Press release from St. Bernard’s Academy:

St. Bernard’s Academy is excited to announce that our Women’s Basketball Team will be competing tomorrow at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento for the Division 4 High School State Championship versus Grossmont High School of El Cajon, California. This is the first time in the history of the HDNL that a women’s team will participate at this level. The game will be at 10:00 am.

St. Bernard’s Academy is a Division 6 school by population with an enrollment of 198. We played our season in Division 5, due to competitive equity and then the state seeding committee moved the Crusaders up to Division 4 due to their stellar season and overall state ranking which was helped by the strength of Women’s Basketball competition in the HDNL this year. St. Bernard’s overall record for the season is 29-5.

Tickets may be purchased through TicketMaster: https://www.ticketmaster.com/

The game can be live streamed through NFHS: https://accounts.nfhs.org/

On the journey to the state championship game, the SB women were the #1 seed in NorCal in Division 4. They advanced through victories over the West Campus Warriors (55-39), the Lincoln Mustangs (62-53), and the Foothill Cougars (49-42). On Wednesday night local fans were treated to a celebration of local women’s basketball. St. Bernard’s came out on top 60-54 verse the #2 seed Arcata Tigers for the NorCal Championship in front of a sold-out crowd at College of the Redwoods to advance to the state final.

Grossmont High School from the San Diego Section, Division 1, is a school of 2800 students, playing in Division 4 for the state tournament. Their overall record is 27-8. They are the 4th seed from the southern region.

The history-making team is led by junior Laila Florvilus and senior Madelyn Shanahan. Sensational freshman Samantha Sundberg had key baskets in the last two playoff games to help propel the Crusaders to the state championship game. The whole team is playing some of their best basketball of the season heading into tomorrow’s game. Multi-sport coach, Matt Tomlin, has previously led the Crusaders to State Championships in Football and NorCal championships in football, women’s basketball and baseball and now looks forward to the opportunity to compete in the state championship game.

Catherine Scott, SB Co-Principal stated, “St. Bernard’s is grateful for the support of the HDNL. This whole journey has been a celebration of Humboldt basketball that started in New Orleans and is ending in Sacramento. We are proud to represent Northern California at tomorrow’s game.”

Paul Shanahan, SB President, stated, “I am tremendously proud of our student athletes for their record breaking season and I am very proud of our school community for their wonderful support at all of our games. Our Crusader Crazies have been difference makers.”

St. Bernard’s would like to extend their gratitude to Storer Coachways for donating two 54-passenger buses to transport our students to the game.