here's catie beck. >> reporter: tonight the yankees naming the first female manager in the minors tote minor league baseball team, the tampa tarpins. rachel balkovec making baseball history a second time. >> my goal is to develop them as young men and young people who have an immense amount of pressure on them. >> reporter: we spoke to her back in 2020 after becoming the first female hitting coach in the league also with the tarpins. >> get in this position before you contact the ball. >> reporter: in our interview she describes her uphill battle to break into the male dominated industry, earning two masters degrees, working in the minors with the cardinals and later the astros even teaching herself spanish to better communicate in the field. >> any struggle that we go through is meaning. you know, my life has so much deep meaning and like just i'm just so grateful for all of the struggles. >> reporter: today at a virtual press conference, we connected again. when you were first interviewing for jobs as a strength coach, people would love your resume and then they would hear a female

and he got his win today in the most thrilling way possible catie beck has details. >> reporter: rafael nadal claims victory and makes tennis history. his signature celebrations on the court, after an epic come-from-behind win at the australian open against u.s. open champion, daniil medvedev the 35-year-old spaniard rallied back to win his 21st grand slam title, surpassing roger federer and novak djokovic to become the most decorated men's tennis player of all time >> having this trophy with me, you don't know how much it means to be here >> reporter: the fight meant overcoming a painful recovery, from a major foot surgery just two months ago. >> this was a legacy match for rafael nadal. and i don't say that lightly, because he is legendary already. when you consider the fact that he was on crutches a couple months ago. >> reporter: notably absent from the australian open was top-seeded novak djokovic, deported earlier this month over his unvaccinated status today he applauded nadal for his achievement tweeting always impressive fighting spirit that prevailed another time nadal deliver

catie beck with that story tonight. >> my children will not come to school on monday with a mask on. >> reporter: to mask or not to mask, a question now reaching a boiling point in virginia's schools >> we must keep our county mask mandate in place. not only do we need it, but we as students demand it. >> reporter: in effect monday, newly elected virginia governor glenn youngkin's executive order allowing parents to decide whether their child should wear a mask at school, undoing the previous statewide mandate. >> it means that our son will be able to breathe more freely, and we -- we have looked forward to this day for a very long time. >> reporter: while some districts are celebrating the new direction, others stand firmly against it, saying it puts children's health and safety at risk at a critical time. several districts refusing to comply with the order and requiring students to continue wearing masks. seven of them now taking youngkin to court, challenging an order they call unconstitutional >> i honestly don't want my kids in masks forever at school. that's just not, you know,

catie beck, all three men face mandatory life sentences. walk us through what else we can expect today? >> reporter: well, the judge is going to be hearing from character witnesses likely on both sides. we know for a fact that ahmaud arbery's mother and father will both be delivering a statement to the court. we don't know exactly who will be speaking on behalf of the defendants, if anyone. but we also know that these three defendants will have an opportunity to address the judge directly before they are sentenced. and as you said, jose, this is a life sentence. what the judge is determining here is whether or not any of these three defendants should be eligible for parole after 30 years. so they have to serve 30 years before that eligibility would happen, if they are determined to be eligible. so that is what he'll be deciding today. on the way into the courtroom this morning, arbery's mother did stop and make a statement, saying that she will be asking for the steepest sentence for the men convicted of her son's murder. >> ahmaud didn't g

joining me now is nbc news correspondent catie beck and former federal prosecutor paul butler. hat was it like in court today? >> katy, there has been a lot of emotional testimony from arbery's mother and father, describing the great loss of their son and saying they are there to be the voice he could not be for himself, making very clear they feel the mcmichaels targeted him because they didn't like how he looked in their community and they never gave him a fair shot at surviving the encounter. there has been some argument from the lawyers of the defendants that that amount of prison time doesn't fit the crime. both sides are making stark arguments for and against the parole possibility. this judge, who has heard all the arguments so far in this case, will be the one to ultimately decide whether or not they will have that eligibility for parole. but that only comes after serving 30 years of this mandatory life sentence. now, arbery's mother was very clear this morning. she spoke before she went into court and spoke again in the courtroom about how she does not think there has b

