Twenty years ago, they were green-and-gold and red-and-black mud-spattered teenagers locked in a furious gridiron struggle remembered simply as The Game.
Today they are fathers, coaches, business owners, film makers, scientists, teachers.
At 4 p.m. Saturday, July 30, they return to the field: Men returning to a boy’s game, to once and for all settle a championship left tied 14-all in 1996.
What began as idle Facebook chatter among competitors who had grown to become friends grew this summer into a full-fledged reunion of football opponents from San Lorenzo Valley and Harbor high schools.
“It’s pretty exciting,” David Grant said this week, as he prepared for an evening all-pads practice session with his former Cougar team mates. Grant is a math teacher and assistant coach at SLV. He was a junior defensive back on the unbeaten 1996 team that tied the Harbor.
That game was played in a downpour on a slippery muddy field at Harbor. Saturday, the scene shifts to SLV’s artificial turf at a time designed to avoid the mid-day mountain summer heat.
The build-up to the game is captured in a professional video created by Harbor’s star quarterback of 1996, now film producer and actor, Wali Razaqi. Look for The game “Almost Champions” at https://vimeo.com/165553183.
Grant said the idea for a rematch began with Razaqi, who one day said, “Let’s have a rematch!”
For Grant, who played with Razaqi at Cabrillo College, it was game on.
The origin of Saturday’s game is fitting, because Razaqi reveals in his video that it was he who told his coach – when referees asked the home team if they wanted to play an overtime quarter to settle the championship – that his team was exhausted and couldn’t play any more. He said in hindsight he regretted that decision – for two decades.
Grant said he vaguely remembers seeming a film as youngster called “The Best of Times” in which two former football buddies played by Robin Williams and Kurt Russell stage a rematch of a football game they lost 20 years earlier.
Saturday’s game will be in full pads, with referees, for four full quarters, with one major change.
“We won’t have any kickoffs – we might lose too many players,” said Grant.
“It’s going to be challenging physically for us, but most of us are in pretty good shape – we’re just going to go for it,” he said.
They will be wearing jerseys that have been in their closets for two decades, and equipment loaned by one of the Harbor players who is a coach in Southern California.
Medics, the local fire department and trainers will be on hand, just in case. Grant said as far as he knows there won’t be any cheerleaders.
He estimated there will be about 25 players from the ’96 Cougar squad, and perhaps 20 from the Harbor team, including star quarterback Razaqi. SLV coaching legend Doug Morris, who was on the sidelines 20 years ago, won’t be able to attend the game.
Kickoff: 4 p.m.
San Lorenzo Valley High School
$10 for adults, $5 kids, with all proceeds
