The Campolindo Football Hall of Fame celebrated four players – Tommy Stephens, Jack Cassidy, Max Flower, and John Torchio – whose success on the field was obvious and who also continued being standouts off the field professionally and personally. Head Coach Kevin Macy also chose Dave Pullman who, behind the scenes, was as responsible as the players in making each year’s event so memorable.

Tommy Stephens

    For Tommy Stephens, this induction was a long time coming. Playing quarterback for the varsity from 2007-2009, Stephens joins his younger brothers, Brett and Jack, as the second group of three brothers, along with the Fadelli’s to enter the Hall of Fame. 

    It was predestined that the Stephens would all play football. “My brothers and I were the beneficiaries of growing up in a household where our father, Mark, had played left tackle at the University of California and signed as a free agent with the Steelers, but had a career-ending neck injury.” 
    Stephens received early quarterback training from Roger Theder, who had been a quarterback coach in the NFL and the head coach at Cal for four years and had recruited Mark to Cal. “Roger did a great job of teaching all of us how to break down coverages and how to throw certain routes, and just pure quarterback skills.”

    When Campolindo’s 2007 starting quarterback, Scott Scharf went down with a season ending knee injury, Macy called Stephens up from the junior varsity. “It was my first opportunity to play under the lights but because the defenses played in certain coverages and I could see man and covers 2 and 3, I realized that this was what I had been learning and it all made sense.” 

    When Stephens was a junior, Campolindo finished with a 10-2 record, losing to Cardinal Newman who would go on to play in the state championship game. Stephens attributed the overall success of Campolindo football to Macy. “Being a part of the overall tradition, just in terms of what Coach Macy has accomplished at Campolindo, winning league championships, NCS championships and winning two state title games, teams which my younger brothers played on. He taught me a lot about life and I’m just honored to have been a part of it.”

    Coach even said that when we were playing; “Some days you guys are going to look back and you’re going to think, ‘Oh my gosh, Crazy Coach Macy,’ and he was definitely right. The more that I go through life, and now that I have kids, it’s like, Coach really knew what he was talking about.”
    Stephens brought his 2-year-old son George to the Campolindo-Acalanes game last year. “Coach Macy stopped what he was doing and came over to say hi to me and George. Sixteen years after I played in the program and he still takes the time to come over and say hi to us before an undefeated showdown really shows how he cares for all of us, long after we’ve played in the program.”

    After college, Stephens worked in Boston doing pulmonary arterial hypertension research, then worked in health care consulting in market access and reimbursement, then in a pharmacy benefits management startup, then five years at Abbott Laboratories in their diabetes care, and is now working for a BridgeBio, a rare disease biotech firm.

Jack Cassidy

    With his mother, his uncles, cousin, and siblings preceding Jack Cassidy to Campolindo, it was predestined where he would be matriculating, that he would be playing football, and almost as certain that he would ultimately be inducted into the Campo Football Hall of Fame. 

    “It’s a pretty surreal experience to get inducted and relive the glory days. It’s an honor, and to be alongside Kevin Macy who has impacted so many people growing up makes it even more special,” he said.

    Playing on the 2014 and 2015 teams that went 30-2, Campolindo won a state championship and lost in the state championship game to La Mirada, a Division 1 team. Cassidy looked back to when it all started for him. “I was in eighth grade when Campolindo defeated Marin Catholic, led by Jared Goff in the NCS championship game. Winning the state championship as a junior when I was 16 was amazing and then to follow it up, making it to the NCS championship game, what we did two years in a row was something that we were very proud of.”

    The victory over El Capitan in the state championship exemplified the character of the team. “We fell behind 28-7 fairly quickly but our being so tight-knit, with that fire in our stomach, we knew that if we stuck to the game plan, we’d eventually win out.”

    Cassidy was on the field when Adam Remotto returned the fumble for the winning touchdown. “Adam had just returned to the game and he asked to play on the left side, so I went to the right side. To this day, I’m very glad that he made that choice because he had the better breakaway speed.”
 
    Cassidy also acknowledged Bob Wilson who had been a longtime athletic director, coach, and teacher at Campolindo who was near death in 2014 and how Coach Macy brought the team by to see him prior to the championship game. “We were the last freshmen football team that had Bob as a coach. His battles with cancer definitely played a part in what happened with the state championship. He was just one of those amazing coaches that instilled what it was to be disciplined and be an adult and care about what you were doing.”

    As a senior, Cassidy played fullback and linebacker and became the alpha on the defense. “You need that type of guy out there on defense, somebody who has to be your alpha, not only to play that way but have that persona,” Macy said. “Jack was the force of the defense.” 

    Cassidy went on to the University of Arizona and ultimately got his degree from the University of Southern California. “Being disciplined was the one thing that was instilled in me at Campolindo so that you can be passionate about something bigger than yourself. It instills that toughness in you to enjoy and learn that next chapter in life and to keep moving forward.”

    Cassidy is now living in Portland, Oregon, working in private equity doing software investment and specifically investing in health care software.
 
Max Flower 

    Upon hearing that he was going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Max Flower reacted with great equanimity. “I was very humbled and excited to be recognized by Campo football. I have a lot of fond memories of competing with my teammates and for Coach Macy and just honored to be part of the Hall of Fame.”

    In his two seasons playing varsity football for Campolindo, Flower was the dominant receiver for the team, catching a combined 115 passes with 27 of them for touchdowns. “The first year was a lot easier when I had one of my very good friends, Tyler Petite, on the other side of the field, taking a lot of the attention away. I was also blessed with two incredible quarterbacks, Jack Stephens my junior year and Jacob Westphal my senior year making it look easy.”

    Flower had a long-term relationship with his teammate and fellow inductee, Jack Cassidy. “We were among a group of Stanley Middle School guys to go to Campo and we’ve always stuck together.”

