Schools

The 2025-26 athletics season gets underway this week as the season’s first girls volleyball game is played on Thursday afternoon in Cloverdale. It’s followed by a weekend tournament at Vintage High School in Napa, then three more weeks of non-league play and tournaments before...

The total amount of $70,835 was down slightly from last year’s $74,160, still the largest single-year donation given by the Boosters. It is a half-century-old organization of parents and former athletes who want to keep helping out the school’s sports.

The week just passed encapsulated the great baseball program built by coach Joey Gomes with the Healdsburg Prune Packers. Tons of powerful offense paired with fantastic pitching and defensive web gems, on a team built with rising stars from across the country. It is frankly surprising to see the determination and great chemistry within a team like the Packers after only a month of playing together.

For the seventh time in eight years, young wrestlers traveled to Healdsburg last week to sharpen skills, compare notes and share their enthusiasm for the sport in the Drew Esquivel Memorial Wrestling Camp, held June 12-14 on the Healdsburg High campus.

For the second year in a row, a Greyhound won the Most Valuable Pitcher award as Eric Nielsen followed 2024's co-winner Mauro-Manos into the exclusive circle. Nielsen’s finishing record of 10 wins and 83 strikeouts led in the league and placed him among the top 10 high school pitchers statewide.

For the first time in Mark Domenichelli’s 16 years as a baseball coach at Healdsburg High, his team has reached the semifinals in the division championship series. That means they’re just one win away from the finals, two from the title.

With this season’s NBL play now passed, both the boys baseball and girls softball teams look forward to the North Coast Section tournament of the top 16 teams in each division. The girls play in Division 5, the boys in Division 4.

The Healdsburg varsity has won nine of their last 11 games and is on a four-game winning streak. This week, they end the Redwood schedule with a pair of games against Piner, whose 4-9 record places them fifth in the six-team league.

The season ends with two games against Piner, on May 7 (in Healdsburg) and May 9 (at Piner). League and division playoff schedules are yet to be announced, but the Greyhounds have had good luck in post season play in recent years, under coach Mark Domenichelli.

“Greatest loss of my career,” Coach Mike Domenichelli said. “The players gave it everything they had. The crowd was electric and it was like playing at Yankee Stadium. It was just unfortunate that someone had to lose.”