STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) – For teams in any sport, winning one title is a challenge, so winning three in a row? That seems nearly impossible.

That’s exactly what the UFL’s Birmingham Stallions recently accomplished, though. And one member of the team — who’s been around for all three championships — is a familiar face in the Savannah area.

Ryan Langan attended Georgia Southern, where he was a longsnapper on the football team from 2017 to 2021. In his final season, he collected several accolades, including All-Sun Belt First Team and All-America Third Team. After school, he was just one cut away from making it to the NFL with the Chargers, but that’s when the Stallions came calling, and now he has three rings to show for his time with the team.

“I just saw an Instagram post or little thing that said ‘The only people that have done it in all of men’s college basketball, women’s college basketball, football, all of the sports, is just UConn’s women’s basketball.’ So it’s definitely something for the history books, and I’m glad to be apart of it,” said Langan.

This was the first UFL Championship that Langan and the Stallions have won — the previous two being USFL titles before the merger with the XFL. But while winning is obviously the goal, the bigger picture these players have in mind is working hard enough and putting enough good film on tape in order to catch the eye of an NFL scout and get themselves back in the league.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of older folks in my life and they always tell me, you know, ‘you have the rest of your life to work.’ Just kind of still have the hopes and dreams, and not giving up on it. I believe in myself like everybody in that league believes in themselves that they can make it to the next level.”

The hope for Langan is that he’ll get a call from an NFL team in the coming weeks and be able to join their training camp next month

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Marine mammal care specialists from the Georgia Aquarium were part of a team that rescued two beluga whales from Ukraine this week and safely delivered them to an aquarium in Spain.

It’s being called “likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken.”

The multinational collaboration took place on Tuesday and ended with the arrival of 15-year-old male Plombir and 14-year-old female Miranda to Oceanographic Valencia. The aquarium is the largest in Europe and the only one on the continent with belugas in its facilities, according to a press release. 

“The complexities of this evacuation were immense, and we have been working for weeks to prepare for it,” said Dennis Christen, senior director of animal wellbeing and behavior at the Georgia Aquarium. “I’m humbled to have been trusted to provide the belugas care and protection during their long journey to their new home.”

The operation began with a team from NEMO Dolphinarium in Kharkiv, Ukraine, taking the belugas on a 12-hour drive to Odesa, a Ukrainian city 400 miles away. There they met the team of marine mammal care specialists from the Georgia Aquarium, Oceanographic Valencia and SeaWorld, who cared for the belugas on the long journey to Oceanografic Valencia in Spain.

Dr. Daniel Garcia-Párraga, director of zoological operations at Oceanografic, said that if the belugas had stayed in Kharkiv, “their chances of survival would have been very slim.”

“I applaud AZA [Association of Zoos and Aquariums] members Oceanografic, Georgia Aquarium and SeaWorld, for convening the world’s most elite team of marine mammal experts to work with the Ukrainian aquarium on what is likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken,” said Dan Ashe, President and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA).  

A team of medical, nutritional and behavioral experts at Oceanographic are helping the belugas recover from the trauma they have experienced. Two Ukrainian caregivers are also helping out for the next couple of weeks to help with the transition and care, according to the release.

“My heart is with the Ukrainian caregivers and the people of Kharkiv who had to say goodbye to Miranda and Plombir,” said the Georgia Aquarium’s Christen. “It’s not an easy thing to do, but it was best for them. I’m proud to have played a role in helping them,”