The term “Redwood Empire” has been used to describe different areas in California.
In terms of what I have covered for the past 30 odd years it has meant the track and cross country leagues of the North Bay League, Sonoma County League and the Coastal Mountain Conference.
Beginning in the 2018/19 season schools from those leagues were realigned and those schools, plus some new and old members, are now in the North Bay League (Oak, Redwood divisions), Vine Valley Athletic League and the Coastal Mountain Conference.
They cover four of California’s 58 counties. Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake and Napa. These are all north of San Francisco.
We cover a very large area, about the size of the states of Connecticut and Delaware combined, but have a very small population, less than the city of San Francisco.
Here are the county breakdowns.
Counties square 2012
miles populations
Sonoma 1,768 490,596
Mendocino 3,878 87,373
Lake 1,329 63,965
Napa 789 138,916
Total 7,764 780,850
In comparison San Francisco
3,524 827,420
States of
Connecticut 5,543 3,588,000
Delaware 2,489 962,000
combined 8,032
Redwood Empire Leagues and school sizes
Based on 2017-18 enrollment – grades 9-12
North Bay League History
1990 Santa Rosa HS
1753 Windsor HS
1727 Montgomery HS
1706 Ukiah HS
1612 Maria Carrillo HS
1489 Rancho Cotate HS
1345 Piner HS
1145 Analy HS
1043 Elsie Allen HS
619 Cardinal Newman HS
596 El Molino HS
586 Healdsburg HS
Vine Valley Athletic League More details
2148 Vintage HS
2104 Napa HS
1741 Casa Grande HS
1609 American Canyon HS
1352 Petaluma HS
1322 Sonoma Valley HS
575 Justin Siena HS
Coastal Mountain Conference
Made up of 27 schools with largest listed below.
801 Lower Lake
532 Kelseyville
530 Fort Bragg
477 Middletown
465 St. Helena
458 Roseland Univ. Prep
428 Willits
398 Clear Lake
397 Cloverdale
329 Technology
308 Sonoma Academy
305 Upper Lake
plus 15 smaller schools
You can contact Jim Crowhurst/Web Page Editor
at jimcrowhurst@comcast.net