SportStories

In late June, SportStars Magazine set out to honor a NorCal Team Of The Year for both boys and girls. Over two weeks, the field was narrowed from eight teams to two — and the one constant was the dominant performance of the Oakland Tech Girls Basketball team. Which wasn't unlike its 2022-23 season, we might add. The Bulldogs' win earned them their own SportStories episode to look back and...

For our final installment to the CA Track & Field series that we've used to open Season 2, we host our fourth consecutive Olympian and our first distance runner. This week we glean stories from the great Meb Keflezighi. Host Chace Bryson and Youth Runner Magazine publisher Dan Kesterson talk with Keflezighi about his early childhood in the small war-torn nation of Eritrea, his immigration...

Our California Track & Field-themed series continues this week as we’re joined by another former Olympian. One with quite the unique experience. Imagine setting the high school national record in your event and then making the US Olympic team - then competing in the Olympics - and THEN returning to high school. That’s what Compton-native Reynaldo Brown did in 1968. Reynaldo Brown was a basketb...

Eddie Hart was the standing world record holder in the 100 meters heading into the 1972 Munich Olympic Games — the "World's Fastest Man." But a small scheduling oversight led him to completely miss his Olympic quarterfinal race, costing him what would be his one chance at individual Olympic gold. Hart, a 1965 Pittsburg High graduate and standout at Cal, sat down with host Chace Bryso...

The fourth installment of our track & field series to open Season 2 is the first of back-to-back episodes featuring Olympic Gold Medalists. Today's guest is Kenny Harrison — the Olympic record holder in the triple jump which he set at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games. Unlike our other guests in this series, Harrison is not a native of California, but it IS where he put his name on the map. He...

One week after speaking with pole vault coach and mentor, Gary Muhammad, this week the SportStories Track & Field Series spotlights another coach, SoCal-based Keinan Briggs. Briggs was a hurdler and jumper for Valencia High and eventually competed for Cal State Los Angeles. He’s made his biggest impact as a coach, however. He was the jumps coach at Mater Dei High from 2010-2019 while also buil...

In our second installment of this series highlighting great moments and names from California high school track & field, SportStories visits with former James Logan High-Union City pole vault coach Gary Muhammad. Host Chace Bryson is joined by Youth Runner publisher Dan Kesterson and renown former James Logan track coach Lee Webb for a conversation with Muhammad that encompassed his time as an...

After a two-year hiatus, SportStars Magazine is finally bringing back its original podcast — SportStories. The oral history-style show carries a slightly different format in Season 2, but keeps its core goal — to have athletes and coaches tell their stories. As it's spring, and the CIF State Track & Field Championships are about six weeks away, we are collaborating with Youth Runner Magazi...

Abby Dahlkemper and Maggie Steffens both graduated high school in the same year, as part of the Class of 2011. And for the past decade, they've been among the very best players in their sport. Both are competing in the Tokyo Olympics this summer. One has gone with a focus on stopping goals, while the other will be trying to score as many as possible. Dahlkemper is a starting defender on the US Wom...

Of all the U.S. National Teams competing in the Tokyo Summer Olympics, perhaps none feel more urgency than the Women’s Softball team. After losing the gold medal game to Japan in the 2008 Games, its sport was removed from the next two Olympiads in London and Rio. When the first game in Tokyo takes place on July 21, it will mark 4,717 days between Olympic softball games. Softball is back — but not...

If you watch sports enough, you hear it all the time: The best coaches are the ones who can make adjustments. Halftime adjustments. Mid-season adjustments. Roster adjustments following injuries. Being a coach requires constant adaptation. And perhaps no academic year required more of it than the one that just ended on June 19. When California’s governor and state health officials finally relaxed g...

Dynasties are not particularly rare in high school sports. Even though rosters are always changing as classes graduate and others come in, if there’s a consistent and well-supported coaching staff that can teach the game and effectively motivate payers, it just takes a couple winning seasons for a culture of success to take root. However, there are dynasties, and then there’s what the Elk Grove Hi...

If there was a Mt. Rushmore of Bay Area high school basketball coaches, there would be little debate over Don Lippi being front and center. Lippi is Northern California’s winningest basketball coach of all time, according to the Cal-Hi Sports state record book. And on Saturday, May 15, the St. Joseph Notre Dame boys coach earned his 900th career victory when his small Alameda school — the same one...

Najee Harris, Alabama’s star running back for the past two years, will hear his name read from the podium of the NFL Draft on April 29th or 30th. Celebration and excitement from sports fans throughout the Bay Area is sure to follow (and likely already has if you’re listening after the 30th). That’s because Harris, in addition to being one of the most prolific high school running backs in NorCal hi...

As the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship unfolded across two hours of Easter Sunday afternoon, one constant became clear: When the Stanford Cardinal needed a momentum shift, Haley Jones was the catalyst. The all-around sophomore came up with several clutch baskets, none more important than the and-1 play she converted in the paint with 2:24 left after Arizona had cut a once nine-point lead down...

Anyone who has had a life-changing coach in their lives can relate to the character of Mickey from the "Rocky" films. There was no mistaking Mickey became a father figure to Sylvester Stallone’s struggling-but-driven title character. Mickey taught him to box by explaining technique and strategy — but also through a lot of tough love. Love for boxing, and love for Rocky and who he wanted to become....

After more than 15 months without a high school football game in California, we celebrate its return with a tribute to traditional offseason anticipation and memorable season openers.  If you’ve been someone paying attention to California high school sports — or lack thereof — over the last several months, then you know this week of March 8th is kind of a big deal. A year-plus high school football...

Scott Lunger was the "good cop" on the Freedom High School varsity softball coaching staff. Players loved the good-natured humor that the infield coach often used to teach and motivate them. But Lunger was also a cop in real life, a 15-year sergeant for the Hayward Police Department. And on July 22, 2016, he was shot and killed during a traffic stop at 3:15 in the morning. A little more than one w...

For the debut episode, we solicited stories about Serra High football coach Patrick Walsh — a leader in the efforts to restart all youth and high school sports throughout California. Through 18 seasons in San Mateo, Patrick Walsh has been a highly decorated and successful coach for the Padres program (eight league titles, five section titles and a CIF Bowl title in 2017). And while there are many...

"So this is how it happened..."  If you're a fan of something. Anything. Music, movies, art, sports or whatever. Few things can pique your interest more than getting a glimpse behind the scenes, or learning the inside story to something you're passionate about. For 10 years, SportStars Magazine has been passionate about high school sports in Northern California. For its first podcast, the hig...