Rise up, sunshine. Hope you had a
wonderful long weekend. I'm Corey Wire
coming to you from beautiful Miami where
last night the Hurricanes faced off
against the Indiana Hooers in the
College Football National Championships.
Big congrats to the Hooers for a
hardfought win, their first ever
national title. Now, ahead of the game,
I asked both star quarterbacks,
Indiana's Fernando Mendoza and Miami's
Carson Beck, their keys for success for
anyone out there chasing their dreams.
Here's what they had to say. No matter
what star recruit you are, if you're too
big, too little, what, you know, you're
not high ranked enough, you can do it.
You can do it. You got to put the work
in. And as a kid, I always heard these
messages. I'm like, okay, does that
really mean that? You know, a little bit
of self-doubt. But now, having lived
that experience and lived that journey,
it really has come full circle to me.
And I always want to share the same
message to those youngsters,
>> especially in these, you know, big
moments where the the pressure is super
high, the expectations are super high.
You, you know, I'm calm, I'm cool, I'm
collected. It's, you know, you you've
been in these moments before. That's
what I tell myself. And, you know, just
go out there, have fun, and enjoy it
again. You know, regardless of what
happens, it it's a game of football.
You're out here having fun playing the
game that you've loved since you were 5
years old. Now, Miami's football roots
run deep, but one local high school's
incredible connection to last night's
championship game was next level. From
Heisman winning Mendoza to Miami head
coach Mario Crystal, seven players and
coaches on both teams share a common
alma mater. Miami's Columbus High
School, our Bin Gindress had the chance
to visit the school ahead of kickoff for
a look at the school's storied football
program.
Go 25 miles south of Hard Rock Stadium
in Miami where college football's
biggest showdown is set for Monday night
and you'll land here. Columbus High
School, a school that's well got some
skin in the game.
>> We have seven people with Columbus or
Columbus alums that are all tied to this
game.
>> Welcome back.
>> Oh, thank you.
>> That's Columbus's football coach Dave
Dunn. We first met last year when we
came to chat about Fernando Mendoza,
Indiana's breakout quarterback, a
Heisman winner who played for Dunn.
>> Last time I saw you, wait, Fernando
hadn't yet won the Heisman. IU hadn't
yet won the Big 10. They certainly
weren't playing for a national
championship.
>> Yes.
>> What a rise.
>> Yes.
>> What do you think?
>> It's It's been an unbelievable month. A
fairy tale season that will be capped
off when Fernando and his brother
Alberto, his backup quarterback at IU,
return home to take on Miami. They'll
face friends. Three high school
teammates play for the Hurricanes.
Miami's head coach Mario Crisal and
assistant coach Alex Mirabball round out
all Columbus High alumni who will be on
the field.
>> And I coached with coach Mirbal here. Uh
he was an offensive line coach here at
Columbus and coach Crystal Ball's nephew
was on our staff and his two sons are on
our team.
>> All five players I played for me here.
>> What is it just feels as a coach?
>> It's like a proud father moment almost.
How many times am I get a chance to see
seven of our people compete for a
national championship in our backyard?
>> Are you getting text messages from
friends saying, "Hey coach, uh you
should brush your shoulders off. This is
pretty cool that you got this many
players playing in a national
championship game."
>> A few of those, but probably more ticket
requests. I've got more of those that I
have accolades, but it goes with the
territory. Let's go way back, shall we?
This is 1986 and 1987
school year.
>> The connections to this school run even
deeper. The Mendoza brother's dad also
played football at Columbus alongside
Mario Crystal.
>> Fernando was an offensive lineman. And
there's Mario Crystal Ball leading the
team onto the field.
>> It's always special when you get to play
against with or against guys that you
know or knew growing up.
>> This is Haley's comet. This will never
happen again. A Heisman Trophy winner
from Columbus High School playing his
hometown University which he was a fan
of coached by two guys who played with
his father in high school and the game
is in Miami. Figure that.
>> What makes this school so special?
>> It becomes part of your DNA
>> and I think that it's passed on from
generation to generation. So, do you
cheer for the person that thanks you in
their Heisman speech or do you cheer for
this side where you're friends with the
coaches and you coach some of those
players?
>> It's it's like trying to pick your
favorite kid. You know, it's not an easy
question to answer. So, I'm just I'm
there to root both everybody both teams
on. And
>> do you have a shirt that's like split in
half?
>> No, I don't yet. Someone asked me what
color you're wearing, red or green. I go
I'm wearing blue.
