School of “Valley” Champions

By: Lily Stetson

Over this 2018-2019 school year, a total of three Redwood teams won the title of “Valley Champion.” Each sport worked hard all season to be the best they could be. Through sportsmanship and teamwork, these are the teams that made the goal of competing for a Valley Championship.

Girls tennis won their second consecutive year at Valley for Division II. The team accomplished yet another League Championship as well, this year winning their 15th year in a row. In addition, the team hasn’t lost a single WYL match since 2003. Four year varsity player and MVP Claire Yang, ’19, is satisfied with the team’s end results, “It was kind of the goal since the beginning of the year so it was a really big accomplishment for us to actually make it to Valley.” It is amazing that the team has made it so far in their journey, according to Yang. She thanks the coaches who she also credits as the reason they went to valley. Sophie Degn, ’21, is a first year varsity player. As a newbie to the team, she was excited that she could be a part of the success. “I’m very excited and proud of my team; all of our hard work paid off.” The girls also won each one of their individual matches at valley and also took WYL.

As well as tennis, Girls Golf dominated in the fall to win Redwood’s second DII Valley Championship of the year. They made Redwood history as the first girls golf team to ever to go that far. Sophie Wasem, ’20, felt really good about winning Valley, “It was such a fun experience and we had worked so hard all season to get to that point…we just had to play like we always did, and that would be enough.” The girls also won WYL, winning nearly every match. As a team, their scores were lower than the past years. And, to finish her season off strong, Rylee Santiago, ‘22, got the chance to play and compete at the State level. The team worked hard and deserved their final reward at the end. They hope to keep this winning streak going as most of the team will be returning next year

The last, and most recent Valley Championship was won by Boys Track in DII Central Section. As well as their overall win, many athletes PR’d and two even made it to State, Brandon Andrade, ‘20, and Ryan Hemphill, ‘20. Andrade placed 1st overall in the 300m hurdles and Hemphill placed 1st in the 800. This year Redwood was lucky enough to send 22 athletes to compete at Valley and 3 total relays. Bailey Darnell, ’19, was expecting this, “At this point in our high school career it’s sort of an expectation from our coaches to send this amount of people to valley.” Prior to the Valley win, Boys Track won Area and also WYL and the Girls outright won WYL as well. Both teams had a really successful season and many athletes learned and grew as runners, throwers, jumpers, and sprinters.

Girls and Boys swim both qualified many athletes and teams to the Valley Championship meet. Sofia Mora, ’21, mentioned how hard the team worked, “We practiced and we just set our minds on the goal.” The girls got fifth place overall in Division I. Luke Parker from the boys team says “we worked hard at practice even if we got tired.” Parker was happy with the results of valley because his PRs had gone up along with most of the other boys. In addition to big team accomplishments including WYL…again. A few swimmers won Valley and had the chance to move on and compete at State. These athletes were Megan Ridenour, ‘19, Alex Roberts, ‘20, Skylar Ford, ‘20, Katie Sullivan, ‘20, as a part of a relay after placing second at Valley.

Girls Water Polo advanced to the DII Valley game for the second year in a row but unfortunately lost to Monache in a good game played at Fresno State. They went undefeated in WYL and swept playoffs up until the final game. It was a sad moment as many seniors were now graduating but at least most of them were part of the Valley Championship team from the year before. The team starts summer training soon and looks forward to growing as a team for next season.

Volleyball also did well in their season, placing third in WYL and making it to the valley semi-finals. Mia Gilcrest, ’21, says they “pushed hard but I feel we could have made it to the valley finals.” The team place third in valley, only having placed second in the past years. In WYL the team also placed third.

Girls Wrestling was also able to send two girls to the State competition for the second time in school history. These two wrestlers were Maria Barillas, ‘19, and Lynice Luna, ‘21. They won a few matches and lost a few, but they kept their spirits high throughout the entire events.

Finally, Softball placed second in WYL and also played their way to gain a back to back Valley Championship. Unfortunately their fell short in their semifinal game to Kingsburg, 3-0. The girls grew with the first year varsity players and strong senior leadership as many will graduate and go on to play in college. The team led by Rooney looks forward to seeking revenge next year and getting back to that “Valley Champion” feeling.

All of Redwood sports had many great victories. The teams and players are all happy with how their seasons turned out and are looking forward to another successful year.

Tags: cross country, ranger dive, redwood golf, redwood tennis, redwood track and field, swim, Valley, volleyball