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It’s almost time for the East Los Angeles Classic

Los Angeles Times staff writer Ben Bolch
By Ben Bolch
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Players from Garfield and Roosevelt found a cool surprise waiting for them inside their locker rooms Friday afternoon at East Los Angeles College: new uniforms.

The duds were provided by Nike as part of its 5Days2Friday initiative. The apparel giant also challenged students from each school to donate old athletic shoes for its Reuse-A-Shoe program, with the school collecting the most footwear receiving a new surface in their school weight room made from recycled shoes.

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It’s about an hour from kickoff and already the stadium is more than half full. Roosevelt leads the series, 40-29, with six ties, but resurgent Garfield, winner of four consecutive games and undefeated in the Eastern League, is favored to win Friday.

--Ben Bolch

Varsity Times Insider
Ben Bolch

Ben Bolch has been a Los Angeles Times staff writer since 1999. He is serving his second stint as the UCLA beat writer, which seems fitting since he has covered almost every sports beat except hockey and horse racing. Bolch is also the author of the recently released book “100 Things UCLA Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.” He previously covered UCLA basketball from 2010-11 before going on to cover the NBA and the Clippers for five years. He happily traded in gobs of hotel points and airline miles to return to cover UCLA basketball and football in the summer of 2016. Bolch was once selected by NBA TV’s “The Starters” as the “Worst of the Week” after questioning their celebrity journalism-style questions at an NBA All-Star game and considers it one of his finer moments.

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