CARSON, Calif. -- Aaron Long has experienced no shortage of life-altering events this offseason.

He got engaged in Maui to his fiancée, Elise, and also took a trip to Japan, visiting Tokyo, Kyoto and Mount Fuji, while sampling the local cuisine and some kimonos. As for getting around, that was made easier by the fact that one of his traveling companions spoke some Japanese.

"'Three beers,' was a common phrase for sure," Long said. "But it was probably my favorite vacation I've taken thus far."

But the itch to get back on the field needed to be scratched, as the memory of New York Red Bulls' playoff defeat to the Philadelphia Union lingered.

"It's good to clear your head. You want to let your body heal," Long said. "But you want to start training again. You start getting fit, then you want to start touching the ball. It's just a gradual process that makes you hungry and just want to get back into things."

Long has been doing just that for the last several weeks, taking part in the U.S. men's national team's annual January camp. Meanwhile, transfer speculation from overseas has resurfaced, with ESPN sources confirming a Sky Sports report that the Red Bulls rejected an offer from West Ham United to take the defender on loan.

Long, 27, declined to address his club situation and, while there is a sense the 2018 MLS Defender of the Year has progressed as much as he could in New York, he also seems at peace with the possibility of remaining with the MLS side.

"There's plenty more for me to achieve at the level I'm at now, for sure," he said. "While I'm here, I have to set my goals as high as I can set them."

Staying at Red Bull arena will see demands increase on the Oak Hills, California, native, especially in the leadership department. The Red Bulls have lost club icons Bradley Wright-Phillips and Luis Robles, and ESPN sources confirmed a report from The Athletic that defender Kemar Lawrence is set to join Belgian side Anderlecht.

Such departures seem like an annual occurrence with the Red Bulls. Three years ago, Dax McCarty was traded; the following season Sacha Kljestan got dealt. That does not mean the challenge facing Long should be minimized, though.

"I know that I'm one of those guys that's definitely gonna have to fill some big shoes and take even more of a leadership role on the team," he said at the U.S. team hotel. "I guess when I get there, I'll see how big those shoes are and what I need to do and kind of assess that situation. But I know what's coming and I know that big things are going to be asked of me for sure."

That is already the case with the national team. Manager Gregg Berhalter has assembled a side with 13 Olympic-eligible players and said on Thursday that the lineup for Saturday's friendly against Costa Rica (LIVE on ESPNEWS, 3:55 p.m. ET) will be "a mix" of youngsters and more veteran types.

Long, as a member of Berhalter's leadership council, is among those asked to help bring the young charges along. The fact that this is his second camp has made things easier.

"You're problem-solving as a group now instead of seeing everything for the first time, and everyone having their own opinions," he said. "It's a little bit easier this camp. And I think that the returning guys from last January to this January have done a good job [of] coming together and having a clear picture for the younger guys."

Taking on a leadership role is not something that has come naturally to Long. During his first season with the Red Bulls, then-manager Jesse Marsch almost made him wear a microphone in a bid to get the player to be more vocal and a better organizer on the field.

"Marsch didn't [do that], thankfully," Long said. "I probably was not talking as much as I needed to at the time, but that example just shows that there's this learning curve for sure, and I wasn't always an outspoken guy."

Long prefers to lead by example -- maybe with a quiet word here and there -- and that means his play needs to be among the best in the side. He admits he was not consistent with the Red Bulls last season and that the trait is as elusive as it is desirable.

"I think just your mindset going into games is: What does success for you look like on the day? Is it winning on the day? Is it stopping Zlatan [Ibrahimovic] on the day? Every game there's a different task and different things are asked of you, and I think how you're able to change your game, to help your team win, is going to determine how good you were on the day," Long said.

That quest for consistency will resume with the U.S. on Saturday. Unlike last year, there is only the one friendly to cap off the January camp and that has added a sense of urgency when it comes to playing time.

"Everyone's been fighting for a spot," Long said. "There's no next week."

It sounds like the approach that will carry him through the season.

Quinton de Kock will bring calmness and "a great understanding of the game" to the role of South Africa ODI captain, according to team-mate David Miller. De Kock will take charge during the upcoming series against England, and has been tipped as the long-term successor to Faf du Plessis.

