Members of the Almaden Valley Rotary Club approached the San Jose Police Activities League with the idea that the two organizations combined their efforts to present a high school all-star football game.

The idea seemed like a good one, and on Aug. 8, 1974, the finest high school football players from the '74 graduating class got together for the first game of its kind, played that summer at San Jose State University's Spartan Stadium.

Almost three decades later, the game is still gong strong.

And the 29th annual event, now called the Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star Football Game and Silicon Valley Youth Classic, will kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on July 23 at San José City College.

The game that has featured such National Football League stars as Jeff Garcia of the San Francisco 49ers, Doug Cosbie of the Dallas Cowboys, Jeff Toews of the Miami Dolphins, John Tuggle and Erik Howard of the New York Giants, Pat Tillman of the Arizona Cardinals and more.

Local stars set to play for the North team in this year's edition of the all-star classic include Chris Bencomo of Lynbrook, Andrew Ravadge and Ben Reynolds of Cupertino and Will Faules, Garren Strong and Ramont Thomas of Homestead.

Former local stars who participated in the summer classic include:

Monta Vista

1975— Bob Gilson; 1976— George Ripley; 1978— Scott Coen, Maverick Tufuli, Tom Lloyd; 1979— Leonard Marchese, Jim Cleary; 1980— Mike Sansone, Chris Hampton; 1981— Troy Carlson, Bill Beadling, Bill Pearson; 1982— Sean Casey, Phillip Levy, Blake Ross, Beau Rahn; 1983— Tom Smith; 1984— John Pressley, John Miller; 1985— Chris Valenzuela, Bret Erickson; 1986— Mike Powers, Jeffery Sturdivant, Mark Stokes; 1987— Mark Jackman, Sean Robinson, Dave Ludwig; 1988— Eric Davidson; 1989— Tim Gilbert, Tom Buckley; 1990— Ryan Hancock, Clay Reis; 1991— Jason DeAnda; 1992— Matt Quadro; 1993— Kelly Edwards, Ross Touli, Bryan Clark; 1994— David Lee; 1995— Michael Jenkins, Dave Mowrer; 1997— Mike McNeil, Chad Purcell, Adam Peters; 1999— Ryan Mitchell, Brian Laatsch; 2000— John Lozano, Kyle Kingsbury; 2001— Shamel Ferguson, Justin Douglas, Bryan Tompkins; 2002— Ryan Katz, Drew Rogers.

Lynbrook

1976— David Halliday; 1979— Bill Nicholas; 1981— Don Handley, Mike Nicholas; 1982— Doug Bloyd, Jim Cooke, Stephen Hopkins; 1983— Archie Rodich; 1984— Brian Hays, Steve Andris, Chris Saxen; 1985— Joe Urban; 1986— Dave Gillen; 1987— Chris Hart, Charlie Bostic, Dean Bambrick; 1988— Travis Lee Boeck; 1989— Daryl Rogers; 1991— Brian Martinez; 1992— Scott Schneider, Mike MacPherson; 1993— Ted Cocoles, Kevin Berns; 1994— Jeff Menold; 1995— Joel Rogers; 1996— Dan Sullivan; 1997— Steve Horner; 1998— Jason Chiang, Tony Klabo; 1999— Vik Rajagopal; 2000— Matt Fratus, B.K. Robertson; 2001— Gordon Hawley, Shawn Dormishian, Brodie Maag; 2002— Sean Imai.

Cupertino

1976— Bob Ignaitus, Rick Napolitan, Dean Natwick; 1978— Pete Calderon, Steve Finley; 1979— Tim Small; 1980— John Puzar; 1981— Kevin Dipko; 1982— Scott Steiner, Craig Hillesland; 1983— Kurt Cottrell; 1984— Andrew Scarborough, Steve Carlozzi, Erik Johnson, Mike Mercer; 1985— Steve Dipko, Andrew Guidero, Chis Linder; 1986— Joe Marinello; 1987— Mark Longshore; 1989— Steve Peters; 1990— Ja Fau DeLane; 1991— Deron Thorp; 1992— Ken Kronquist; 1994— Joshua Deale, Keith Blanchard; 1995— Rene Bard; 1996— Dan Donahue; 1997— David Jackson; 1998— Bernardo Zeballos; 1999— Mitch Andrade, John Ho; 2000— Mike Runfola, Joey Conley; 2001— Jeff Almendarez; 2002— Scott Mueller.

Homestead

1975— Jim Caldwell; 1976— Jim Berglund; 1978— William Pence, Jerry Brooks, Dave Mariner; 1979— Daniel Cordova; 1980— Joe Walker; 1981— Todd Dal Porto, Dave Johnson, Mike Pestana; 1982— Matt Delenikos, Mike Marengo; 1983— Fred Lewis, Jeff Lamson; 1984— Chris Vanni; 1985— Paul Marcy, David Williams; 1986— Daryl Johnson, Scott Erickson; 1987— Ed Devlin; 1988— Jim-Jim Grimes, Paul Maytorena; 1989— Jeff Field, Chris Tiernan; 1990— David Vieiler, Eteka Huckaby, Craig Smalley; 1991— Tim Malatesta; 1992— Kevin Kumagai, Jason Hilker, Kenneth Crawford; 1993— Michael Kenney; 1994— Clint Tada, Terrell Jones, Andy Holland; 1995— Pete Holland, Jason Tenner; 1996— Jeremie Braun, Leo Fisher; 1997— Andrew Delgado, Ben Amiwero, Tony Elam, Bo Gerth, David Atchison, Mark Glennon; 1998— Chris Brooker, Matt Kenney; 1999— Trumaine Green, Ben Mika; 2000— Tony Kiel; 2002— Steven Nichols.