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All-star game has had its share of top QBs |
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34th game returns to Spartan Stadium By DICK SPARRER It's the first day of high school football practice, and the coach is assessing his talent. So he asks the inevitable question— "Who's a quarterback?"—and immediately 20 or 30 hands shoot into the air. It's the position every kid wants to play, and the role every dad wants his son to fill. Trouble is, while there may be 20 linemen and 15 or so backs on every football team, only a special few have what it takes to become quarterbacks, and fewer still have the talent to take it to the next level. The Santa Clara Valley has certainly had its share of "next level" quarterbacks, though, and many of them have appeared on the field playing for the North or the South in the big game with the long name — the Silicon Valley Youth Classic Charlie Wedemeyer All-Star Football Game. As the 34th edition of that summer all-star classic returns on July 23, 7:30 p.m., five quarterbacks will trot onto the turf at Spartan Stadium, following in the footsteps of past and present National Football League and collegiate stars who have helped make the game what it is today. The shadows of the past greats will hang over the field as the South's Arjun Ashokkumar of Yerba Buena and Ricky Battipede of Leland battle the North's Sam Scudellari of St. Francis, Danny Young of Los Altos and Anthony Cukar of Del Mar for the edge in this year's clash. The county has long been a fertile area for growing outstanding quarterbacks: Craig Morton, the Campbell sensation who went on to Super Bowl success with both the Dallas Cowboys and Denver Broncos; Dan Pastorini, Bellarmine's favorite son who starred with the Houston Oilers; Jim Plunkett, Lick's outstanding Comet who rose to stardom with the Raiders after stints with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49ers; Bob Berry, the Willow Glen great who would later take the Minnesota Vikings to the Super Bowl; and Steve Bartkowski, the Buchser standout who would star for the Atlanta Falcons. Before embarking on his NFL career, the youngest of the group, Bartkowski, played his final season at UC-Berkeley in the fall of 1974. It had only been that previous summer that the Santa Clara County all-star game had been born. And the greats of the 1950s, '60s and '70s simply set the stage for the many talented quarterbacks who would follow. Morton, Pastorini, Plunkett, Berry and Bartkowski played their high school football before there was a county all-star game. They were, however, the trailblazers for the others who would follow. Since their years behind the center, no less than four quarterbacks have used the Silicon Valley Youth Classic as a springboard to the NFL, four as a steppingstone to the Pac-10 and countless others as a final step toward successful collegiate careers. Jeff Garcia of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Trent Edwards of the Buffalo Bills are current NFL quarterbacks who played in the summer classic in different decades. Edwards, a three-year starter at Los Gatos, had a big night in the summer game of 2001 before going on to start at Stanford and now for the Bills. Edwards completed 12 of 18 passes for 110 yards and a touchdown and also ran for a touchdown that year, but it all came in a 19-15 loss. "Yeah, some guys won't let me forget that," he would later joke as he looked back on that North defeat. "But I had a great time. Some close buddies from my high school were on the team, too, and I met a lot of cool guys. It was a great opportunity and a great way to end my high school career." For Garcia, the experience was much different. Garcia was a highly successful quarterback out of Gilroy High. His professional career has taken him from the Canadian Football League to NFL stops with the San Francisco 49ers, Cleveland Browns, Detroit Lions and Philadelphia Eagles before landing the starting role with the Bucs. Ironically, though, he did not even play quarterback in the summer game in 1988. Garcia was one of three quarterbacks selected to play for the South all-star team in 1988, but little did he know that the other would get the top jobs behind the center while he was vanquished to the defensive secondary. "I went into that all-star week of practice thinking I was going to be one of the starting quarterbacks," he would say later. But it was Dan Hall of Leigh and Hector Siqueiros of Independence who were getting the snaps in practice, and "after a couple of days they asked me if I could play another position." He intercepted a pass that night as a free safety. Since that time, though, he's pretty much concentrated on throwing passes — first as a starter at San Jose State University, and now in the NFL. Edwards and Garcia join Rich Campbell of Santa Teresa and Ben Bennett of Peterson as all-star quarterbacks who have gone on to play in the NFL. Campbell starred at UC-Berkeley before playing four seasons with the Green Bay Packers, and Bennett was a standout at Duke before playing for a few NFL teams and finally starring in the Arena Football League. Edwards (Stanford) and Campbell (Cal) are joined by Los Gatos quarterbacks Gus Farwell and Danny Sullivan as QBs who went on from the summer game to the Pac-10 — both at Arizona State University. Farwell, who played in the 1995 all-star game, was the backup quarterback for the Sun Devils in the 1997 Rose Bowl, and Sullivan will be the junior backup for the Devils this fall. Sullivan played in the 2006 all-star game. David Macchi, a 2000 all-star quarterback out of Willow Glen set passing records at Valparaiso University before going on to play for Italy in the European Football League, and Marty Mornhinweg an '80 'star out of Oak Grove, went on to become an NFL head coach with the Detroit Lions. Saratoga's Bill Haselman played in the summer game and went on to play 13 seasons of Major League baseball with the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners and Detroit Tigers. Two quarterbacks from the 2005 game are still playing — Kiel Trudeau of Leigh at Southern Oregon and Nathan Ford of Palo Alto at Cornell — and many others have gone on to stardom in the collegiate ranks. Still others remain quarterbacks yet to be — faces in a crowd of players raising their arms in the air to get the attention of their high school coach. Because every kid wants to be a quarterback. Tickets for the game, priced at $15 for adults (children under 8 admitted free with a paid adult), will be on sale at Spartan Stadium the night of the game. For more information, call 408.268.7196. Local stars ready to play football in annual Silicon Valley Youth Classic all-star game Local schools will be well represented in the 34th annual Silicon Valley Youth Classic Charlie Wedcmeyer All-Star Football Game on July 23, 7:30 p.m., at Spartan Stadium Among the local players set to play for the South team in the summer game are Tyler Chase, Enrique Martinez, Shane Murray and Stanley White of Pioneer; Kellan Barker and Jimmy Molnar of Bellarmine; Ricky Battipede, Nate Jones and Kevin Krail of Leland: Shawn Sanders of Leigh; and Kalani Markle of Branham. The group will join a talented list of players from the area who have competed in the game through the years. Former local Stars who have participared in the summer classic include: Pioneer Bellarmine Branham Camden Leland |