Champions rise up, status inspiring hero after header from defender (3,4,8)

'champions rise up' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'status inspiring hero after header from defender' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'status' could be 'grade' (grade is a kind of status) and 'grade' is located in the answer.
'hero' could be 'star' and 'star' is present in the answer.
'from' could be 'e' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'e' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?