This year’s return of the annual Central California Lions All-Star Football Game to a site in Stockton is being hailed as a homecoming for one of the oldest and most prestigious high school all-star football games in California.

The 46th year of the event will be played on Saturday, June 15 at Lincoln High School’s Alex G. Spanos Stadium.

The Lions All-Star Football Classic began in 1974 and was held at the University of Pacific’s Memorial Stadium until 2011. With that stadium at the time being prepared for its eventual demolition, the Lions game moved to Modesto Junior College for two years and for the last six years has been held at Tracy High’s Wayne Schneider Stadium.

The Lincoln stadium, through the cooperation of athletic director Brian Gray, should be a great location for the local all-star game. It is regarded as one of the best high school football stadiums in California and has been the site of numerous CIF Sac-Joaquin Section and CIF Northern California football championship games.

The Lions Game also is only one of two in the state in which players are brought together during the week before the game to stay in college dorms, emulating college life and fostering a football training camp-style experience.

The North team generally represents schools from San Joaquin County and the foothill communities to the east. The South team generally represents Stanislaus and Merced counties.

The South won last year’s game 24-2 and has gone 5-0-1 in the last six years. The North still leads in the overall series 24-19-1.

Selected in January to be the head coaches for this year were Jason McCloskey of Mountain House (North) and Shawn King of Hughson (South). Both of the coaches also have worked with other head coaches from other schools in the North and South to select the players for this year’s game.

On Saturday, April 6, at the Italian Athletic Club on Cherryland Avenue in Stockton, the banquet for this year’s game will be held. Scheduled to be guest speaker is Darren Arbet, former head coach of the Arena Football League’s San Jose Sabercats and currently head coach at Cabrillo College in Aptos. Arbet, an Edison (Stockton) grad, was the Sabercats’ GM and head coach and guided the team to ArenaBowl titles in 2002, 2004, 2007 and 2015. The team folded in November 2015.

Once again as has been the case in recent years, North players will be practicing at Stagg High School in Stockton near where they will be staying for the week at University of the Pacific dorms. South players will be practicing and staying at Cal State Stanislaus in Turlock.

North team dinner on Tuesday, June 11 at Linden Lions Club.

South team dinner Thursday, June 13 at Turlock Lions Club.

Media members should continue to check the rosters on the web site in the coming weeks for changes. Those should be kept updated. Additional changes could come on Monday, June 10 after teams are scheduled to check in.

We are a non-profit game and depend on pregame publicity from the media. Thanks in advance for your understanding.

High Schools Represented In

District 4A-1 of Lions International

North – Amador (Sutter Creek), Argonaut (Jackson), Bear Creek (Stockton), Bret Harte (Altaville), Brookside Christian (Stockton), Calaveras (San Andreas), East Union (Manteca), Edison (Stockton), Escalon, Franklin (Stockton), Jim Elliot Christian (Lodi), Kimball (Tracy), Lathrop, Lincoln (Stockton), Lodi, Manteca, McNair (Stockton), Merrill West (Tracy), Millennium (Tracy), Mountain House, Ripon, Ripon Christian, St. Mary’s (Stockton), Sierra (Manteca), Sonora, Stagg (Stockton), Summerville (Tuolomne), Tokay (Lodi), Tracy, Weston Ranch (Stockton).

South – Atwater, Beyer (Modesto), Big Valley Christian (Modesto), Buhach Colony (Atwater), Central Catholic (Modesto), Central Valley (Ceres), Ceres, Chowchilla, Delhi, Denair, Dos Palos, Downey (Modesto), El Capitan (Merced), Enochs (Modesto), Golden Valley (Merced), Grace Davis (Modesto), Gregori (Modesto), Gustine, Hilmar, Hughson, Johansen (Modesto), Le Grand, Livingston, Los Banos, Madera, Madera South, Mariposa County (Mariposa), Merced, Modesto, Modesto Christian, Oakdale, Orestimba (Newman), Pacheco (Los Banos), Patterson, Pitman (Turlock), Riverbank, Stone Ridge Christian (Merced), Turlock, Turlock Christian