Athletic Director
Chris Ziemer: athletics@sonomaacademy.org
The Sonoma Academy basketball teams will participate in the inaugural Coyote Classic at Sonoma Academy on Friday, December 5th and Saturday, December 6th. Four boys and four girls teams will play eight games with tournament champions crowned on Saturday evening. Joining the Coyotes on the boys side are Drew, Bentley, and Hanna Boys, with the Coyotes taking on Hanna Boys Center on Friday at 4:00 pm. On the girls side, Drew, St.Vincent and St. Bernards will join the Coyotes, with Sonoma Academy hosting Drew at 5:30 pm on Friday. According to Athletic Director Chris Ziemer, the tournament is a great chance to showcase our new campus and gymnasium. "We have been waiting for years to host our own tournament at SA," said Ziemer. "Now, with the new gym, we plan to have a tournament which will grow in quality and number of teams each year. We are very excited to have eight teams, including our own, in the first tournament, and a nice variety of schools from as far north as Humboldt County to the East Bay." The schedule of games is as follows: Friday December 5
Game 1 4:00 pm Sonoma Academy boys vs Hanna Boys Center
Game 2 5:30 pm Sonoma Academy girls vs Drew girls
Game 3 7:00 pm Drew boys vs Bentley boys
Game 4 8:30 pm St. Vincent girls vs St. Bernard girls Saturday December 6
Game 5 4:00 pm Girls consolation
Game 6 5:30 pm Boys consolation
Game 7 7:00 pm Girls championship
Game 8 8:30 pm Boys championship
Grace Hafner finished 54th out of 168 runners in the CIF State Cross Country meet in Fresno on Saturday November 29th. It was her third consecutive appearance at the state meet and brought a close to a great fall season for the SA athletic program. "It was a great fall for our athletes and teams, not just in terms of success, but in growth and obviously moving to our beautiful new campus," said Ziemer. "We completed our first full year of competition with girls volleyball and the girls and coaches worked hard to lay the foundation for the future of the program. Girls cross country won the league title and Grace Hafner advanced to the State Meet for the third consecutive year. Jonathan Izen won several races and both the boys and girls teams return a great group of talented runners. The boys soccer team narrowly missed out on an NCS berth and finished with a winning record with a team loaded with underclassmen. The girls soccer team won their fourth straight league title and second consecutive North Coast Section Championship," added Ziemer. "We had numerous student-athletes who earned all-league honors and 18 student-athletes who earned NCS Scholar-Athlete recognition and 4 teams who earned NCS Distinguished Scholastic team honors," said Ziemer. "Most importantly, we have a beautiful new campus, including cross country course, athletic fields and gym, which will serve our athletes and teams for years to come."
The cross country teams competed at the NCS meet on Saturday, Nov. 22. Grace Hafner finished 6th to earn a medal and a berth at next weekends State Championship Meet in Fresno. It is her third consecutive State Meet.
In the boys race there were 150 runners. Aaron Rotman was the fastest Division V 9th grader and the first SA boy to finish (57th overall). Jonathan Izen (68th) ran a strong race to finish his SA cross country career on a positive note and Eli Booker (112th), Sebastian Kochinke (113th), Jason Siegel (128th) and Simon Titone (143rd) also ran well for the Coyotes.
On the girls side, Grace Hafner ran strong from start to finish and passed several runners down the final stretch for a 6th place finish out of 108 runners. Freshman Sarah Tatum was the second finisher for SA (26th overall) and only 7 spots from advancing to the State Meet. Also running strong for the Coyotes were Bonnie Campbell (36th), Savannah Turley (79th), and Katherine Parsells (94th). The girls team, which were league champions, finished 8th, not far off the top 4 teams which advanced to the State Meet, out of 14 complete teams.
Congrats to all of the runners and good luck to Grace at the State Meet!