    In their senior year there was a running competition between Flower and Cassidy as to who would score the most touchdowns. “It was just a special experience to have with my best friend,” Flower said.

    With a 30 and 2 record those two seasons, winning the state championship and making it to the state final as seniors, Flower shared what made those teams so successful: “It was mindset, battling for the guy next to you and knowing that we maybe weren’t the biggest or strongest team. We collectively came to understand that we were probably the best coached and most disciplined team that had a unique ability to come together and get through any adversity. Coach Macy had an incredibly unique ability to find people’s motivations and use that to get the most out of them and really encouraged people to come together and fight for each other and have a common goal.”

    Flower went on to play baseball at UC Berkeley, minored in Urban Planning, and got his master’s at San Jose State where he also played baseball. He lives in Lafayette and works for The Minkoff Group, doing development of office R and D and industrial on the Peninsula. 

John Torchio

    After a dominating football career, John Torchio was destined to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but it still was a special moment when he heard the official announcement: “It was awesome and really cool. As a kid, going to all of those Hall of Fames and how the inductees would share with us how special the football program was and to appreciate it and it’s great to now be a part of that group.”

    Torchio spoke directly to the current players on the Campolindo team: “It goes by in the blink of an eye, so just enjoy it and take it all in.” 

    As a freshman, Torchio was called up to the team for the state championship in 2014. “To have the comeback and be part of the first championship was pretty surreal,” he said.

    Torchio became the starting quarterback and free safety his senior season. Knowing that he would be playing offense and defense, he accepted that it wasn’t going to be easy. “That summer I really trained hard and went to lifting and did all the conditioning but as for the mindset, I was ready to go.”

    As a senior, Torchio’s stats were ungodly. As the quarterback, he was 226/353 for 3,314 yards with 37 touchdowns and 8 interceptions, rushed for 761 yards and scored 11 touchdowns and as a safety, he had 98 tackles, two sacks, seven interceptions, returned punts and punted and was named All-State. He was somewhat surprised at hearing these numbers. “I hadn’t heard those stats in a while, but it was just fun to be out there playing and I enjoyed it.”

    Playing football and graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Torchio learned what made the Campolindo football program so unique. “I shared with my friends the different traditions we had at Campo and would tell them about Coach Macy and no one ever said that their high school was similar in that sense. Talking about our traditions, they were all jealous that I got to do that. Kevin is one of a kind and he deserves every bit of flattery that he gets.”

    As a free safety at Wisconsin, Torchio would play in four bowl games, winning three, but a loss in the Rose Bowl was the most memorable, in a positive and negative sense. “My mom was from Pasadena and she was obsessed with the Rose Bowl Parade growing up. We lost 28-27 to Oregon with Justin Herbert (L.A. Chargers) as their quarterback and it still stings to this day.”

    Torchio is currently living in the East Village in New York City with two roommates from Campolindo, Lucas Allen and Shun Ashita, and is working full-time as a financial analyst with Investment Properties Institutional Group.

Dave Pullman

    Kevin Macy has always taken the time to acknowledge the many people involved in the program from the assistant coaches to the team doctor to the mothers’ group, but in inducting Dave Pullman, the man who has been behind the video camera for the Campolindo games since 2000 and worked hand-in-hand with Macy in making the highlight films for every Hall of Fame, it was an honor that was very much merited.

    It was at a playoff game in 1999 which Pullman was shooting when Macy and Doug Longero, Las Lomas’ head coach, both approached Pullman about becoming their video director and he shot for both teams until he announced his retirement this year. Pullman began creating the always heralded highlight films for the Hall of Fame in 2007. “With the success of the team, the banquet kept getting pushed back. In fact, one year we had a banquet prior to the end of the season for part one and after the season, we had a part two,” he said.

    Pullman appreciated Macy’s way of being more than just a football coach to the team. “Kevin is good at creating culture through tradition and this was one thing that could connect all players past and present from Campo football, honoring former players and showing the current team what it took for these players to get where they’re at.”

    Pullman found true satisfaction in seeing the players’ and their families’ reactions to the films. “It’s priceless. I know where there is going to be parts of the videos that will grab at your heart strings maybe, and so in those moments, I will sometimes glance over at the table that the inductee’s family is sitting to try and see, from afar, their reaction as a certain part of the video was playing.” 

    Pullman learned in March that he was to be inducted himself. “When I heard that there was going to be a video about me, I just assumed it was going to be a short video that they would squeeze it in, which is something we’ve done in the past about some of the team moms and things of that nature.” Steven Fine did a great job on the editing. “I know,” Pullman said. “Believe me, I know.”

    Pullman was born and raised in Oakland and went to San Leandro High School before graduating from the UC Berkeley as a social science major with emphases on mass communication and journalism.

    In his senior year, Pullman interned at Channel 5 with Wayne Walker and Joe Fonzie, who got Pullman his first job in Chico, Calif., after he graduated from Cal. Pullman would go on to work in Redding, Calif., Ft. Myers, Fla., W. Palm Beach, and Miami. Pullman was like a Swiss army knife, working at various times as a cameraman, a sportswriter, editor, story ideas assignment editor and live TV reporter.

    In West Palm Beach, Pullman saw his future there as strictly a news cameraman and he did not have a passion for that kind of work. At that point, Pullman bet on himself. “I rolled the dice with my ability to create a profession tailored primarily to sports back in the Bay Area beginning in the fall of 1994 and that is one of the first things I did when I first moved back. That was the beginning of Hot Shots Video Productions. I then infiltrated myself into Cal football that fall. I was the nosy video guy that would show up and say, “Hey, I’ve been filming college football for the Miami Hurricanes for our TV station and were there any opportunities here?”

    The rest is history.