South Africa's players have convened this weekend to prepare for the three ODIs, starting in Cape Town on Tuesday. Four members of the 14-man squad are uncapped, with regular captain du Plessis and senior quick Kagiso Rabada rested, but Miller said he expected de Kock to set a positive example for the rest to follow.

"Quinny and I have come a long way. I'd never met him before playing for South Africa, and our relationship has got stronger and stronger," Miller said.

"As everyone knows, Quinny is Quinny. He's an unbelievable performer, thinks about things very simply, but at the same time, I genuinely think as he's got older - he's 27 now, he's not a young whipper-snapper, he's actually a mature, proper senior player, and I really feel he's got a great feel on the ground, during the game he's got a great understanding of the game. There's a calmness to him that comes with that. He oozes enjoying the game and I think that's a great asset that he has."

At 30, Miller is one of the oldest players in the group - and the most experienced, having played 126 ODIs. He has just returned from a stint in the Big Bash League with Hobart Hurricanes, and said he was keen to get involved after the revamp of South Africa's coaching structure, which now features several faces that Miller played alongside at the start of his international career.

"It's very exciting," he said. "I saw the squad come out and it was not the normal squad that everyone's used to seeing. It's refreshing, seeing it from Australia, and thinking it's a new start. Teams go up and down ... I personally don't enjoy the fact we're just building for something. At the end of the day, international cricket you need to perform, regardless of going through youngsters, and so on. Guys need to come in and learn as quick as possible.

"I mentioned it before, when we played the T20s in India, we're here to win. We're not here to see how things go. It's an exciting time to be in South African cricket, there's a lot going on, but the guys have got a lot of energy, they're willing to learn, and having the management we do, that have played a lot of cricket, it's a good combination."

In keeping with South Africa's disappointing 2019 World Cup, Miller had a middling run in England last year, batting four times and making scores of 38, 31, 36 and 31. However, as a senior batsman who made his ODI debut a decade ago, he is keen to carve out a central role for himself in the run up to the 2023 tournament in India.

"The first World Cup [in 2015], for me, I came into a side where there were experienced senior players, and I felt like I was there and I had to do my job, fitting into the experienced players; and the last World Cup was much of the same. This build to the next World Cup is a different one for me, in the sense that there's new players. It's just a fresh crop. So it's a very different experience compared to the last seven-eight years.

"That's why I'm really excited. We have to take responsibility for our performances but it's about winning now, as well as building, about trying to find the best combination as early as possible and sticking with that."

England, too, have an experimental look about them, with World Cup winners such as Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler rested ahead of the T20Is - which have assumed greater importance in a T20 World Cup year - and Miller said South Africa would be out to cause an upset.

"We are playing the world champions at the end of the day," he said. "But cricket is cricket and everyone's beatable. If we come with the right approach and mindset, and we nail down what we need to do - which is take wickets and score runs - I think it's going to be a really good competition."

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. -- The dress rehearsal for the Super Bowl is incredibly elaborate, and the NFL needed some football players to help ensure everything on Sunday will go according to plan.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, welcome to Super Bowl LIV.

About 50 players from the high school in Parkland, Florida -- the place where 17 students, teachers and staff were killed in a massacre on Feb. 14, 2018 -- got to take the field at Hard Rock Stadium on Friday afternoon for a few hours, pretending to be members of the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

They ran some plays to help television crews work on their camera angles, went through a walkthrough of the pregame coin toss with referee Bill Vinovich, even lined up just as the Chiefs and 49ers will for "The Star-Spangled Banner" -- and some of them even got a quick meet-and-greet with anthem singer Demi Lovato afterward.

"They basically split us up, one side was the Chiefs and the other side was the 49ers," Stoneman Douglas coach Quentin Short said. "The smiles I saw on these kids' faces, the excitement of running out of the tunnels just like the teams will, they were having a blast, man. To be on the actual field the Super Bowl is going to be played on, it was awesome."

The NFL has used high school players as stand-ins at the Super Bowl rehearsals for some time. And when it came time to extend a team an invitation this year, organizers apparently knew which school to ask. The Miami Dolphins said Fox, which is airing the game, made the final call.

"The Dolphins and the NFL and Fox reached out to us," Short told The Associated Press. "They asked us if we'd be interested, and obviously I said, 'Heck, yeah.' There was no way we were turning down this opportunity."

