Schools

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.”

Last year, the girls team had their best season in Clark’s half-decade as a coach, winning gold in the division and bronze in the league. This year, they’re down a couple of swimmers to 11 team members—just under the ideal threshold of 12—but they’ve been holding their own in a tough field.

For the student-athletes of the Healdsburg Track & Field team, the Santa Rosa Field Event Jamboree, March 15, and the Dublin Distance Fiesta, March 21-22, bookend the start and end of spring break. “These meets highlight the two extremes of track and field,” said head coach Kate Guthrie.

As is often the case, track and field is among the first spring sports to get underway. The big event opening the season was the Big Cat Invitational, held at Santa Rosa High on Saturday, March 1. Last weekend came the Gaucho Relays, at Casa Grade High. This weekend it's the Field Event Jamboree in Santa Rosa.

All-League selections for North Bay – Redwood division have been announced, and other divisions as well. The Healdsburg High winter sports teams can be proud of their showing in this post-season list, selected by the coaches of the league teams themselves.

Senior Ruby Leffew had her best game of the year, scoring 21 points to lead the Healdsburg Greyhounds to their third consecutive NBL-Redwood championship tournament trophy.