Merced County All-Star Football game returns, hopes to give $21K in scholarships
After a yearlong quest to raise money, former Golden Valley High principal Kevin Swartwood and Central California Conference commissioner Lou Souza hope to hand out $21,000 in scholarships at the Merced County All-Star Football Classic in June.
Swartwood and Souza teamed up to create the all-star game last year, which also included a girls flag football all-star game, after the long-running North/South Rotary Bob Green Football Classic was canceled due to the pandemic in 2020 and never resurrected.
“One of the things that hit me last year was how popular this game was and people kept saying, ‘Hey, thank you so much for bringing this game back. Otherwise our kids wouldn’t get recognized,’” Swartwood said.
The two former coaches wanted to give Merced-area athletes an opportunity to showcase their skills one last time before graduation. They also wanted to use the all-star game as a vehicle to generate scholarship money.
After handing out $7,000 in scholarships in the first year, Swartwood said they couldhand out $21,000 in scholarships this year when the Merced County All-Star Football Classic is played at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, June 14 at Golden Valley’s Veterans Stadium. The classic will be preceded by the Merced County Girls Flag Football All-Star Game at 5:30 p.m.
“I think last year, coming out of the gate, we we focused on just getting this game off to a good start,” Swartwood said. “This year we’ve gone up and down the Valley to Lions Clubs and we’ve also solicited some local businesses like (Central Valley Concrete) and Razzari (Auto Center) and people have been really generous.”
Athletes participating in the game can apply for scholarships of of $500, $1,000 and $1,500.
The organizers said they hope that in five years the game will lead to $35,000 to $40,000 in scholarships funds.
Six schools have been added to the player pool this year for a total of 26 high schools represented in the game. The additions include Madera, Madera South and Torres, which will be added to the South, which already included players from Golden Valley, Merced, El Capitan, Dos Palos, Le Grand, Mariposa, Sonora, Summerville, Stone Ridge Christian and Chowchilla.
Turlock, Pitman and Denair will be added to the North team, which already consisted of players from Atwater, Buhach Colony, Hilmar, Livingston, Gustine, Delhi, Los Banos, Pacheco, Patterson and Orestimba.
Livingston High coach Steven Wine will coach the North and Merced’s Rob Scheidt will coach the South.
Swartwood and Souza said they do not expect to expand the game anymore because they want to keep giving opportunities to local Merced-area athletes to playing the game.
“We want to recognize more local talent,” Souza said. “That was our goal and I think we’ve accomplished that. You’re getting three, four or five kids from a school, depending on the year they had. You don’t see that in those big all-star games. So if we get too big, I think we’ll lose that.”
Last year’s game marked one of the first all-star girls flag football games in the state. After seeing the response and the success of the first game, Swartwood and Souza want to continue recognizing the female athletes.
“Adding the girls flag football game was kind of a no-brainer,” Souza said. “After going to a few games last year and see how fast it grew. Our section is just blowing up, going from about 75 flag football teams to double that this year.”
Souza said one of the highlights for him last year was seeing all the people come together to help make the game happen from the Merced Union High School District offering the facilities and staff at no charge to other groups helping feed the athletes.
“That’s why we’re pretty optimistic that we can see by year five of us giving out quite a bit of money,” he said.
This story was originally published April 20, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
