Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Fisk and Tillman are Wedemeyer all-stars

By Dick Sparrer

Darren Fisk and Pat Tillman will likely spend this summer playing football.

Then, that's nothing new. The two have been doing just that for the last few years, throughout their collegiate football careers.

But the difference this summer is that their college careers have ended. And when they play football this summer, it will be in the camps of a couple of National Football League teams.

Fisk was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons after starring as a fullback at the University of Colorado, and Tillman was drafted by the Arizona Cardinals after an outstanding career as an outside linebacker at Arizona State University.

So Fisk and Tillman will be playing their football in NFL camps this summer, but it wasn't that long ago that they were playing summer football in the Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star High School Football Game.

Fisk, a star at Los Gatos, played for the North all-stars in the 1992 summer classic, and Tillman, a standout player at Leland, starred for the South 'stars in 1994.

Now they've become two of the many local football players who have participated in the summer game and gone on to great careers in the college ranks, and even the NFL.

Fisk and Tillman hope to follow in the footsteps of the many county all-stars who have played in the NFL: Doug Cosbie of St. Francis (Dallas Cowboys), Don Schwartz of Mitty (St. Louis Cardinals), Jeff Toews of Del Mar (Miami Dolphins), Rich Campbell of Santa Teresa (Green Bay Packers), Carl Monroe of Overfelt (San Francisco 49ers), John Tuggle of Independence (New York Giants), George Achica of Andrew Hill (Chicago Bears), John Faylor of Mitty (49ers), Erik Howard of Bellarmine (NY Giants), Randy Kirk of Bellarmine (49ers), and Tim Ryan of Oak Grove (Chicago Bears).

And there will be many players this summer who would be content to follow in the footsteps of Fisk and Tillman, and have successful college careers after playing in the summer classic.

Local players John Stengele, Alan Rosa, Austin Glover, Charlie Cucco, Enzo Iacomini and Mike Manson of Los Gatos, and Kyle Padia and Sean Nagy of Leigh will get their chance when they line up on the North side of the football in the 24th annual Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game July 22 at Spartan Stadium.

The 7 p.m. football game is sponsored each summer by the Almaden Valley Rotary Club, and proceeds go to the Rotary charity and scholarship programs.

Former local stars to participate in the summer classic include:

Los Gatos

1975--Steve Hosmer, Pat Geary; 1976--John Breidenthal; 1978--Kirk Fraley; 1979--Jeff Petulla; 1980--Kent Cooper; 1981--Tom Havens; 1982--Dave Bearden, Al Schwimmer, A.J. Mathhews; 1983--Joshua Hatch, Orrin Childs; 1984--Dan Leonis, Stu Bailey; 1985--Brock Bowman, Todd Mayo, David Palaniuk, Pat Smith, Jeff Blaisdell; 1986--Jeff Borgese, Steve Priest, John Cundy, Leigh Haring; 1987--Marc Bresniker, Gary Norquist, Spencer Boyer; 1988--Mark Magee, Joe Farwell, Barry Teigen; 1989--Steve Lombardi, Matt Lemiere, Jim Copeland; 1990--Bill Berk, Jason Hallady, Max Fancher, Dave Hoffner, Burt Prentice; 1991--Trevor Wilson, Robert MacGregor, Sam Partovi, Ian Stone; 1992--Darren Fisk, Joe O'Hehir, Travis Rodgers; 1993--Brad Sanfilippo, Joe Musser, Cory Maday, Mark Cox, Ryan Marcos; 1994--Jim Lombardi, Dion Mejia, Chad Nelson; 1995--Jeremy Barth, Gus Farwell, Derek Krug, Gavin Hayes, Paul Willmes; 1996--John Giordano, Scott Grover, Manuel Neno; 1997--Josh Rogers, Doug Miller, Carlos Lanuza, Jeremy Malander.

Leigh

1974--Rick Foley, Jeff Beeson, Steve Leonard, Tom Clark; 1976--Steve McGarry; 1978--Bob Leal, Brian Usry; 1979--Mark Mena; 1980--Joseph Valenti; 1981--Ken Caminiti, Nicholas Neri; 1982--David Pruitt; 1984--Dino Sontag; 1986--Derek Rosas; 1987--Keith Usry; 1988--Dan Hall, Don Vigeant, Carl Cardarelli; 1989--David Mackey; 1990--Dave Dyer; 1991--Frank Mazzola; 1992--James Mazzone, Joe Cattolico, John Cerda; 1993--Clint Semon, Tom Stone; 1994--Brian Fong, Ronell Duffie; 1995--Chris Guthrie, Kevin Millering, Bryon Bratcher; 1996--Tim Garner, Patrick Guthrie, Scott Whiteford; 1997--Dan Ljepava.

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