The East-West All-Star Football Game is coming up this summer and will feature the best players in Tulare, Kings and parts of Kern counties. The game will be played at Golden West High School’s Groppetti Community Stadium.
The head coaches named were Hanford High School’s Josh Young for the West, and Exeter High School’s Chris Frankland for the East, as a replacement for Woodlake’s Jose Del Rio, who will be unavailable for the game.
The annual game is managed by the Lemoore Kiwanis and Visalia Optimists clubs. The head coaches were chosen due to the great successes of their teams according to Tom Hayslett, a game organizer from Visalia Optimists. He explained the reasoning behind the choosing Frankland and Young.
“Hanford won the State Championship, so Young was an easy choice. Exeter had the second best record in the East, so Frankland was best candidate behind Del Rio.”
Rio and the Woodlake Tigers had the best record in the East this past season.
Young and his Hanford Bullpups took home the State Championship for Division 4AA in December. He said his team wanted to get back to State, after losing in that game the year before.
“We had a lot of returners coming back. We thought we could get back to where we were the year before. The goal was to win league. We didn’t do that, but we played some of our best football in the playoffs. We had a good team, and the players put in to what we wanted to do,” he said.
Young also spoke on his feelings about being selected as the coach of the West for the East-West All-Star game.
“I was excited. I’ve been asked before but didn’t feel right about accepting,” he said. “This time, it just felt right. It’ll be great getting to coach some of our guys, and the rest of the guys as well.”
Chris Frankland and his Exeter Monarchs finished with an 8-4 record and a loss in the second round of the playoffs. Frankland reviewed his team’s 2015 campaign.
“We had a good season. We wanted to be the last team standing. That didn’t happen, but the team came together and played well last season.”
Frankland also spoke about the emotions he felt upon finding out he was chosen to coach the east team.
“It was a surprise,” he said. “I had a visitor at lunch yesterday, and had no idea what it was about, and then I got the news. I knew Jose would be selected, so it caught me off guard when it happened. I was surprised and honored to selected, even as a replacement.”
The game will take place on Saturday, June 26 at 8pm. It will be the 49th annual All-Star game.