Sportstars
Concord, Rancho Cotate And One 2010 Night At The Coliseum | An Oral History
Revered As One Of The Past Decade’s Best NCS Football Championships, We’ve Used Several Interviews To Recreate The 2010 Classic Between Concord And Rancho Cotate • Not all great championship games are equal.  Over the magazine’s first decade, SportStars has covered its share of championship games across many sports.... Read more
Not Waiting Around | NorCal Football’s Early Graduates Forge Ahead
At Least A Handful Of NorCal Football Players Aren’t Hanging On Every CIF Or State Health Department Announcement These Days — Early Graduates Are Focused On The Future Without Regret • For the Bay Area’s handful of early graduate football stars, their bags are packed for college without the... Read more
Brock Hammer (Liberty ’19): #Scrapper | A #NeverStop Salute
Liberty High Football Coach Ryan Patridge Opens SportStars’ #NeverStop Project With A Tribute To 2019 Graduate, Brock Hammer — A Lion Who Embodied The Term #Scrapper • All ball coaches are looking for scrappers, high school coaches especially. It doesn’t matter their size. We want tough dudes who just... Read more
Jay Butterfield: Liberty’s Leading Lion (NCS Large Schools 2019)
After Quarterbacking Liberty-Brentwood To Its First Section And CIF Bowl Titles In Consecutive Seasons, Jay Butterfield Isn’t Afraid To Ask ‘What’s Next?’ • Jay Butterfield has done it all in two short seasons.  He is a 2018 CIF 1-A State Bowl champion, a college committed athlete and has gone... Read more
Ryan Partridge: NorCal Football Coach Of The Year
He Led Liberty-Brentwood To Its First Section Title In Year One — And Delivered A State Bowl Crown With His Encore • History is starting to make a habit of following two-year Liberty High coach Ryan Partridge. After leading the Lions to their first section title in 2017, Partridge... Read more
Sione Vaki: 2018 NorCal Football Player Of The Year
No Two-Way NorCal Player Did More For A State Bowl Winner Than The Liberty-Brentwood Receiver And Safety • Sione Vaki simply wasn’t going to be denied his chance to make a difference for his teammates.  After a regular season in which he was one of the East Bay’s most... Read more
CIF State Football 2018
A Compilation Of Multimedia Presentations Chronicling The CIF State Football Appearances Of Folsom, Liberty And Del Oro • Northern California football teams won 10 of the 15 potential CIF State Football Bowl crowns in 2018. The list of winners included, Folsom (1-AA), Liberty-Brentwood (1-A), Menlo-Atherton-Atherton (3-AA), Wilcox-Santa Clara (3-A),... Read more
Lion’s Share: Liberty Football’s Sione Vaki Does It All
The Liberty Football Team Isn’t A One-Man Show, But Senior Sione Vaki Sure Can Make It Look That Way At Times • Sione Vaki stands quietly on the sideline with teammates as the Liberty High football team’s special teams unit drills during a Thursday afternoon walk-through in late October. ... Read more
Pahulu’s POV: NCS Div1 Championship Freedom vs. Liberty
Vaki leads Liberty HS to their 1st NCS Championship Photo Credits:  Phillip Walton and Ben Martin. Beautiful football weather on a Saturday night here at Heritage HS in Brentwood to see a football rematch between Liberty Lions vs. Freedom Falcons. Who will win their first NCS Championship? I came... Read more