Stoneman Douglas has received plenty of support from the South Florida sports community since the shootings two years ago. The Miami Heat sent players and coaches to meet with students, the Miami Marlins invited the school's baseball team to play at Marlins Park, and the Florida Panthers brought the school's hockey team onto the ice to meet a surprise guest -- the Stanley Cup.

Stoneman Douglas quarterback Matthew O'Dowd said he understood the significance of getting the chance to be part of the show on the field where 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo and Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes will meet on Sunday.

"It's a great experience for the people who get to go and do it," O'Dowd said. "It was amazing, it was fun and it was a great team-bonding thing. We got to go, meet people, hang out with our coaches ... I can't really describe it. It was just great."

Nothing will make up for what happened on Feb. 14, 2018, when the 17, including assistant football coach Aaron Feis, were killed. But experiences like getting an up-close-and-personal look at the Super Bowl certainly help with the healing, if only for a few hours at a time.

"The best part about it was going out on the field and practicing some plays so they could make sure their cameras worked," O'Dowd said.

Short is entering his second season as the head coach at Stoneman Douglas. He replaced Willis May, who stayed with the Eagles for a year after the shooting before taking another job -- saying it was simply too hard on him to remain at the school.

The three-story classroom building where the shooting took place is still standing, although it has been permanently closed. There have been several movements suggesting it should be demolished, and likely one day will be, but it remains intact simply because it is evidence and needs to be preserved until the trial of the confessed shooter is complete. Prosecutors have said they want jurors, whenever the trial begins, to be able to walk through the building and envision what occurred.

The building can be seen from the football field. The reminders of that day's horror are constant.

"It depends on the person and what your experience was that day and where you are in the recovery process," Short said. "Everybody has gone through so much emotion, so much stuff, trying to handle all of it. Those 17 are always on our mind, and I don't want to say it's normal now because it's not normal. We go back to that scene every single day. That building is still there. The memories are always going to be there."

Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith said he is "very much lucky to be alive" after his November 2018 leg injury during an interview that aired Saturday on ESPN's Outside The Lines.

Smith offered details about the injury that has sidelined him for more than a year in the interview with ESPN's Jeremy Schaap.

Smith said the combination of the severity of the injury along with a serious infection had him against the ropes for weeks, unsure of what the outcome would be.

Smith was tackled by J.J. Watt and Kareem Jackson in a game against the Houston Texans. In the process, he suffered a compound fracture of his right tibia (the bone penetrated the skin) and a fractured right fibula. A compound fracture significantly elevates concerns over the risk of infection due to the presence of an open wound and, in Smith's case, those fears were realized.

"I had a pretty serious infection ... they had a lot of complications with it,'' Smith said.

Smith developed sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when the body is fighting infection. As his medical team fought to save his life, he was under heavy sedation for pain and his memories of the early stages were limited. But there was another decision that was yet to come.

Smith told Schaap, "... [the] next thing I remember is waking up several weeks later faced with the decision of amputation or limb salvage at that point."

Smith chose to save his leg, a process that required additional surgeries, and he was eventually cleared of all infection. His past 13 months have been spent dedicating himself to his rehab and his time with his family, all of which have taken on increased significance after coming so close to losing it all.

Smith told Schaap his overwhelming feeling currently is one of gratitude, for his family and for his medical team.

"[I'm] so thankful for everyone that's had a hand in this," he said. "My wife, kids, and family and doctors and nurses and PTs and trainers and so many people that have helped me to be sitting here."

As he faced a mountain of uncertainty about what his physical abilities would be after his injury -- "my ability to walk normal, to ever play with my kids, to ever go on a hike, go on a walk with my wife, hiking, skiing" -- it seemed as if a return to football might be out of the question.

The progress he has made to date, however, has shifted his view on the possibilities that lie ahead. The Redskins haven't ruled out a possible return for Smith, 35, who spent this season watching games in owner Dan Snyder's box and was often seen with him before and after games.

Smith, who is under contract through the 2022 season, will count $21.4 million against the salary cap in 2020. First-year Redskins coach Ron Rivera has consistently mentioned him when discussing the Redskins' quarterback situation. Smith also has become a mentor to Dwayne Haskins Jr., who just completed his rookie season.

Smith made it clear that while he recognizes there are no guarantees, he is prepared to challenge himself to the fullest.

"There's enough there that I can go out there and play ... Knowing that, yeah, failure is a possibility ... I need to prove that I can come back and play quarterback in the NFL, and if I can do that, that would be great and it'll get figured out."

