By Dylan Peyton,
Staff Writer.
With the leaves starting to change color and the temperature dropping, the fall season of sports is officially coming to an end. Fall sports offered by SRHS include football, girls flag football, girls tennis, girls golf, girls volleyball and cross country. For many, these are the last moments when they will get to enjoy high school sports before they graduate.
The football team, both JV and varsity, has shown great improvement this season. In the beginning of the season, they had to deal with a great loss to the team, senior Daniel Mills, but the team made sure to work past the loss. “We’ve made big improvements since last year. I think our team is better than our record shows. We’ve had a lot of close games. Very senior heavy, 19 [players that are seniors]. We’ve got a lot of people who have been in the program for a long time,” said senior Kellen Goodfellow. The main highlight of the season was the win against our rival Montgomery High School. In the last four years, the Panthers have had some tough battles against the Vikings but haven’t been able to beat them, only losing by one point last season. Coming out victorious this year meant a lot to the team and to the school.
Unlike football, volleyball plays every team twice, giving the team a chance to see how they have improved over the season. When the team battled against Maria Carrillo on Sept. 25, they ended up losing 3-1, but less than a month later on Oct. 14 the rematch ended in our Panthers’ favor, with us winning 3-2, one of the highlights of their season. For the team, a big competitor has always been Ukiah High School, being unable to beat them either game last year. However, this year, our Panthers were able to beat them in the first game against them, a great achievement for the team.
At Santa Rosa High and many other schools in neighboring districts, our tennis team is not co-ed. While boys tennis takes place in the spring, the year kicks off with girls tennis. Throughout their season this year the girls showed steady improvement up to their last match. The team was having trouble early in the season because of how many players were new, both to the sport and to the team. “Over the course of the season everyone learned more about how to play and we learned more about the sport and each other,” said senior Aimee Maehara.
The girls golf team, similar to tennis in the fact that the boys team plays in the spring, is an overlooked sport at our school. This season, the team went 0-10, having struggled in the Oak League, the highest league. “I think our team requires a lot of skill-based growth, but I’m happy to say we all have great chemistry together,” said coach Adam Derum. While the team may have struggled during some matches, they never struggled with team chemistry. Despite struggles, junior Faye Kovacevich was a part of the second team all league!
Overall, our fall athletes had an amazing 2025 year. Great job, Panthers!