catie beck has more. >> reporter: it was an emotional day in court as the three men convicted of murderd said his sentencing was a measure of accountability. the father and son guilty of the 2020 murder of ahmaud arbery will spend the rest of their days behind bars. >> a young man with dreams was gunned down in this community. >> reporter: judge timothy wamsley calling it accountability, for greg and son travis mcmichael, a sentence of plief without parole and for neighbor william bryan a life sentence with the possibility of parole. the decision after hours of testimony, ahmaud arbery's parents describing broken hearts that will never heal. >> son, i love you. as much today as i did today that you were born. >> reporter: attorneys for the defendants calling life without parole a punishment too severe. >> nothing in travis mcmichael's life suggests he's a danger to society now, or will be a danger to society 30 years from now. >> reporter: in the end jaj wamsley pointed to the mcmichael's lack of remorse, pausing to reflect on ahmad's final moments, the 25-year-old was out for a jog whe

the judge saying arbery left his home to go for a run and ended up running for his life catie beck reports tonight. >> reporter: the father and son guilty of the 2020 murder of ahmaud arbery will spend the rest of their days behind the bars. >> a young man with dreams was gunned down in this community. >> reporter: judge timothy wamsley calling it accountability for greg and son travis mcmichael, a sentence of life without parole and for neighbor william bryant, a life sentence with the possibility of parole. the decision after hours of testimony ahmaud arbery's parents describing broken hearts that will never heal. >> son, i love you as much today as i did the day that you were born. >> reporter: attorneys for the defendants calling life without parole a punishment too severe. >> nothing in travis mcmichael's life suggests that he's a danger to society now or will be a danger to society 30 years from now. >> reporter: in the end, judge wamsley pointed to the mcmichaels' lack of remorse, even pausing to reflect on ahmad's final moments. the 25-year-old was out for a jog when he was chased,

. >> catie beck live in richmond.nightly news" reporting this. >>> i want to turn to florida, one professor there accusing the republican governor, ron desantis creating a climate of fear. after the school district cancelled his civil rights lecture because of concerns over critical race theory, even though that had nothing to do with the topic he was delivering the lecture on. this was a discussion he was presenting to teachers in one county. when he got an email, the whole thing was called off. it comes from the state with governor desantis blocking it. a spokesperson releasing this statement, critical race theory and factual history are two different things. the endless attempts to gaslight americans by conflating the two are ineffective. i want to bring in one of the reporters following the story. mark, tell us about the reaction and the governor responding back? >> dr. michael butler is a onetime professor at st. augustine, just up the road from osceola county, suburb of orlando. as you laid out there, he was kin

here we are at 3:20 eastern time where catie beck is in brunswick, a trial that may not have happened where that video came out showing what happened. that really catalyzed what we're seeing now, which is three life sentences for the men ultimately murdering ahmaud arbery. >> it's important to remember that this case may not have ever got on the that point were it not for that video. >> that's right. >> right now the former district attorney in brunswick is going to be prosecuted because there was over a month's time that went by from the death of ahmaud arbery to the arrest of these individuals where there was no action taken by that office. if it weren't for the love of a black mother with respect to arbery's mom posting an independent investigation from the georgia bureau of investigations, this case may not have seen the light of day. and so while we can appreciate the verdict in this case and while we can appreciate the sentencing in this case, it's very important that we do not condition ourselves from a public standpoint that we meade the evidence in every incident in order to

catie beck has details. >> my children will not come to school on monday with a mask on. >> reporter:unties mask mandate in place. not only do we need t but we as students demand it. >> reporter: in effect monday, newly elected virginia governor glenn youngkin's executive order allowing parents to decide whether their child should wear a mask at school, undoing the previous statewide mandate. >> it means that our son will be able to breathe more freely and we have looked forward to this day for a very long time. >> reporter: while some districts are celebrating the new direction others stand firmly against it saying it puts children's health and safety at risk at a critical time. several districts refuse to go comply with the order and requiring students to continue wearing masks, seven of them now taking youngkin to court challenging an order they call unconstitutional. >> i honestly don't want my kids in masks forever at school, that's not feasible, but they know it's the right thing to do to protect others. >> reporter: the governor's office responding monday saying they will defen