Players enjoy all-star gathering

The 52nd annual Optimist All-Star Football Game is history – the North defeated the South 33-20 Saturday night at American River College – but the consensus among the players on both teams is that the struggling event needs to continue.

"I'd give it two thumbs up, and if I had a third one, I'd put that up, too," North defensive lineman and tri-captain Greg Grimes of Inderkum said. "It's a tradition."

For the North, C.J. Woodbury of Foothill rushed 26 times for 156 yards and scored two touchdowns, quarterback Luke Cook of Colfax completed 6 of 12 passes for 83 yards and two touchdowns, and a swarming defense held the South to minus-61 rushing yards and had nine sacks, including three by Dominique Walker of Grant.

For the South, quarterbacks Cary Grossart of Folsom and Dominic Carmazzi of Jesuit combined for 19 completions in 35 attempts for 257 yards and three touchdowns, including two to Isaac Serwanga of Jesuit.

"I think this game had plenty of offense, so hopefully they will keep it going," North coach Mike Dimino of Del Campo said.

Rumors of the demise of the Optimist Game, which pits some of the area's top high school graduates from more than 60 area schools and raises more than $40,000 annually for charity, had circulated last year, before Optimist officials agreed to continue the event through 2009.

In recent years, coaches have had to scramble for players since many top stars bypassed the game because of early college commitments or chose not to play. Spectator interest has dwindled, and some of the longtime organizers want to retire.

But if you ask players such as Grimes, Grossart and North linebacker Hunter Pahl of Del Oro, the event needs to continue.

"I'm definitely glad I played in it," said Pahl, The Bee's Defensive Player of the Year who is going to UC Davis.

"Anytime you get to play a group of guys in an event like this, it's exciting, a privilege and something you look forward to to cap your high school career," said Grossart, who has a scholarship at Northern Arizona.

The game has been huge in the life of the 6-foot-1, 290-pound Grimes, who will leave for Boise State on July 6.

Grimes has 15 older cousins who played football, and the 17-year-old has attended about 10 Optimist games – 11 if you count the 1990 Optimist Game when his mother, Deborah, left the hospital and was wheeled into Sacramento State's Hornet Stadium tethered to an IV.

She was four months pregnant with Greg, her only child. The pregnancy had been difficult – she said she was hospitalized 12 times before Greg was born prematurely – but she wanted to see Reggie Cherry, Greg's cousin, play for the South Team.

"Being in the Optimist game is something I dreamed about since I started playing football as a freshman," Greg Jr. said.

Grant coach Mike Alberghini and Del Oro's Casey Taylor started the Holiday Classic in 2006, a late-December all-star game that pits Sacramento-area players against southern Sac-Joaquin Section stars.

Although that event features more high-profile players with D-I scholarships, Grimes said the Optimist Game has a more close-knit family feel.

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• Call The Bee's Bill Paterson at (916) 326-5506.