Sonoma Valley high school spring sports wait for the weather

The rainstorms that have socked Sonoma County over the past couple weeks has had a dampening effect on the start of the prep sports season, even as the coaches and their teams are getting in shape for the first VVAL spring season.

Rich Blanchard, head coach of the Sonoma Valley High varsity baseball team, has already had to reschedule two scrimmages rained out in early February, and while those could be rescheduled between storms, the JV scrimmages played at Peterson Field (across First Street West from Arnold Field) will not be made up.

Blanchard is keeping an eye on the outfield at Arnold Park before he decides if he needs to cancel the season’s second game, this Saturday Feb. 16, against San Marin. “The infield is tarped but I expect the outfield will be soggy and (if so) we’ll need to rain that out,” he said. He speculated that if it does get delayed, the game will be rescheduled for the following Monday – weather permitting.

Varsity baseball home games are played at Arnold Field, and for the most part away games are within striking distance, against Sonoma County or VVAL opponents. The exception: the March 9 game against Eureka High, a four-hour-plus drive – which makes the 1:40 cruise to Ukiah for the March 30 game look local.

The boys tennis team also suffered a rained out practice match on Monday, according to coach Walt Williams. The team, set at 22 players, looks strong going into the new league, said Williams, though he hopes to promote “reading and ethics this year as well as supreme tennis domination.”

The boys golf team is currently preparing for their first match, to be held a later this month. Nickolai Mathison is coaching, and points out the new format of the VVAL golf matches. “Every event is now a hosted tournament rather than a match, so each team only plays at home once, and plays every other team six times,” he said. It’s a happy coincidence that the first such match is at Sonoma Golf Club on Wednesday, Feb. 27, at noon.

Track and field is another spring sport with a tournament-style competitions instead of duals, though they have several three-way meets scheduled. The first two such “all-comers” tournaments was held on Feb. 2, the second will be this Saturday, Feb. 16, and on successive Saturdays into March.

Not until March 13, a Wednesday, do the local track and field athletes begin league competition with a three-way meet at Vintage High in Napa, with Justin-Sienna as well as Sonoma Valley in the lanes.

On that same day, March 13, the girls and boys swimming teams make their first “home” appearance, at the Sonoma Aquatic Club in Agua Caliente, facing off against Vintage at 4 p.m. Their first meet overall is a week earlier, on March 6, against Casa Grande at Petaluma High’s pool.

Girls softball, coached this season by Mike Fanucchi, has a couple scrimmage games lined up this month before their season opener at home on Tuesday, ?Feb. 26, against Terra Linda. Their home games will be held at SVHC, usually with a 4 p.m. first pitch.

Last year’s Lady Dragons had a 12-10 overall record and a 10-2 SCL record, coming in a strong second in that now-defunct league.

While new coach Mike Fanucchi predicts a tough league schedule, he believes that the Lady Dragons should be “very competitive.”

But it remains to be seen how they – or any Sonoma Valley team – fares in the new VVAL.