By Caleb Knudsen
The 2024-25 school year began earlier this month, but the high school’s football players were already practicing—learning blocking, routes and plays—for the third coach in three years.
Robert “Bear” Gray coached the team from 2021-22, Randy Parmeter in 2023 and this year former HHS athlete Criss Rosales controls the clipboard. During that span of time, the team won only three games, all of them in the 2021-22 season.
So the taste of victory is but a memory to the Greyhounds—or, more optimistically, a promise.
Rosales is an optimist. “These kids are very passionate, determined and overall hungry,” the young coach said. “They have embraced our program and have run with all the hard work in the classroom and on the field.”
The game comes on the heels of a regional scrimmage held last weekend at Montgomery High. Both varsity and JV players came out, wearing helmets and pads but not fully uniformed. As well as Healdsburg, participating teams included Novato High, Montgomery, Cardinal Newman and Richmond High School.
“These scrimmages help us coaches evaluate things that need to be tweaked, better coached, and shows us our strengths versus other opponents,” Rosales said. Though the teams don’t keep score at scrimmages such as this, Rosales perceived some opportunities and advantages this year’s roster can bring to the field.
“The Novato match was pretty even. Since we [will] play each other in season, I believe both sides kept it strictly basic,” the coach reported. “The Richmond match really highlighted some strengths to the boys. The Montgomery match was definitely a scrappy one—there’s old history with Healdsburg vs. Montgomery that seems to still be alive.”
The other team on the field, Cardinal Newman, is a traditional powerhouse in the North Bay. Rosales and the players recognized “there was nothing to ‘win’ there by having our starters in,” so kept the players on the field to JV.
Even though the insignificant scrimmage took the better part of the afternoon last Saturday, the players and the coaches felt lessons were learned. One of those lessons was that this year’s turnout is strong, and positive. “These kids play their roles phenomenally on offense and spread the ball around. Truly no egos,” Rosales said.
The coaching staff is rounded out by former pro Taylor Tappin, Patrick Tappin as defensive coordinator, running-back coach Alex Johnson and a number of others, many of whom Rosales himself played or coached with. These include Nick Barrio, Brett Ghisletta and Healdsburg record-holder Mike Johnson.
Then there are the veterans: Andy Rosales, Brett Bruner, Alexis Gonzalez and Chris Dow on staff, “all very important coaches with a deep history in Healdsburg,” Rosales said.
One of the takeaways from previous seasons is that, while the Healdsburg offense can score, the defense has been porous and the team has lost by sometimes embarrassing scores. This time Rosales said the defense was “very reminiscent of the traditional Healdsburg Greyhounds football teams from the past,” with every team member focused on following and getting to the ball.
Though the team lost several key players to graduation last year—including Austin Collins and Tyler Swanson—a high number of starters returned from last year’s team, all of whom should play an improved game.
These include Nova Perrill II at quarterback, Xander Harms at running back, Hayden Mariani at wide receiver and utility player Frank Rea. Defensive linebackers Max Morris and Dillan Jocius returned, with Nathaniel Rowland at defensive end and Areum Romero at cornerback.
The first test for the Rosales Era comes this Friday, Aug. 30, when the Greyhounds meet the Cloverdale Eagles for the season opener. Cloverdale is coming off a 1-9 season (Healdsburg played 10 games, and got a tie). The two teams did not meet last year, but with only a dozen road miles between the two schools, some healthy competition can be expected.
Varsity kickoff is scheduled for 7pm (JV kickoff at 4:30pm), Friday, Aug. 30, at Rec Park.