>> 10sec trivia. Southern Chile is part of
which larger geographic region? Amazon
Basin, Aliplano, Patagonia or Grand
Choco.
If you said Patagonia, you can move
mountains. Chilean Patagonia is most
famous for its enormous granite mountain
peaks, Torres de Payen, and its glacial
fords.
A series of deadly wildfires is wreaking
havoc across Chile's southern region
right now. Firefighters are working
around the clock to contain at least 24
active fires, which as of this taping
have killed at least 18 people and
forced more than 20,000 evacuations.
Chilean President Gabrielle Borich has
declared a state of emergency in two of
the country's regions after the fires
consumed more than 21,000 acres in just
days. Fire officials say strong winds
and high temperatures are helping the
fires spread and complicating their
ability to control the fires. Both Chile
and neighboring Argentina have
experienced extreme heat waves to begin
the year with devastating wildfires
breaking out in Argentina and Patagonia
earlier this month. Now to an extreme
feat of endurance in one of the world's
most frigid regions. Take a look at
these wild images out of Russia's
Yakuchia region where distance runners
from around the world took on the 7th
annual Oya Khan Pole of Cold Marathon.
The Oyakan region is known as one of the
coldest inhabited places on the planet
and runners battled bone chilling temps
as low as 41 below zero as they
traversed the frozen terrain. But there
were no cold feet to be found for these
extreme athletes and a pair of homegrown
Yakushian runners took home top prizes
in both the full and 50k ultramarathon
distances. Next up, the story of figure
skater Maxim Naomov, whose life changed
forever in an instant and whose
resilience is now carrying him all the
way to the Olympic stage. We caught up
with Max just as he earned a spot on
Team USA.
>> Life unfortunately,
you know, made me grow up really fast.
>> On a fateful night in January of 2025,
Maxim Naomov's life changed forever.
Breaking news tonight, an urgent search
for answers after a mid-air collision
kills 67 people in the nation's capital.
Maxim's parents of Genea Shishkova and
Vadim Naomov were aboard American
Airlines flight 5342.
After their tragic deaths, he was left
devastated, but he found returning to
the ice to be therapeutic.
>> Lacing up those skates for the first
time was one of the most difficult
things I've ever done in my life. Um,
but as soon as I stepped onto the ice, I
mean, again, just the overwhelming
support, the hugs, you know, um, the
tears, the path to healing was in doing
the difficult things. So, I knew I
needed to pursue that if I wanted to get
through, you know, one of the most
difficult things in my entire life. And
that's when I knew I had to. And it was
for them as well. I know they would have
said the exact same thing. A year after
losing his parents, 24year-old Maxim's
perseverance is leading him to the
Winter Olympics in Italy. He won't be
going alone, though. He held up pictures
to honor his parents while waiting for
his scores at the US Figure Skating
Championships.
>> I really wish anything in the world for
them to be there. So, I just told them
that we did it. We We did it. And we
made it. I pray they're smiling down on
me now. the value of resilience in our
family, never giving up, pushing and
gritting your teeth and fighting tooth
and nail for every single thing that you
possibly can. And I know that whatever
it is that life throws at me, I'll be
I'll be still standing.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. a
student athlete who just set an Arizona
State record scoring an eyepopping 100
points in a single basketball game.
>> As of right now, I'm still trying to
wrap my head around it.
>> Mary Veil High School senior Adrien
Stubs isn't new to big games, but this
night felt different from the opening
tip. Once the score crossed the triple
digits, the milestone was within reach.
>> You could feel it as like every time he
touched the ball, you knew it was going
in.
>> It was a lot of jumpers. A lot of people
did assume, oh, he was cherry-picking,
oh, no comp, whatever. It was a lot of
tough buckets
>> during the game. They just kept telling
me to shoot, keep going. Uh, keep
telling me that I'm hitting shots, you
know, keep being supportive. The
opposing team's fans delivering him the
final tally, sealing a moment his
teammates say couldn't have happened to
a better person. All right, that's all
we have time for for now, but we do have
time for one shout out. This one goes to
Mr. Morris at Terinda Middle School in
San Carlos, California. Thank you for
making us a part of your day. Tomorrow's
your word Wednesday. So submit your
vocabulary word and definition in the
comments section of my latest post on
Instagram, Koiwire or CNN10. And we're
going to choose a winner to work into
tomorrow's show. Bring it. We'll see you
tomorrow. I'm Koi Wire and we are CNN
10.