Information from ESPN Redskins reporter John Keim was used in this report.

Toronto Raptors guard Norman Powell is out indefinitely after fracturing the fourth metacarpal in his left hand, the team announced Saturday.

Powell, 26, sustained the injury during the fourth quarter of Toronto's 105-92 win Friday against the Detroit Pistons.

Powell is averaging career highs of 15.3 points, 3.9 rebounds in 38 games this season, including 17 starts.

BOSTON -- Celtics star Kemba Walker has left knee soreness and will miss Saturday night's nationally televised showdown with the Philadelphia 76ers, coach Brad Stevens said.

"Kemba's out," Stevens said following the team's morning shootaround at their practice facility prior to Saturday's game (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC). "Most likely, at minimum, the next two games, maybe, and then we'll reevaluate it after that."

Stevens said Walker's knee began to bother him Thursday, when he played 31 minutes in a 119-104 victory over the Golden State Warriors. He had played at least 35 minutes in each of the prior three games -- the second time this season Walker had played at least that many minutes in three consecutive games.

"He was very sore yesterday," Stevens said. "He tried to give it a go today, but he's not playing."

Walker sat out of Boston's win over the Phoenix Suns two weeks ago with soreness in the same knee, and he also had an MRI, which came back clean.

Stevens said Saturday morning that while the Celtics don't expect it to be a long-term issue, it is something the team could have to manage moving forward.

"I don't know what they've officially labeled it as," Stevens said, when asked if Walker had been diagnosed with tendinitis, "but it's been ongoing all year. And he missed I think a game earlier this month for it. But it flared up.

"You could tell he didn't have his normal burst the other day. I don't think it's anything that we think is a long, long-term thing, by any means, but we certainly may have to manage it."

The Celtics have made it a point to manage Walker's minutes all season -- he's averaging 32 minutes per game, his lowest average since his rookie year, when he played 27 minutes a night.

Walker, who was named to his fourth straight All-Star Game last week, will miss his sixth game of the season Saturday night -- the same number he missed in total over his last four seasons with the Charlotte Hornets, including playing all 82 games last season.

Boston is likely to start Marcus Smart against the Sixers, whom they've already lost to three times this season. If Philadelphia wins Saturday night, it will be the first time the Sixers have swept their rivals since the 2000-01 season -- which also happens to be the last time Philadelphia reached the NBA Finals.

While Walker is out for the Celtics, the Sixers will get back Al Horford, who missed Thursday's loss in Atlanta with knee soreness of his own. Horford will make his official return to Boston, where he played the past three years, after sitting out with knee soreness the first time the two teams met here in December.

"A lot happened in three years, on the court and off the court," Horford said. "All I have is positive memories of my time here."

In addition to Walker, the Celtics will also continue to be without both Enes Kanter and Robert Williams, leaving them short-handed at center as they go against Joel Embiid. As a result, the Celtics also called up Tacko Fall from the G-League's Maine Red Claws on Saturday, and he is likely to be active for the game.

Men’s and women’s ‘A’ races see commanding wins as thousands of students turn out to compete at Holyrood Park

Holyrood Park is a familiar venue to top quality cross country athletes and it was no surprise to see those with extensive international experience dominate the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Cross Country Championships at the famous Edinburgh venue. 

The stage for the 2008 world cross country championships and, for many years, the annual Great Edinburgh Cross Country International played host to around 2000 athletes across four events – the men’s and women’s short and long races – and it was in the latter two contests where the most commanding victories were secured. 

Anna Emilie Møller, competing for St Mary’s University, replicated her under-23 gold medal-winning performance at the recent European Championships in Lisbon as she controlled the women’s long race from start to finish, while a fine day of competition in blowy, cold conditions came to a conclusion with the men’s long race which saw current British Athletics Cross Challenge champion Mahamed Mahamed of Solent University romping to the finish line first.

Danish athlete Møller, seventh in the 3000m steeplechase at the World Championships in Doha as well as a European under-23 champion in that discipline and the 5000m last year, wasted little time in heading to the front of affairs after the gun had fired.

She was tracked by Loughborough’s Jess Judd, last week’s Northern Championships winner, but the St Mary’s runner gradually stepped up the pace to break away and successfully defend her title from last year by covering the 8km course in 28:03, 46 seconds ahead of Judd, while Cardiff Met’s Jenny Nesbitt worked her way into third place thanks to her run of 29:22. Judd’s performance took Loughborough to the team title ahead of St Mary’s.

