirley Allen never heard the news. When a visitor told her Friday the Super Bowl may be returning to Los Angeles, she grabbed the front of her blouse, expanded her eyes like somebody in an old movie.

Busy as she is with the nurturing of more than a hundred Compton teenagers, the barking at their intruders, the worrying about slow computers and dwindling funds and neighboring storefronts that are barred and trashed, Shirley Allen never heard the news. When a visitor told her Friday the Super Bowl may be returning to Los Angeles, she grabbed the front of her blouse, expanded her eyes like somebody in an old movie.

Making good on a promise to take a more active role in addressing social issues in urban areas, the National Football League has started extensive renovations of a commercial site for the NFL/Youth Education Town scheduled to open in June. The NFL facility, in the Gateway Plaza at Rosecrans and Central avenues in Compton, will include game rooms, a weight room and showers. A 10,000-square-foot Astroturf playing field will be installed next door.