Aaron Rodgers donates to Unity Bowl for fire-ravaged towns including Paradise
It’s only mid-May, but it’s never too early to start thinking about football — from the pros to college ball to preps.
Here’s a quick dose of football news and notes, including an all-time NFL great donating $15,000 into a travel fund for wildfire-torn football towns, two local UCLA commitments and coaching news in the Sacramento region.
Aaron Rodgers donates to inaugural Unity Bowl
Well before his 21-year NFL career as a prolific quarterback took shape, Aaron Rodgers played the position at Pleasant Valley High School in Chico, and he hasn’t forgotten his regional roots. Rodgers donated money and football gear to those at Paradise High School when Butte County town was ravaged by the Camp Fire in fall 2018. The most destructive wildfire in state history claimed 85 lives and destroyed more than 18,000 structures, leveling the town.
Paradise High and Lahaina High of Maui, a town that can speak of fire devastation, have scheduled a football game in September for the inaugural Unity Bowl, with a theme of perseverance and pride. A rematch in Paradise is the goal for 2027. Rodgers has previously donated $1 million to the North Valley Community Foundation and earlier this month donated $15,000 for Paradise High’s travel costs to get to Maui.
The Paradise football team bounced back after the Camp Fire to compete for championships, inspiring those in Butte County and beyond.
The resort town of Lahaina burned in August 2023, the largest and deadliest blaze in state history. More than 100 people died and hundreds more remain displaced, but the football team endured and reached the state playoffs in 2024 with the backing of an entire state.
Folsom, Placer stars commit to UCLA
The UCLA Bruins secured verbal commitments from two Sacramento Bee All-Metro stars who are among the top regional recruits for the 2026 prep season.
Gage Esty, a 6-foot-3, 285-pound offensive lineman for the Placer Hillmen of Auburn, plans to continue his family legacy of competing in college. His father, Chuck, earned NCAA Division III All-American honors at St. Lawrence University in New York. Esty’s brother Chase played at the College of Idaho and another brother, Zander, toils in the trenches at Oregon State.
Rob Larson, a 6-3, 200-pound receiver for the Folsom Bulldogs, will become the latest regional player to catch passes for UCLA.
Larson is a two-time Bee All-Metro player, having caught 82 passes for 1,146 yards and 18 touchdowns in 2025 for a Folsom team that won its sixth CIF State championship. Larson had 19 Division I scholarship offers.
Former Folsom 4-star Rico Flores signed with UCLA after initially playing for Notre Dame. He played two seasons for UCLA before his transfer to Virginia. Former Cosumnes Oaks High of Elk Grove receiver Alex Van Dyke played at UCLA from 2015 to 2017.
Brad Hunkins joins Oakmont as DC
Brad Hunkins led the Woodcreek Timberwolves to their best football seasons, and he now has relocated across Roseville to be the defensive coordinator for the Oakmont Vikings, led by head coach Cory Wilson, an alum of the school that opened in 1965.
Wilson led Oakmont to the playoffs last season after heading the school’s junior varsity program and spending years coaching in the Junior Vikings youth program.
Hunkins was the co-head coach at Woodcreek for four seasons with Kyle Stowers, and he was the head coach for the Timberwolves for another six seasons, ending after the 2024 campaign. He led the football program to its first winning season (the school opened in 1994) and to a school-record 11-win season in 2023. That season featured Woodcreek’s first trip to a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship game, a loss to Grant.
Oakmont went 0-10 in 2023 but roared back to play for a league championship in 2024, going 8-4 in Jake Messina’s final season as head coach. Messina was an assistant coach at Granite Bay in 2025.