football

Benicia (Calif.) cornerback Croix Stewart gets his season started next weekend against Moraga (Calif.) Campolindo.

And he’ll start his junior year with his first Pac-12 offer under his belt.

UCLA offered Stewart after his scrimmage against Walnut Creek (Calif.) Northgate.

The Bruins were the first from the Pac-12 to offer him but he also has offers from Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, San Jose State and Utah State.

With his offseason testing, a new school and his junior year forthcoming, we expected Stewart to land a slew of Power 5 offers and the Bruins got him started with it.

His offseason started with a stellar showing at the Stack Sports Showcase (formerly The Opening Regional) in Northern California. Stewart ran an event-best 4.40 laser timed forty (the fastest 40 on the Stack Sports Showcase tour) and finished with the second highest rating there, a 111.24, and was named by 247Sports as the event’s Alpha Dog.

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When the California Department of Public Health declared on February 19 that high school football could resume in counties with 14 or fewer COVID cases per 100,000 people, one could almost hear a collective whoop getting ready to emanate from the mouths of local high school football players.

When the Solano County COVID-19 rate, which had been at 18.4 cases per 100,000 that day, dipped to 12.4 by the following Tuesday, the football players in the Monticello Empire League let that whoop out full throttle in celebration and put on their cleats to get ready for official practice and for their first games on Friday, March 19.

This week they got another boost when Solano County, previously in the purple color-coded COVID tier, entered the red color-coded tier. That means that, pending decisions by the local school districts (which have generally followed county guidelines), football players will no longer have to undergo weekly COVID testing.

The coaches and players at Vacaville, Will C. Wood and Vanden High Schools may be competitors. But they are unanimously thrilled to be playing football again.

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Mal Turner said he has been going to Jesse Bethel High School football practices so long that he can’t recall when it started.

“People sometimes come up to me and say ‘I remember when you were here in a stroller,’” Turner told the Times-Herald on Wednesday.

However, the senior’s time at the Vallejo public school has come to an end. Turner transferred to Napa High School recently after growing frustration with the Vallejo City Unified School District over the return of sports. He is expected to play quarterback for the Grizzlies, who open the football season April 19 at American Canyon.

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