#CoverMadness, SportStars’ Fan-Powered Tournament To Select The Top Cover From The Magazine’s First Decade Has Reached The Final Four — And Its Time To Vote •
SportStars will turn 10-years old on June 10, which has us feeling quite nostalgic. So far part of our celebration, our editor and production manager sifted through more than 300 covers to select 32 favorites. Then we seeded a field of four 8-cover regions, called it #CoverMadness and turned things over to the fans. Welcome to the #CoverMadness semifinals.
After two weeks of voting on our Twitter and Instagram feeds, we’ve got our Final 4:
DELTA REGION CHAMPION: Amaria Kelley (Cosumnes Oaks-Elk Grove VB), Sept. 2018
(David Gershon photo)
Kelley, a 2-seed, was the highest seed to win a region. She emerged from a bracket that featured our overall-No. 1 seed Najee Harris from 2016. PATH TO FINALS: d. Darius Thomas (St. Francis-Mtn. View Track) 2015, d. Austin Jones (Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland Football) 2017, d. Carter Harris (Elk Grove Football) 2019.
AIRBASE REGION CHAMPION: Chase Saldate (Gilroy Wrestling), March 2020
(Tony Rotundo photo)
Saldate was a No. 6 seed who performed like a No. 1 thanks to a massive social media following. If we re-seeded these #CoverMadness semifinals, the Michigan State-bound wrestler would be the one to beat. PATH TO FINALS: d. Maddie Haynes (Rocklin Volleyball) 2014, d. Anthony Sweeney (De La Salle-Concord Football) 2015, d. Brianna Karsseboom (Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland Volleyball) 2013.
LAKE REGION CHAMPION: Jackson Pavitt (Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa FB), June 2019
(Ike Dodson photo)
This 4th-seeded cover is already an accomplished winner, having won a fan vote to determine our best cover of 2019. It may be our best action photo cover ever. PATH TO FINALS: d. Alex Van Dyke (Cosumnes Oaks Football) 2013, d. Jake Browning (Folsom Football) 2014, d. Navid Khamush (Dublin Soccer) 2016.
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VALLEY REGION CHAMPION: Daniel Susac (Jesuit-Carmichael Baseball), March 2020
(David Gershon photo)
This No. 3-seeded cover is another fantastic action photo shot. The photos is actually from a 2019 playoff game, but we used it for the 2020 Baseball Preview cover. PATH TO FINALS: d. Gabriella Cantrell (San Leandro Track) 2013, d. Jake Haener (Monte Vista-Danville Football) 2016, d. Chinyere Okoro (Amador Valley-Pleasanton Track) 2019.
TIME TO VOTE
Choose your favorite in each of the matchups below — as many times as you want! There is NO LIMIT to your number of votes. Just be aware that each semifinal poll will end at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, May 28. The championship will begin the following day.
Let’s not wait any longer. Get voting! Be sure to vote in BOTH polls.
UPDATE (8 A.M., THURSDAY): At some point early this morning, the semifinal between Amaria Kelley and Chase Saldate reached 100,000 votes. That’s apparently the maximum allowed by the polling software and it triggered the poll to close. We’ve begun a new poll for that matchup and will add the results of the first poll, which are shown below.
Results from first vote between Amaria Kelley and Chase Saldate.
[socialpoll id=”2646858″]
[socialpoll id=”2645632″]