The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Local 'stars reach the NFL

Area schools well represented in all-star game

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.

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 Chris Brooker and Matt Kenney of Homestead and Tully Banta-Cain, Justin Stichter and Warren Rick of Fremont 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 star to participate in the summer classic include:

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.

Fremont

1975--Rick Armer, Keith Burcham, Davd Geppert, Steve Brown, Kevin Johnson; 1978--Rainy Meszaros, Steve Zankich; 1979-- Sander Markel, Greg Hooper, Greg Reiley, Mike Shriner; 1980--Phil Graham; 1981-- Ramon Barron, Terry Theodore, Todd Barraclough; 1982-- Mitch Mariani; 1983--Karl Castles, Doug Rothschild, Darrin Crawford, Vincent Brigman, Don Shearon; 1984--Ulysses Vee; 1985--Ricky Samuelu; 1986--Kini Tufono, Dan Savage; 1987-- Brian Theodore, Frank Bellucci; 1988--Steve Savage, Phil Davis, Stephen Robinson; 1989-- Rich Bellucci, Daryl Sadowski, Jeff Chinn, Tim Wadholm; 1990--George Ulukivaiola, Scott Savage; 1991-- Willie Harper, Manvir Sandhu, Tom Mendoza; 1992-- Greg Perry, Andy Walczak, Jason Simontacchi; 1993-- Jabari Snowden, Jeff Neal; 1995-- Dennis Truong; 1996-- Tom Jimenez; 1997-- Art Alegria.

Sunnyvale

1978-- Tim Thompson, John Ane, Don Thompson; 1979--Bob Scheibley; 1980--Brian Schaeffer, George Fletcher.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, July 15, 1998.
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