Sophomore Channing Matthews, for the past year and a half, has been playing golf year-round. She is on the Petaluma Golf Team - a fall sport, and then she plays in tournaments for teen- agers. Her favorite thing about golfing is getting to be outside, walking in the fresh air, and going to different courses. The course she enjoys the most is her high school team's home course, Rooster Run. When it is not PHS's golf team season, Channing plays three times a week at Rooster Run and takes a weekly lesson there. The most difficult thing about golf for Channing is the pressure to concentrate and focus on hitting the ball - especially when a lot of people are watching. Once Channing lost her focus at the tee-off and the ball only went three feet! When it was her turn to take her second shot, she must have tripled her concentration because her ball went right in the hole - a Birdie!!

Please click here to read a few short segments from an Argus-Courier story.

Senior Jessica Rue Colman has been playing lacrosse since 1st grade! She played with the Petaluma River Cats from 1st through 6th grade and then joined the High School lacrosse team when she was just a 7th grader! Lacrosse is in Jessica's DNA - in part thanks to her aunt who was the head coach for the Cal Berkeley lacrosse women's team. The best thing about being on the lacrosse team, says Jessica, is that "the team is like your family. You see your teammates every day and after games, you go out together." On the nights before a game, the team has a fun "Carb Night" hosted at someone's house where they load up on pasta and pizza and get excited to win their game.

Continue reading in the Google Doc article about Jessica here.

Freshman Henry Wilson has been with the North Bay Rowing Club for the past two years. Last year, as an 8th grader, Henry was on the Learning-to-Row Team, which prepares young athletes for the competitive high school team. This year, Henry will have opportunities to compete at the regional and national level.

What Henry particularly likes about his sport is that he "has a great team with nice people". He says he really enjoys the competitiveness. There are about 15 teens that make up his team. The most difficult part of rowing for Henry is getting his technique correct and that it is "extremely physically demanding".

We are so proud of the hard work and dedication, courage and self-discipline that Minna Stess has demonstrated in her skateboarding career just this past semester. In addition to simply learning the very difficult task of how to do independent study as a new Valley Oaks student, and being only in 7th grade, Minna has been seriously practicing her sport. She travels to both a Sacramento and a San Diego training facility from Thursday nights to Monday mornings most weekends and in October she went to Nanjing, China for a huge televised competition to help her qualify for the next Olympics! Minna is all over the internet, find out more in the Google Doc about Minna here.

Michael Kofoid, pictured center holding the huge trophy, is a junior at Valley Oaks. He came here at the start of his sophomore year he says, because of the flexible schedule. His goal is to become a professional race car driver and race for a team full time. Michael's racing career began when he was introduced to his father's best friend's son who raced go-carts. Michael raced go-carts from age 9 to age 12. He then started racing sprint cars at age 13. Sprint cars have a huge wing for down-force, all the bolts are made of titanium, and they have a very high power-to-weight ratio: 1,400lbs & 900 horsepower (versus 3,400lbs & 200hp for a car). They do not have a transmission or a starter and so they need to be pushed by a truck to get them started. Once going, they can reach almost 200mph!

Watch the video of Michael winning the Howard Kaeding Classic at Ocean Speedway in Watsonville. Michael is in the all-red "4" car. The DSR on the car stands for Dan Simpson Racing. Michael won $5,000.

He won the 57th Annual Johnny Key Classic of 50 laps and also was awarded $5,000.

Michael is pictured here at a Skagit, Washington race from this past summer where he won $10,000!! This race was especially meaningful to Michael because just a couple of months before, he had an accident on this raceway due to a malfunction of the car which caused the bearings to freeze. The car made one roll and doctors thought he had broken his neck. Michael said, "it was the most painful thing in my life." He was on IV's and had CAT scans but miraculously, Michael bounced back and is pain-free with no lasting injury! - and best yet, he came back to the track and won!

Cole Charbonnier is a junior at VOS. He just came to us this August and has made a hugely positive impression on staff members! He is taking two difficult SRJC courses, Astronomy 3 and Business. He plans to transfer from SRJC eventually and go to NYU. Cole is also in the height of his hockey season. Because he is so busy, we did an online interview together and Cole's responses demonstrate his stellar personality and potential!

1) What do you like to do for community service?

Cole: helping coach youth hockey

2) Why did you come to VOS?

Cole: I came to VOS to have a flexible environment where I can chase my career objectives and have classes tailored to my specific interests. In traditional schools, you don't have staff that genuinely cares about your success, but at Valley Oaks, everyone wants what's best for you.

3) What do you like about VOS?

Cole: I like the care teachers have for their students. I also enjoy being able to tailor classes such as history towards a more economics-oriented view, because that will best help me with my career goals.

4) Did you grow up in Petaluma?

Cole: I grew up in Petaluma

5) How long have you been playing hockey and how did you get interested in it?

Cole: I've been playing hockey for four years. I played one year of “house” and I've completed three years of travel/competitive. The story of how I got into playing hockey is a great example of the Butterfly Effect. When I was in 6th grade at Mary Collins Cherry Valley, they had our science and history classes mixed with 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. My history teacher would set up a seating chart using a seat randomizer the day of the first class. I happened to sit next to a kid named Nate who played hockey. Every class he'd tell me I should start playing hockey and I'd always say "maybe." One day when I was going to a hat store to get a 49ers hat, I noticed a San Jose Sharks hat and realized I should watch one of their games. They happened to be playing that night against the Calgary Flames. The Sharks won 6-3 and since watching that game I've loved the game. I convinced my parents to get me skating lessons, and since I didn't have a hockey stick to practice shots, I'd use a replica Star Wars lightsaber. In two years I went from not being able to skate to winning MVP [Most Valuable Player] in my house season, Most Improved Player (out of all Flyers teams) in my first travel season, and a CAHA State Championship [Win]. It just went to show that if you have a goal, chase it. Even if it doesn't work out, the tenacity and resilience you develop in pursuit of the goal will enable you to succeed in any aspect within your life.

6) What do you plan/want to do when you graduate?

Cole:  I plan on becoming an investment banker. People often mistake what an investment banker actually does. The two main things are IPO's (Initial Public Offering) and mergers and acquisitions. IPO roadshows are when an investment bank plans on how to take a company public and what to value their shares at, but then they get to take the company's executives on a trip all around the world talking about the company's vision. I love the idea of bringing people together to create something new and exciting, and investment banking offers that opportunity.

7) Anything else we can learn about you?

Cole: CAHA [California Amateur Hockey Association] holds the State Championships. They usually take place during one weekend in San Jose, and the top two nor-cal teams play the top two so-cal teams. In the semi-finals of the State Championship, my team had to play against Bakersfield and we were tied. I ended up getting a breakaway (just me vs the other team's goalie). Time felt like it had slowed down as I skated towards the other team's net. I just remember shooting it top right. I blinked after I shot the puck which made time slow down even more. After the few seconds which felt like an hour, I saw the puck hit the back of the net as it stretched. In one instance all the emotion of the game hit me, It was probably one of my happiest moments (of course just below winning the actual State Championship).

Video of Cole scoring against Bakersfield

Video of the California Amateur Hockey Association, CAHA