Best of PHS athletes take next step in sports, education

Petaluma High athletic acholarship recipients honored at a reception.|

The best of Petaluma High School’s senior athletes celebrated their accomplishments while looking toward their future in a reception at the school.

Five Petaluma High seniors were honored by school officials, parents and friends for receiving athletic scholarships to attend colleges that stretch from coast to coast.

Honored were soccer players Marco Silveira, Ethan Waters and Raleigh Berry; volleyball player Juliana Bertolucci; and softball player Alexis Silinonte.

Silveira and Waters are headed to Humboldt State University, hoping to help with rebuilding a youthful program. They were key players on a Petaluma High team that won the first North Coast Section championship in the school’s history as juniors.

This year, led by the seniors, Petaluma, playing in a more challenging winter season, went 10-7 and 7-5 in Sonoma County League play.

Petaluma soccer coach Greg Lumansky said that before Silveira and Waters arrived, the Trojan soccer program was struggling.

“They came in as freshmen and we made the playoffs their first year,” Lumansky said. “In their senior year we won NCS for the first time ever.”

Ethan Waters

Both players said their decision was pretty much made once they visited the Humboldt campus.

“I love the area,” said Waters. “When I visited I knew it was right. It is beautiful and there are a lot of things to do.”

He is looking forward to helping revive the Humboldt soccer program.

“It will be exciting to be part of the rebuilding,” he said. “They had a lot of good freshmen this year, and we should be pretty good next year.”

He said another attraction for Humboldt was Silveira’s decision to also attend the Northern California university and the presence of other Casa graduates there.

“There will be some people I know,” he pointed out. “That will help a lot.”

He said he leaves Petaluma with many good memories.

“It has been a great time for me here,” he says. “There have been a lot of great coaches and a lot of great people who have helped me. I am definitely going to miss it.”

Waters is the son of Ian and Renee Waters and has two younger brothers.

Marco Silveira

Waters’ fellow Petaluma soccer leader Silveira will join him at Humboldt. For Silveira, it came down to a choice between Humboldt and Sonoma State. He says the chance to play away from home at a school where he knows some students who are already there made the difference in his decision.

“Sonoma State is just a little too close,” he explained. “I would like to get out on my own.”

For Silveira, soccer has been a way to acclimate to U.S. culture.

“I came here from Brazil as a freshman and didn’t now anyone,” he explains. “Playing soccer made it easier for me. I’ve made a lot of solid friends through soccer.”

He starts college with an undeclared major, but is “leaning toward going into business.”

His mother, Maria Maneolini, is from Argentina, but now lives here. His father, Romano, still lives in Brazil.

Raleigh Berry

Berry is heading in the opposite direction from his soccer-playing teammates. He will play and study next year at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.

“It is a pretty small school,” he noted. “The coach and the people I met were all super friendly. It looked to me to be a really attractive place to be. I’m looking forward to a new experiences.”

Berry will study kinesiology, and he plans to become a physical therapist.

Knox is a Division 3 school and cannot offer athletic scholarships, but Berry received an academic scholarship.

He attended Petaluma High for three years after transferring from St. Vincent.

“I’ve definitely enjoyed it here. It has been a fun experience,” he says.

Unlike his soccer teammates, Berry is taking a big stride away from home. “I’m definitely nervous about getting away from home, but I’m also excited,” he says.

Berry is the son of Sharon Kirk and Robert Berry.

Juliana Bertolucci

Bertolucci was an outstanding player and team leader on a Petaluma volleyball team that went 15-9 and finished second in the Sonoma County League. She, too, is headed for Humboldt State.

To say she is excited would be an understatement.

“It is an excellent place,” she says. “It is going to be so awesome.

“It is far enough away I can be own my own, but close enough to come home on the weekends.”

In addition to being excited about playing volleyball, Bertolucci is anxious to get started with her study of forensic science as she pursues her goal of becoming a crime scene investigator.

She said having several people she knows, including her best friend, already at Humboldt, makes her college choice even better.

It is also nice that her older brother lives in Oregon only about two hours drive from the Humboldt campus.

Bertolucci is the daughter of Lesha and Bill Bertolucci.

Bertolucci’s Petaluma teammate, Sianna Decarli, has agreed to play at Western Oregon in Monmouth. She was not able to attend the reception.

Alexis Silinonte

Silinonte is on her way to play Division 1 softball for Rutgers University in New Jersey. It is a dream come true, but it almost didn’t happen.

By the time a Rutgers assistant coach saw her go 4-for-4 with three doubles in a tournament game for her Surf City travel club, the university’s recruiting class had closed, and the Petaluman couldn’t even make an official visit.

When a spot opened up, the original assistant coach was pregnant and Silinonte had to be evaluated all over again. The report was the same - Rutgers softball coaches wanted her to play for them.

Did she want to play there?

“It’s a dream come true,” she answers. “I’m originally from New York, so it is close to where I grew up. It’s D1 so I’ll be able to pay big-time softball, just like some of the other Petaluma girls like Joelle Krist.”

Silinonte said he hopes to play as a freshman.

“I have a shot,” she says. “I’ll have to work really hard, but I don’t want to waste a year of my opportunity.”

She plans to major in political science at Rutgers with hopes of someday going into military service, and becoming a member of the JAG Corps.

She says she has learned a lot while at Petaluma High. “I’ve loved playing here,” she says. “I’ve learned a lot about life, softball and about teammwork.”

Silinonte is the daughter of Joe and Stephanie Silinonte.

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