50 years of Optimist All-Star memories: Al Biancani, Norte Del Rio, 1959.

Byline: Bill Paterson

Jul. 29--Biancani got hit low, which wasn't surprising as a 5-foot-8, 145-pound player.

"I went over to the sideline, threw up, then came back in the game and scored a touchdown," he said.

By the time he was done, Biancani was named the outstanding back, he said, and his South team had won 22-12 in the third Optimist game.

A track star who had run 100 yards in 9.7 seconds, Biancani gave football a try as a senior. He said he was unstoppable through four games, averaging nearly 11 yards per carry, before a broken collarbone knocked him out for the rest of the season.

"It was a lot of fun," Biancani said of the Optimist game. "I scored either two or three touchdowns, and I had a 79-yard kickoff return. I didn't score, but I must have run 100 yards in trying to get away from people."

The opposing North team was made up of players from as far north as Chico and Red Bluff.

"It was a real honor to be selected back then because it's not like it is now, where you play against guys on the other side of the river," Biancani said. "We were playing against cats from all over Northern California."

The Optimist game was Biancani's last football hurrah, though he later gained recogntion as the Kings' strength and conditioning coach. Biancani, who retired in 2005 after 18 seasons, now has dozens of high school, college and pro athletes, including Chris Webber and Derrek Lee, working up a sweat through his personal training business in Natomas.

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Troy Taylor, Cordova, 1986

After leading …