Finishing fourth was Oxford’s Charlotte Dannatt, as Judd’s team-mate Abbie Donnelly was fifth and Izzy Fry of St Mary’s was sixth. Imperial’s Dani Chattenton was seventh, while Glasgow’s Eloise Walker was eighth.

Last year’s men’s A race had been decided by the width of a vest when Leeds’ Emile Cairess outsprinted Loughborough’s Patrick Dever but the 2020 edition played out very differently. Mahamed was part of a group of a dozen or so athletes who packed together in the early stages but, when his spike ripped in the midst of the gruelling contest, the Southampton athlete decided to make what proved to be a decisive move around the halfway mark. 

None of the rest of the field could live with him and he covered the 10km contest in 32:06, a full minute and 37 seconds ahead of Bangor’s international mountain runner Joe Steward, with Aston’s Jayme Rossiter claiming the final place on the podium, despite recording the same time (32:50) as St Mary’s athlete Dan Jarvis. St Mary’s took the team gold, however.

Finishing fifth was Cardiff Met’s Jake Smith, while Keele’s Mark Pearce was sixth, Abdulqani Sharif of St Mary’s seventh and Glasgow’s Sol Sweeney eighth.

The women’s B race had got the day’s action off and running, with Grace Carson covering 6km in 28:03 to beat her Loughborough team-mate Giorgia Chattwood by eight seconds. Birmingham’s Kate O’Neill completed the top three but, with three athletes in the top four (Kirsty Walker clocked 22:45) Loughborough unsurprisingly took the team title ahead of Birmingham and Oxford. 

The medal-winning exploits of St Mary’s were started by Joe Wigfield as he held off his team-mate and training partner Alex Ediker to win the men’s B race by five seconds in 26:48. Loughborough’s Thomas Patrick was third over the 8km course in 26:54 to lead his university to another team gold, with St Mary’s taking second spot and Cambridge third. 

Double European under-23 champion beats Laura Muir to smash Jenny Meadows’ UK mark with 1:57.91

Jemma Reekie stormed into 2020 in style as she smashed the British indoor 800m record during an invitation women’s 800m race at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena on Saturday.

Not only did her winning time of 1:57.91 improve on Jenny Meadows’ 10-year-old UK mark of 1:58.43 but it also saw the 21-year-old beat her training partner Laura Muir, as the four-time European indoor gold medallist clocked 1:58.44 in second.

European fourth-placer Adelle Tracey was third in an indoor PB of 2:00.23 and Canada’s Gabriela DeBues-Stafford finished fourth in an indoor personal best of 2:00.96.

“I don’t even know what happened,” Reekie wrote on social media. “Thank you for all the lovely messages. I need to process this.”

Meadows was among those to comment and said: “Just finished work and my Twitter feed is going crazy. Took a look and seems there was one hell of a race in Glasgow where Jemma Reekie has broken my British 800m indoor record and Laura Muir just missed it. That’s amazing girls, can’t wait to hear more about it from you both.”

Muir had been ahead at the bell as Reekie moved on to the shoulder of Tracey. But Reekie surged ahead and moved past her fellow Andy Young-coached Scot Muir down the back straight and went on to claim a clear win in a time which takes more than five seconds off her previous indoor best and improves on her outdoor PB of 2:01.45 set last June.

It is the fastest 800m indoor time run by a woman since 2006 and also improves on Muir’s Scottish record of 1:59.50 set last year.

British record for @JemmaReekie in Glasgow! She breaks @JennyMeadows800’s UK indoor 800m best of 1:58.43 from 2010 with 1:57.91 to beat @lauramuiruns with 1:58.44! @scotathletics https://t.co/P7sZWJJaM1

— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) February 1, 2020

Reekie was not the only British record-breaker on Saturday, however, as Keely Hodgkinson clocked 2:01.16 to break the European under-20 800m indoor mark when winning in Vienna.

That time is just 0.13 off the world under-20 indoor record.

Also in Vienna, GB’s Tom Keen clocked 3:41.44 for 1500m to improve on the UK under-20 indoor record which had been held by former AW employee Matt McLaughlin since 2013.

Jake Heyward and David Sharpe were also past holders of the record.