Rich Hammond would be one of the first people to tell you that
individual accolades in football are best achieved as a by-product
of team success.
After just his second season on the job as Gilroy High’s head
football coach, Hammond should know. The Mustangs will have four
players – the largest group ever from GHS in a single year –
competing in the 34th Annual Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star
Football Game taking place Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at San Jose
State’s Spartan Stadium.
Rich Hammond would be one of the first people to tell you that individual accolades in football are best achieved as a by-product of team success.
After just his second season on the job as Gilroy High’s head football coach, Hammond should know. The Mustangs will have four players – the largest group ever from GHS in a single year – competing in the 34th Annual Charlie Wedemeyer High School All-Star Football Game taking place Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at San Jose State’s Spartan Stadium.
“We had the best team in school history so it’s not a surprise that we have more in this game than any other year,” Hammond said.
Three members of an offense that displayed one of the greatest shows on turf in Bay Area high school history – receiver Danny Contreras, running back Travis Reyes and offensive lineman Gerry Rodriguez – as well as a bone-jarring linebacker that would have played with a severed leg if the dang thing would have just fallen off (Ethan Ogle) will be donning a Gilroy hat, or helmet, for the final time. For Ogle, who will be putting sports aside to become a firefighter, it will be the last game of his career. Contreras will be playing football and baseball at San Jose City College, Reyes will be playing football at Foothill and Rodriguez will be blocking for Cabrillo.
Playing in the contest – which is named after Charlie Wedemeyer, a former coach at Los Gatos High School who will be present at the game and continued to lead teams onto the field well after being diagnosed 30 years ago with ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), otherwise known as Lou Gehrig’s disease – will be a highlight in the career of all four.
“It’s a good experience because you’re surrounded by all these top players,” Reyes said. “You just feel honored to be nominated to play in the game. A lot of special players have played in the game.”
None more notable in Gilroy than Jeff Garcia, the GHS grad and four-time Pro Bowl quarterback that currently calls the shots for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But while Reyes will be the only Mustang being put slightly out of position – he was a back for GHS but is moving to receiver, which is where he will play for Foothill next season – that doesn’t even come close to what Garcia had to go through to get on the field.
“We had too many quarterbacks that year,” said Jim Guido, the Game Chair for this year’s event and one of the All-Star game’s founding fathers. “Once in a while we were blessed with some good talent.” Sometimes that talent is overlooked even in an All-Star game.
Garcia, a Class of 1988 graduate, ended up playing safety for the South squad and recorded an interception in the only scoreless contest in the game’s three decades and three years of play.
Jeff Borges, the South’s coach for that year and a friend of Garcia’s father, gave the former Gavilan College coach a call a couple weeks before the game and asked if Jeff would even be interested in playing, knowing he wouldn’t be under center.
“I said, ‘It doesn’t make any difference. Jeff will play any position,’ ” Bob Garcia said. “He was happy. He didn’t care.”
Reyes seems to be the same way about his new position. “It’s different, but I like it,” he said.
One person who will have mixed emotions when watching the game, though, is Hammond, who admitted it will be bittersweet to see his former players put on pads for one final time as simply Gilroy guys.
“Anytime you lose your seniors you miss them tremendously,” Hammond said. “We’re going to miss each and every one of those guys, but I’m excited to see them play in a great theater.”
One addition to this year’s game, which should be pushing players to give a little extra effort, will be a presentation of the Bill Walsh Spirit Award, handed out by Craig Walsh, son of the late Hall of Fame coach, as well as Hall of Fame safety Ronnie Lott after the game.
The winner will have exemplified spirit and leadership “not in just the game, but his four years in high school and (All-Star) practices,” Guido said.
Jeff Garcia, a favorite of Bill Walsh’s in his days with the San Francisco 49ers, might have won the award had it been handed out in his game. Of course, someone on defense would have to get the award when neither quarterback can lead his team to a score.
