HILMAR – Frank Marques made his return to McSweeney Field on Monday night.

The former Hilmar High School football head coach will also be back on the gridiron next week. But it’s not because he changed his mind about retiring as a teacher and coach.

Marques and his coaching staff will be running the North team that is playing in the 3rd annual Merced County All-Star Football Classic. The game will take place on Saturday at Golden Valley High School at 7:30 p.m.

The game pits the best recent graduates on the North squad who are from Pitman, Hilmar and Denair against the South’s best that come from the Merced area south and the foothills.

Local players on the North roster from the Turlock area are Pitman running back Mason Helwick, quarterback RJ Wilharm, running back/inside linebacker Xadian Padilla, defensive lineman Jordan Riley and offensive lineman Jonathan Alderman.

The quartet were part of the 2025 Pride team that finished with a 5-6 overall record, including a 2-3 mark in the Central California Athletic League.

Hilmar only has one player in offensive lineman Jayden Jacobo. The Yellowjackets’ 2025 mark was 7-5 that included a 3-3 record in the Trans-Valley League and reaching the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Football Playoffs – Division V semifinals.

Denair rounds out the roster with running back/linebacker Degan Butler, tight end Ernesto Silva and offensive linemen Darrien Schell and Evan Coronel. The quartet were part of the 2025 Coyotes team that had a 9-3 overall record, including a 5-1 mark in the Southern Athletic League and reached the second round of the CIF SJS Playoffs – D-VII.

Returning to Monday’s 2 ½ hour practice, Marques said all but one player selected for the North team showed up to work on offense, defense and special teams.

“It went really well,” Marques said.

The North will run Hilmar’s base offense, which is the spread formation. He feels confident that players will catch up quickly with the terminology the Yellowjackets have used during Marques’ tenure from 2003 through last season. He started coaching in the program in 1983 through 1996, coached at Merced College for two seasons and returned to Hilmar in 1999.

“We’re just trying to (use) the basic stuff,” Marques said. “We only going to have a handful of plays that we’re trying to put in.”

Marques said South head coach Xaiver Ramirez, who runs the El Capitan program in Merced, agreed to run base offense, plus defensive formations, for the all-star game.

“They’re going to run a spread offense, and run an Eagle front,” said Marques of the South.

Marques is just looking forward to his North team preparing and getting ready to face a tough South squad.

“We had a great practice (on Monday),” Marques said. “I’m real happy for the kids. (Monday’s practice) went really fast.”

Marques said his North team would be practicing in pads Tuesday through Thursday evenings.

On Friday, both teams will be treated to a dinner at Golden Valley High. All-star game officials are overseeing the dinner.