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 share their favorite memories and stories from a 30-win, state-championship season. SportStars' editor Chace Bryson is joined by coaches LeRoy Hurt and Jasmine Braggs, as well as three players, for the walk d ..read more

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 to the U.S. where he first discovered running in junior high, and his incredible career that included CIF State titles, NCAA championships, four Olympic Games and multiple major marathon wins. Keflezighi ..read more

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 Bryson and longtime track and field coach/historian Lee Webb to continue the SportStories CA Track & Field series. Hart shares stories about growing up in the East Bay and the high school track scene in the mid-60s ..read more

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 leapt 52 feet, 4 inches as a senior in high school when he came out from his home state of Wisconsin to compete at the Golden State Invitational in Sacramento. Host Chace Bryson is once again joined by Y ..read more

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 building his own track club called LEAP Squad. The club has its own virtual component that allows Briggs to train and work out athletes from anywhere. Host Chace Bryson is joined by Youth Runner Magazine ..read more

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 athlete, how he found his way to coaching a field event he was never a serious competitor at, his perspective on coaching one’s own kids, and some stories about those kids: Jathiyah and Khaliq Muhamm ..read more

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 Magazine to begin this new season of SportStories with a six-part series highlighting some of the state's best track and field moments. And we start it off with an all-timer: Michael Granville, who remains ..read more

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 Women’s National Soccer Team. And while she’s already a World Cup champion, this is Dahlkemper's first Olympics. Steffens — who graduated from Monte Vista High in Danville the same year Dahlkemper gradua ..read more

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 to stay. The sport will not be part of the Paris games in 2024. It will likely be included as part of the Los Angeles games in 2028, but how many of these players can afford to wait seven more years ..read more

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 guidelines enough for outdoor sports in late February, it triggered a domino effect that eventually led to every high school sport having some sort of abbreviated season squeezed into a 16-week window ..read more