We the Italians Ambassador Charles Marsala and Sheri Sobrato won the San Jose Italian Festa 2026 Grape Stomp competition. Competing as the "Alligator Marsala" team they won three rounds against stiff competition to take home the trophy. Marsala was the Stomper with Sobrato being the Mucker who is responsible for the juice production.
The competition featured 16 contestants who were either mayors or professional athletes. Marsala is a former Mayor of Atherton, CA. In the first round on Saturday Team Alligator Marsala defeated two mayors. In the semi-finals on Saturday, they ousted retired San Francisco 48ers running back Anthony Dixon and the general manager of the San Jose baseball team.
In the finals, they defeated former San Francisco 49ers Quarterback John Paye. Winning was a team effort as their opponents had youth and size on their advantage. All the athletes had size 15 shoe or larger. Marsala wears a size 10.
Sheri Sobrato designed a strategy for gathering the grape juice that produced twice as much as second place John Paye.
The thrill was having an Italian American team win the 44th annual San Jose Italian Festa Grape Stomp.
