Dylan Waukazo is a loyal Minnesota Twins fan. But he will gladly take a vacation from his MLB allegiances when he travels to Atlanta.

The freshly graduated Bemidji High School senior is headed to Georgia from June 7-9 to compete in the Native American All-Star Baseball Showcase at Truist Park. The Braves are hosting 50 youth baseball players of Native American descent from around North America to participate and compete in pro-style workouts and a showcase game.

Waukazo was the lone Minnesota player selected.

“Baseball has been very big for me,” Waukazo said. “I’ve played baseball for 13 years. I’m just excited to get down there and learn. They work with guys like (Ronald Acuna Jr.) on a day-to-day basis. I want to learn from the same coaches.”

Former MLB players Marquis Grissom, Johnny Estrada, Marvin Freeman and Lou Collier will coach the teams in the showcase game. As part of the showcase, the Atlanta Braves will utilize TrackMan Baseball, a leading technology company in sports analytics, to capture, track and deliver player statistics to help players improve their game.

The pro-style workout on Saturday, June 8, will be executed by the Marquis Grissom Baseball Association and will focus on defensive work, fielding, throwing and catcher pop times. Select players will be picked during Saturday’s batting practice to participate in a home run derby that afternoon following the workout.

In the Braves’ efforts to provide access and opportunity for diverse baseball talent, the showcase will highlight Native American high school baseball players who aspire to play the game at the next level.

In addition to providing the unforgettable experience of playing in an MLB ballpark, the event will offer exposure for players who otherwise may not have an opportunity to play in front of college and MLB scouts.

“The one thing I really wanted to learn was more about pitching and more about fielding,” Waukazo said. “I want to get the (fundamentals) down like an MLB player would, and I get to learn from MLB coaches when I get there.”

Waukazo is bringing more than a bat and a glove to Atlanta. With him, he will bring a White Earth Nation tribal flag to give to the Braves’ organization. The flag will be hung with the other donated tribal flags in the team facility, a gesture that makes Waukazo feel “honored and proud.”

“There’s some nerves about going to Atlanta, for sure,” Waukazo said. “But I think they’ll go away once I get down there. I just want to learn as much as I can.”

Waukazo wants to develop more command with his pitching and learn how to throw harder. He will take the tools he garners from Atlanta to Cornell College in Iowa next fall. Cornell is a Division III school in Mount Vernon, led by head coach Robbie Dombrowski. Waukazo will also play for the Bemidji Bucks this summer.

“It’s always been a dream of mine to play college baseball,” he added. “It’s just an honor for me to be able to do that and accomplish that. I went to a showcase and had a good workout with (Cornell). They gave me my first-ever offer and (Dombrowski) said I could be a dude on his staff. He believes in me, and that’s what I was looking for.”

1 of 5 | On May 31, 2003, Eric Robert Rudolph, the long-sought fugitive in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing, was arrested. File Photo courtesy of the FBI

In 1859, construction concluded and bells rang out for the first time from London’s Big Ben clock tower.

In 1889, a flood in Johnstown, Pa., left more than 2,200 people dead.

In 1902, Britain and South Africa signed a peace treaty ending the Boer War.

In 1916, the Battle of Verdun passed the 100-day mark. It would continue for another 200 days, amassing a casualty list of an estimated 800,000 soldiers dead, injured or missing.

In 1921, the Tulsa race massacre was set off when a mob of White residents attacked the Black residents and businesses in the Greenwood District. The total number of those killed in the violence is unknown, with an Oklahoma commission established in 2001 estimating between 75 to 100 people dead. The number of displaced Black residents was far greater.

In 1940, a thick fog hanging over the English Channel prevented the German Luftwaffe from flying missions against evacuating Allied troops from Dunkirk.

Troops evacuated from Dunkirk on a destroyer about to berth at Dover, England, on May 31, 1940. File Photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

In 1985, seven federally insured banks in Arkansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oregon were closed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. It was a single-day record for closings since the FDIC was founded in 1934.

In 1996, Israeli voters elected opposition Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu as prime minister.

In 2003, Eric Robert Rudolph, the long-sought fugitive in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing and attacks on abortion clinics and a gay nightclub, was arrested while rummaging through a dumpster in North Carolina. Rudolph, whose bombings killed two people and injured many others, was sentenced to four life terms in prison.

In 2005, Mark Felt admitted that, while No. 2 man in the FBI, he was “Deep Throat,” the shadowy contact whose help to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein on the 1972 Watergate break-in led to U.S. President Richard Nixon’s resignation.

File Photo by Alexis C. Glenn/UPI

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In 2012, John Edwards of North Carolina, former U.S. senator and presidential candidate, was acquitted on a charge of taking illegal campaign contributions, and a judge declared a mistrial on five other charges against him.

In 2014, U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, captured in Afghanistan nearly five years earlier, was released by the Taliban in exchange for five detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. In March 2015, the Army announced that Bergdahl had been charged with desertion.

In 2019, a shooting a a Virginia Beach, Va., municipal center left 12 victims and the shooter — a disgruntled former employee — dead.

In 2021, China announced plans to allow couples to have a third child, scrapping its controversial two-child policy amid a slumping birth rate and aging population.

File Photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI

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ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – The City of Atlanta is exploring new alternatives to address mental health among first responders.

A new proposal by Atlanta City Councilmember Liliana Bakhatiari looks to add psilocybin and ketamine as mental health treatments.

Psilocybin is the active compound found in some mushrooms that causes a psychedelic effect, also known as “magic mushrooms.”

Ketamine is a synthetic pharmaceutical originally developed as an aesthetic. Ketamine is legal in Georgia under the supervision of a licensed professional. Psilocybin, which is illegal, is making similar strides in the medical setting.

Dr. Bradley Cooke, a former Georgia Tech professor of neuroscience, said clinical trials have proven the drugs are effective in treating severe PTSD, depression, and anxiety.

“There is considerable evidence especially from placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trials that drugs like psilocybin and ketamine are quite effective at treating people with depression and anxiety and PTSD,” Cooke said.

It’s something police, fire and EMS departments across the nation are exploring across as suicide rates continue to rise.

Bakhtiari said she was at an out-of-state event with first responders who praised how the drugs helped with trauma experienced on the job. She said the resolution directs the human resources department to research the positives and negatives.

Bakhtiari said the goal is to see if they can be added as mental health treatments under the city’s healthcare plan.

“We have a higher case of suicide rates and suicide ideation. If we expect people to be here in our city on the front lines protecting folks, we need to expand what mental health services, look like,” she said.

The human resources department is set to bring those findings back to the city council at the end of this year.

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