Sports

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.

Though this was AJ Crosby’s first year head-coaching a high school varsity team, it was by no means his first coaching experience. “Last year I was a JV coach at Rancho Cotate,” he said. “And for the past four-and-a-half years I’ve been a head coach for North Bay Basketball Academy for AAU seasons.”

Three Healdsburg High athletics teams made their NCS playoff entrance, and exit, last Wednesday after we went to press. The girls basketball team, and both girls and boys soccer teams, made it into the playoffs, but their post-season ended quickly in all cases. 

This year locals are proud to find both boys and girls soccer teams in the NCS playoff, both in Division 4 in line with their size. And the girls basketball team is in the playoffs as well, in the tougher Division 2. (Unfortunately, all three teams lost on Wednesday night, so Healdsburg High's winter sports season is officially over.)

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.

By halftime Tuesday night the Healdsburg Greyhounds basketball team seemed to have things well in hand. After a relatively quiet first period that ended 7-6 to the home team’s advantage, the Lady Greys exploded for 19 points in the second quarter, doing what they do best with a smothering defense and rapid, accurate shooting from inside the key—and beyond the arc. Then it turned around.

The boys team has not been able to get much traction in the rain-soaked field, and neither have most of its opponents. The NBL-Redwood league standings show many of the teams have more tie games than either wins or losses. The Greyhounds, for instance, have two wins and no losses, but four tie games—Piner High, just ahead of them in the league standings, is 3-0-3.

The saga of Healdsburg’s basketball seasons, boys and girls, continues to be played out, though hopes for a repeat league championship for the girls have been damaged by the dominance of Ukiah, a new addition to the NBL-Redwood division, which remains undefeated in league play.

When last we checked in with the boys soccer team, they had just begun their league season with a tie game against Piner, 1-1, on the Healdsburg field. The following Saturday,  Jan. 19, they headed up to Lake County to meet Kelseyville, and came home with a 5-0 win in their non-league column...

Perhaps for the first time in its young life, the new Drew Esquivel Hall on the Healdsburg High School campus boasted a bleacher full of fans—wrestling fans, drama fans, fans of the school district and of Drew Esquivel himself—all come to recognize the dedication...