The Willow Glen Resident

Fisk, Tillman were summer 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 Shaun Thompson of Willow Glen and Rob Basuino of Pioneer will get their chance when they line up on the South 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:

Willow Glen

1976--Mitch Bigger, Carl Roth; 1982--Steve Malik, Doug Ito; 1983--Bill Chavarria, Bret Gedryn, Chris Thomas; 1984--John Foster, Jeff Knopf, Fred Houston; 1985--David Williams; 1986--Rigo Gutierrez, Terry Fine; 1987--Scott Benning, Javier Gutierrez; 1988--Andy Brinck; 1989--Dave Miller; 1992--Curtis Given; 1993--Josh Ledger, Scott Hernandez; 1994--Jose Martinez; 1995--Mike Burse, David Duran, Dean Vinson.

Pioneer

1974--Randy Becker, Jim Ogle, Randy Vorsters; 1975--Kevin Douglas, Harry Reed, Dan Burke; 1981--Brent Zappacosta, Craig Wince; 1983--Jon Stewart; 1984--Jim Grzelak, Dan Hustaca; 1985--Mike Nedved, Paul Hembrooke; 1986--Jim Orlowski; 1987--Troy Marseline; 1988--Rick Grant; 1989--Bryan Hilborn, Carlos Vasquez, Richard Dole; 1990--Eric Perry; 1991--Issac Kendrick; 1992--Brian Yoshikawa; 1993--DePrice Kelly, Scott Howell; 1995--Adam Swantko, Edgar Alcala, Pablo Martinez; 1996--Tim Snow; 1997--Kyle Murdock, Nathan Jackson.

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