By MARK TENNIS | Special to SportStars   In any ranking such as this one, criteria needs to be explained right off the bat.   First, by using the term greatest, this is not a ranking of teams that if they lined up against each other, we think No.... Read more

State of Play: Mark Tennis    Some seasons we cover are like fine wines and only get better with age. Take the 2007-08 California boys basketball season, for example.    In the next-to-last game of that season, which was the CIF Division III state championship, future Golden State Warrior Klay Thompson... Read more

Clayton Valley Charter put it all together in 2014, going 15-1 and winning its first CIF NorCal Bowl   The waiting was the hardest part.    Senior linebacker and running back Jax Carter led the Clayton Valley Charter football team on the dark and twisty walk behind the stadium. He... Read more

  By CLAY KALLAM | Contributor   Allison Johnson has been coaching at Vanden High for 10 years. She’s won an even 250 games, and lost just 54.   But when people talk about Sac-Joaquin girls’ basketball, the conversation usually — and rightfully — begins with St. Mary’s-Stockton, a private... Read more

   As it’s our final issue of 2014, we feel the need to reflect. This is truly an original idea. We’re quite certain we’re the only publication that indulges in year-end lists to commemorate all the good things of the previous 12 months. We’re not? Well, good luck finding a... Read more

   Three days before its first official day of practice, the Richmond High basketball team’s 2014-15 season began in tragedy.     Fixing a bike on his grandfather’s front lawn, 16-year-old Rodney Frazier was fatally shot in what has been reported as a gang-related case of mistaken identity. It was another... Read more

As the King Fire blazed near its hometown, the El Dorado football team grew closer — and kept winning. Read more

   I love the World Cup. And it’s not because I’m a big soccer fan.     I love the World Cup because it turns me — and millions of other fair weather futbol Americans — into soccer fans. All-consuming soccer fans. Even if just for a few summer fortnights.  ... Read more

National records tend to fall on a routine basis at the Bay Area’s two section swim championships. There were three new ones set between the Central Coast and North Coast Section events this year, but only one had famed Olympic champion Missy Franklin’s name attached to it. It was Howe... Read more

  Story by RONNIE FLORES | Photos by JAMES K. LEASH   The scene was Haas Pavilion for the 2015 CIF boys basketball state championships. Chino Hills was in a dogfight with a tough senior bunch from San Ramon Valley-Danville. The Div. I  state title hung in the balance.  ... Read more

Woodcreek’s boys 4×100 relay team will beat you and then make you laugh afterward Read more

Pleasant Grove’s roster isn’t full of top-shelf talent, yet they’re proven winners nonetheless Read more