Sportstars
James Logan Girls Wrestling | Colts Claim State Title As Sport Skyrockets
James Logan Girls Wrestling Clutches CIF Championship As Girls Wrestling Builds NCAA “Emerging Sport” Momentum • Saturdays are officially for the girls. And the James Logan Girls Wrestling team is here for it. Wrestling’s highest divisions have been invaded by college and prep athletes looking to define their generation... Read more
Chase Saldate | Gilroy Wrestling Star’s Countdown To Liftoff
National No. 1 And CIF State Wrestling Champion, Chase “Satellite” Saldate Is An Other-Worldly Sensation — And Our NorCal Wrestler Of The Year • 10. For Chase Saldate, the countdown for his liftoff into orbit begins now. After he graduates from Gilroy High, the 152-pound InterMat National No. 1... Read more
CIF Wrestling Preview: A Weight-By-Weight Boys & Girls Breakdown
SportStars’ Wrestling Guru, Ike Dodson, Runs Down Each Division Listing Favorites As Well As NorCal’s Top Contenders, Dark Horses • 2020 CIF Wrestling Preview The walls of Mechanics Banks (formerly Rabobank) Arena will soon be singing the sweet melody of state championship wrestling. Thursday’s pigtail rounds open 28 brackets... Read more
Lucas Cook, Lincoln Wrestling | THE TRANSFORMER
Lincoln Heavyweight And SJS Masters Hopeful Lucas Cook Finds Strength In Faith, Recovery And Transformation • A wrestling mom never gets the credit she deserves. Part dietician, manager, agent, publicist, taxi driver and bankroller, she also has to prep her vocal cords for that shrieking “Pin him!!” you can... Read more
Jackson Pavitt | SportStars 2019 NorCal Offensive Player Of The Year
Accounting For 41 Touchdowns, Cardinal Newman’s Jackson Pavitt Was A Prolific Dual-Threat QB — And Just The Right Leader For 3-AA State Bowl Champions • A great quarterback once said, “You can’t have success if you don’t visualize it first.” That great quarterback is the SportStars NorCal Offensive Player of... Read more
Saladhin Farukh: Sacramento’s Wrestler Of Fortune
Valley High’s Salahdin Farukh Left War-Stricken Afghanistan To Chase Sac-Joaquin Section, CIF Wrestling Glory From California Capital • Perhaps the only wrestler in CIF history to go 0-3 at the state championship tournament, Valley-Sacramento junior and Afghanistan native Salahdin Farukh is determined to take advantage of the fortuitous opportunities... Read more
Peter Ming And Elk Grove Wrestling’s Swiss Dynasty
Stanford-Bound Wrestler Peter Ming Is The Latest In A Long Line Of A Swiss Family That’s Part Of The Bedrock To The Elk Grove High Program • Elk Grove senior Peter Ming has come a long way from sawdust. It’s the sacred floor of Swiss wrestling, a sport known... Read more
SportStars NorCal Wrestling Team Rankings | Dec. 24
Gilroy Leads The Pack, But It’s Not A Runaway As Vacaville, Pitman, Del Oro And Oakdale All Trail By Narrow Margins • All season, SportStars will align the best wrestlers of each weight class, and the top teams in Northern California into lists of the 10 or 15 best.... Read more
Kainoa Acia: Viral Freshman Football Talent Hits The Mat
2019-20 WRESTLING PREVIEW: A Social Media Sensation During The Fall, Kainoa Acia Has Traded In Pads For Singlet As Part Of Del Oro’s Stellar 2023 Infusion • A month before his Nikes stepped onto the wrestling mat, Del Oro-Loomis freshman Kainoa Acia was a household name. That is, if... Read more
Sac-Joaquin Section Wrestling: Pitman Poised To Pounce
2019-20 WRESTLING PREVIEW: Pride Out To End Sac-Joaquin Section Wrestling Reign Of The Usual Suspects • Coaches often call them “The Big Three.” In Sac-Joaquin Section wrestling, that’s Vacaville, Oakdale and Del Oro-Loomis.  No other team has won a Masters wrestling title in the last 13 years, and the... Read more
Amit Elor: College Park’s Pin-Seeking Phenom
2019-20 WRESTLING PREVIEW: Just A Sophomore, Defending CIF State Champion Amit Elor Has Rocketed To Superstar Status On The Mat • The next big thing in U.S. women’s wrestling is a remarkable 15-year-old College Park-Pleasant Hill sophomore with dazzling abilities and uncanny poise. She goes by the name Amit... Read more
Jzaniya Harriel: Sac Region’s Top Recruit Leads Feisty Antelope
FLASH OF THE TITANS: Do-Everything Recruit Jzaniya Harriel Leads An Antelope Team Full Of Guards Bent On Out-Running, Out-Shooting And Outlasting Anyone • Squeaking sneakers scramble to midcourt during Antelope’s girls basketball practice in early November, Jzaniya Harriel and her teammates then dart toward one of six baskets that... Read more