IT'S BEEN A BANNER YEAR for high school sports in the Anderson Valley. The girl's volleyball team is league champs and has a good shot at the small school regional title; our perennial powerhouse of a soccer team is again romping to the champ's circle, and our football team has again won the small school Redwood Bowl trophy. Three championships in one school year!
OUR GIRL'S VOLLEYBALL TEAM fought hard to finally emerge victorious over a tenacious Mendocino at the Boonville gym Friday night. Sports Plus described the contest between the two evenly matched teams as their “rubber match,” with each having won prior contests against each other. The volleyball Panthers, coached by Kendra McEwen, herself a former Panther standout, are now off to the Division 6 playoffs with favorable seedings throughout.
MENDO went into the match with Boonville riding a seven game winning streak, one of those victories coming over Boonville in the Mendocino gym. The Mendo girls leaped out to a 2-0 advantage Friday night only to see the Boonville girls come roaring back to take the next three games. Boonville 3, Mendo 2. In league play Boonville went 12-1, on the season 21-4.
VOLLEYBALL COACH KENDRA McEWEN writes: "After becoming League Champions in a very exciting tie-breaker match against Mendocino, the Anderson Valley Varsity Volleyball team is poised to go all the way in the Division VI North Coast Section Playoffs in the next two weeks. Don't miss the first playoff game, Saturday November 14th at 7pm in our home gym against the winner of the Laytonville vs North Hills Christian match that will be held this Wednesday in Laytonville.
Our small but powerful team this year consists of:
Alex Farber
McKenzie McLain
Lisset Eligio
Sarah Kreienhop
Riley Lemons
Hailee Peterson
Rachael Kreienhop
Bella Soboleski and Cozette Ellis have been bumped up from JV to join Varsity for the playoffs."
THE DOWNSIDE. With all this success can there be one? Yes. Football coach Dan Kuny says he is not coming back for another year. "I can't do another year with Pinoli," Kuny said Monday, the Pinoli reference being to Robert Pinoli, Anderson Valley High School's Athletic Director and a perennial object of ire from most coaches of most sports, but the complainers mutter to themselves rather than complain to school administration.
A RECENT EPISODE involving Pinoli occurred when Pinoli stormed into the gym during volleyball practice to shout abuse at team coach, Kendra McEwen, in front of her team and in front of much younger girls from the junior high school. Lots of schools would fire any adult who behaved like this. Not here. The school board allegedly sorted it out in, natch, "closed session," where all sensitive matters are swept under a rug that runs from Boonville to Ukiah.
USED TO BE that high school sports were coached by high school teachers. No more. Coaches these days are essentially volunteers, stepping up to lead this or that team out of love for the sport. They're paid a small stipend that comes nowhere near compensating them for hours worked.
COACH KUNY, who's donated thousands of hours and some of his own money not only to high school football, but he's a familiar face at all local events where he's on the grill. He does not conceal his opinions, the result being that we're losing a guy whose coaching record is 26-4 and two championships, just in the last two years, a guy enormously popular with young people, and a guy highly regarded in the wider community.
IF A GUY like Kuny can be driven to resign out of frustration with the person supervising all school sports, and that frustration is shared by most of the other coaches, maybe it's time that the AD resigned.
I'LL ADD THIS: I've heard complaints about Pinoli for years. But I've sat on them because only Kuny would go public with them. It's a small community, and it's often unpleasant to publicly air grievances. I get that, and that's where your beloved community newspaper is here to serve; we bring up matters that otherwise just fester, and this one has festered for years. I don't have a beef with Pinoli myself, but I don't work for him. If it was only one person complaining about the man, the complaints could be ignored. But we're talking consensus opinion here. I hope Kuny will re-consider his departure.
INCIDENTALLY, Coach Kuny was assisted this season by Roger Willson, who's also a logger and a part-time cage fighter.
THE REHAB of Boonville's Live Oak Building proceeds. Local guy Kirt Morse is the contractor, Tim Mullins, of the Balo Winery, is the building's owner. According to County Planning and Building, a permit for the project, estimated at $130,000 has been issued.
THE RAIN fell late Sunday night and into early Monday morning in the amount of maybe half an inch. Paul Murphy of the crucial MendocinoSportsPlus headquartered in Elk keeps close watch on the Navarro River. It's been closed at the mouth for months. Murph notes that to un-dam the river, "It'll take a couple more inches of rain as well as some battering from high surf. It's incredible when it does give way - you can hear the 'swoosh' from Ca-1 up on Navarro grade.
NOTICE! Hendy Woods State Park is closed to day use and camping until February 29th 2016 due to construction. We are so sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. For any questions regarding the closure, please call Mendocino district office at (707) 937-5804. They will also be able to give a list of other parks to camp at in the area.
KATHY BAILEY EXPLAINS the probs at Hendy Woods: "There are two parallel maintenance issues going on at Hendy Woods. No amount of maintenance could have prevented the need for replacement of the water pipes. After more than 50 years, they are just crumbling, and the pipes also have an asbestos component as was common practice in the 1960s. (Is there nothing that did not contain asbestos in the '60s?) Yes, regular maintenance and lack of a permanent maintenance person at Hendy Woods since Ted Holstine died has been a huge issue, but signs are extremely favorable that will soon change. The current very temporary park closure is due to a construction issue. The horizontal drilling rig hit one of the existing pipes. A major problem with the old system is an inability to isolate pipe sections due to lack of valves. The repair to the old pipe has been made and they are awaiting the water test results. When the test shows "all clear" the park will immediately reopen although there will be temporary closures in parts of the park during the construction to avoid public contact with the equipment. The Hendy Woods entrance sign is being refurbished at Chamberlain Creek. They do great work there so I am sure we will be happy with the results. There will be no change in the design of the sign."
CLAUDIA JIMINEZ alerts us that she's kicking off a holiday toy drive at her nifty little Boonville store, All That Good Stuff, and she's knocking 10% off all toy purchases. A visit to All That Good Stuff and its delightful proprietress is always a shopping trip worth taking.
OUR SCANNER crackled to life Thursday morning with an alarming dispatch of Anderson Valley Fire Department, our ambulance and Deputy Walker of the Sheriff's Department. An assault victim was "sitting in a white Jeep Patriot" near Jack's Valley Store. Earlier, scanner traffic indicated a "white male," subsequently identified as Clinton Worcester, had allegedly assaulted "a female" and could "possibly have a firearm." (Worcester is locally famed for the tatooed line across his neck boldly inscribed, "Cut Here." He also enjoys a local rep for amiability and as a good worker at the Gowan Apple Farm.) This episode seems to have begun as an argument between Worcester, his girlfriend and a third woman visiting the girlfriend from Los Angeles. The girlfriend got shoved, called 911 and a major turnout of emergency services ensued. Mr. W is looking at an odd array of charges, with his alleged threat being charged as a felony, the alleged shove as misdemeanor domestic assault.
AS OF MONDAY, November 9, 2015 at 8:00 AM the burn permit suspension in Mendocino County will be lifted. Cal Fire's Mendocino Unit Chief, Chris Rowney, is formally cancelling the burn permit suspension and advises that those possessing current and valid agriculture and residential burn permits can now resume burning on permissible burn days.
ATTN. PARENTS! As his high school Senior Project, the lively and personable Jared Johnston, a terrific football player himself, is putting on a football camp this Saturday and Sunday at the high school for kids from the third grade through the sixth grade. The camp convenes both days from 9am to 1pm and costs $20, with all the money going for participant t-shirts and the sports program at Middletown High School, many of whose student-athletes have suffered the terrible consequences of the catastrophic Valley Fire.
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