Gabe Zieff

After coaching the girls’ JV soccer team last year, Redwood alum Gabe Zieff was hired as the boys’ varsity soccer head coach.

Zieff, a class of 2008 graduate, began his career as a Redwood soccer coach by doing conditioning work with the boys’ varsity team last year and then worked his way up the ranks.

“I was helping out the team last year doing some strength and conditioning work with them, and from there I learned about the JV girls’ opportunity,” Zieff said. “Once I got that, I found out that the varsity position had an opening so I just applied for that.”

After graduating from Redwood, Zieff went on to play soccer at Skidmore College in New York. Since then, he has been coaching at soccer camps and clinics, but this is his first time serving as the head coach of a varsity team.

According to Zieff, the team has a good mix of returning varsity players and players who moved up from JV.

“We have some returning varsity players who are definitely our leaders,” Zieff said. “We have a couple of kids who were on JV last year who are now players on varsity and we even have one freshman who’s earned himself a starting role right now.”

Geoff Peters

Geoff Peters has been hired as the girls’ varsity water polo coach this year after serving as the head coach of the Terra Linda boys’ varsity team last year.

Peters, a Marin County-local, took on the job at Redwood after previous coach Matthew McDowell moved to Los Angeles.

Peters played water polo at Terra Linda High School for three years before playing at Santa Rosa Junior College and then transferring to UC Santa Cruz to finish off his college career.

After coaching the boys for three years, Peters has had to adapt to the girls’ game.

“The speed of the overall plays is a lot faster for boys than for girls, but for girls it’s still the same skill, it’s still the same knowledge about the game,” Peters said.

Peters said that the majority of the players on this years’ team are underclassmen.

“Because we have such a young team, we can build up and they’ll be playing together for two, three years down the road,” Peters said. “They’ll get to know each other so well and they’ll be able to play as a unit.”

Peters has high hopes for the season after a 20-7 victory in the first scrimmage of the season, including a top four finish at MCALS and a chance to play in NCS, an opportunity the Redwood girls have not had in many years.