A Fond Farewell

Welcome to our Yearbook Special edition for the 2022-23 sports campaign. These are always some of the most fun issues for us to put together.

And this time around, we plan to drag the celebration out a little longer.

In recent years, our Yearbook issues have included the annual Year-In-Pictures feature as well as our Bay Area 75 athlete countdown. This time around we’re breaking it up and will be featuring our Bay Area 75 countdown online before unveiling the Top 10 in our July/August issue later next month.

Our online celebration of the just-completed season will also include a NorCal Team of the Year vote. We plan to nominate up to eight championship teams for a van vote to determine NorCal’s top squad of 2022-23. The winner will be featured in their own episode of our SportStories Podcast at some point in July.

So what’s in the Yearbook? Well, we let the Year-In-Pictures be the star of the show in this one. Nothing helps illustrate the passion and excitement of a past year in sports than the images that our fantastic photographers capture. You can start checking those out on Page 8.

We also began our All-NorCal honors for spring, naming both our Baseball and Softball Players of the Year. The celebration of those sports will also continue on SportStarsMag.com in the coming weeks as we’ll be naming our Pitchers of the Year and our full All-NorCal Teams.

Now before you jump into our final tip of the cap to ‘22-’23, I’ll share a few thoughts on the year that was.

Firstly, as refreshing as the 2021-22 year was, it was still touched here and there by the tentacles of the pandemic. This year was the closest thing we’ve had to normal in four years. And that felt awfully good.

Some of the many memories that will stick out to us from this past year:

›› Pittsburg Football sending longtime coach Victor Galli out as a Div. I North Coast Section and CIF NorCal champion.

›› Quarterback Luke Baker and kicker Austin Shelton playing heroes for San Ramon Valley-Danville in one of the most thrilling CIF State Bowl championship games we’ve watched in some time.

›› The incredibly competitive East Bay Athletic League boys basketball race. (At one point the league had five teams inside our NorCal Top 20 rankings)

›› Seeing the Oakland High boys and Oakland Tech girls basketball teams win CIF State championships in backto-back games.

›› Hollister softball turning into an absolute force in May and TWICE beating NorCal’s most recent softball dynasty, St. Francis-Mountain View, for CCS and NorCal titles.

What’s going to be your favorite memory of this past year? Tell us on our social media channels. We’d love to know. Enjoy the Yearbook! ✪

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3.29.19

2020 De La Salle-Concord grad Kyle Harrison delivers a pitch during a SportStars photo shoot early in his junior season. Harrison was selected by the Giants in the third round of the 2020 draft (85th overall), and in just three years has risen to become the team’s top pitching prospect. As of June 16, he has a career minor leagues ERA of 3.02 with 423 strikeouts over 259 innings. Harrison currently pitches for the Sacramento River Cats and could earn a promotion to the big league club at some point this summer.

Chace Bryson photo

Volleyball in California continues to thrive, and the Northern California Volleyball Association saw evidence of that throughout its 2022-23 season — and much of the same is expected for 2023-24.

The NCVA Girls Power League saw a good deal of growth this season. Returning and new clubs totaled more than 300. Of those teams, more than 70 earned bids to the junior national championships happening at the end of June and into July.

The boys season was massively successful as well, with NCVA claiming it to be one of the most active boys programs in the country. Registrations increased for the boys power league and just about every other tournament, including the Boys Summer Classic that was completed June 10-11.

While NCVA is closing the book on its indoor season, there’s still action to be had on the sand. The Summer Sand Classic is scheduled for July 29 at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and will feature brackets for 11U through 18U divisions. There will be an adult division as well.

For those interested in participating, information can be found at ncva.com/outdoor.

Planning for the 2023-24 season is already underway. The NCVA will be announcing its key Power League and tournament dates in the coming months. However, it does already have one locked in.

The Boys Far Western Classic will take place on Feb. 3-4 in Roseville.

Finally, if you’re interested in following NCVA clubs at this year’s Junior Nationals, the 14U-17U girls divisions will play for titles in Chicago from June 28-July 6. The boys will decide 12U-18U titles in Salt Lake City from June 29-July 6. Follow the action at usavolleyball.org.

Now that another school year has come to an end, we’re fired up to partake in one of our favorite traditions here at SportStars. It’s our annual Year-In-Pictures feature, featuring 13 pages of lasting images from the previous nine months. We’ve also sprinkled our final NorCal Rankings from the year for football, girls volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball. This is the crowning moment for all the photographers who help make us look so good. Join us in a tip of the cap to David Gershon, Ben Enos and Ike Dodson. They did the majority of the heavy lifting this season. And with that, enjoy the memories these images evoke.

— Chace Bryson

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Sunset at Folsom High as the Bulldogs host Serra-San Mateo in an epic season-opener, which Serra won 16-12; West Catholic Athletic League rivals St. Francis-Mountain View and Archbishop Mitty-San Jose during one of SIX(!) 2022 showdowns; Morgan Daetz, right, and Audrey Ross ham it up during a San Ramon Valley-Danville volleyball practice; San Ramon Valley’s Noah Labeau knows where the camera is; Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills All-NorCal defensive end Conner Dasmann; De La Salle-Concord defensive back Jonathan Guerrero locks in.