Submitted photos – Some of the Coast League athletes in action at a track and field meet this spring.

By Ray Hamill — Coast League sports are on the rise and building some momentum.

This year, the league for charter schools in the area competed in a record five different sports with eyes on expanding to a sixth sport for next year.

The nine-school league, which has competed in basketball for several years, added both cross country and track and field in 2023/24, before adding volleyball and indoor soccer this year.

And next year, according to Eureka Community Schools Athletic Director Jason Maguire, who acts as the Coast League defacto commissioner, they will be adding disc golf as well.

“It’s been great for the families and students,” Maguire said. “The schools and families love the opportunity to come see these kids compete.”

The list of schools in the league includes Academy of the Redwoods, Alder Grove Charter School, Eel River Community School, Eureka Community School, Laurel Tree Charter School, Northern Unified Charter School, Redwood Coast Montessori, Six Rivers Charter School and Zoe Barnum High School, and the school sports year got under way with the second-ever Coast League cross country season in the fall.

Alder Grove’s Ocean Goodrich clinched the individual league championship for the second straight year, followed by Laurel Tree’s Taiyo Shofner in second and Flynt Ryno-Moore of Redwood Coast Montessori in third.

Goodrich completed the 1.5 mile course at College of the Redwoods in a time of 9 minutes, 20 seconds, more than a minute and a half ahead of the chasing pack.

Redwood Coast Montessori (13 points) edged Laurel Tree (15) in what was a tight race for the team championship, with Andre Grove (25) in third.

All of the Coast League sports are coed, with indoor soccer and volleyball serving as “skills based sports seasons” this year, according to Maguire.

“They were more like a rec league,” he said of the two new league sports.

Basketball has been the league’s most established sport for well over a decade, and this year’s championship was won by Six Rivers, which defeated Zoe Barnum in the championship game.

The school sports year concluded in the spring with the track and field championships, which were held at Fortuna Middle School.

And it was another good day for Goodrich, who placed first in all six events and led Alder Grove to a second-place finish in the team competition.

Goodrich tied Odell Menniweathers of Eureka Community School for the victory in the 50-meter sprint, with both runners crossing the finish line in a time of 6.6 seconds.

Northern Unified teammates Samuel Keely and Catarina Freitas placed third and fourth, respectively.

Goodrich also won the 200m (26.28 seconds), the invitational mile (6:03), the standing broad jump (9’ 03”), the shot put (36’ 4.74”) and the pentathlon.

The team competition was won by Northern Unified with 39 points, followed by Alder Grove (33), with Eureka Community School and Laurel Tree tying for third with 16 points each.

Several of the league schools also had impressive individual performances.

Menniweathers placed second in the 200m, followed by Northern Unified’s Keely in third, while Enoch White of Eureka Community School won a tight battle for second in the mile (7:16), barely edging Northern Unified teammates Zeno Fosnaugh and Ricardo Freitas, who were both just one second back and tied for third.

Keely and Shofner placed second and third, respectively, in both the broad jump and shot put, while Ricardo Freitas finished second in the pentathlon, with his Northern Unified teammate Catarina Freitas third.

The feedback from the local charter school community has been very positive.

“These student-athletes haven’t traditionally had these avenues,” Maguire said. “And I’ve heard from some of the schools how this has helped with student retention. They’re looking forward to competing next year. It’s been so positive.”

The addition of disc golf as a league sport this coming fall should only continue to help with that.

“They’re pretty excited about adding disc golf,” Maguire added.

Maguire also praised the efforts of the league volunteers, without whom none of this would be possible.

“The parents and staff at all of these schools have been instrumental in putting the events on,” he said.