When Pleasanton's Scott Kienhofer passed in 2018 from cancer, it delivered a gut punch to Tri-Valley residents.
Scott was a senior at Foothill when he died and had played two years of baseball for Foothill. He attended both Lydiksen Elementary and Hart Middle schools.
A loss of a wonderful young man well before his time.
But if you know the Kienhofer family, they were going to bring something beautiful out of the tragedy of Scottie's passing. And that's exactly what the family has done.
On May 1, 2021, Scottie's Gift Foundation was launched, bringing Scott's vision of delivering gift baskets to newly diagnosed pediatric cancer patients to life, starting with the UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital in Oakland.
To date over 80 gift baskets have been delivered, with the goal to expand to Children's Hospital in San Francisco. Ultimately the family would like to expand to include Stanford and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia -- including all four hospitals that were involved in Scott's treatment plan during his battle with cancer.
To help raise money for the foundation, the family has announced the first "Scottie's Scramble": to be held at the Pleasanton Golf Center on Friday, May 12.
There are options to play or support Scottie's Scramble:
* Get a foursome together.
* Join as a single and the family will mingle you into a foursome.
* If you can't play golf but want to participate in the day, you can join for the post-golf drinks and dinner.
* Become a Scottie's Scramble Sponsor -- there are several options to choose from.
* Can't make it, but still want to send your support? Please donate today!
To register, sponsor or donate go to birdease.com/scottiesscramble.
Boys' volleyball
The Falcons kept rolling, knocking off Livermore and De La Salle in East Bay Athletic League play, then winning the Silver Division of the Stockton Classic tournament over the weekend.
Foothill came through with a 25-12, 25-15, 25-21 win over Livermore. The highlights came from Casey Collins (11 service points, 6 kills, 6 digs), Yun Bae (13 assists, 2 aces) and Cameron Hitchan (5 kills, 1 block).
Next up was De La Salle, and the Falcons pulled out the big 23-25, 25-17, 27-25, 25-23 thriller. Great play came from Landen Meonske (31 assists, 9 kills, 9 digs), Zach Seraj (18 digs, 10 kills, 10 service pts), and Tyler Keala (15 kills, 8 digs).
Saturday brought the Stockton Classic where the Falcons went 3-1 to win the Silver Division.
The lone loss came to Ripon Christian, the eventual Gold Division champion.
The wins came against Pleasant Grove (2-0), St. Mary's-Stockton (2-0) and Antelope (2-1).
Highlights throughout the tournament came from Meonske (64 assists, 20 service points, 11 aces, 11 kills), Noah Mitzenmacher (35 service receptions, 17 digs), Jack Caudill (14 kills, 4 aces) and Kayan Vohra (12 kills, 4 blocks).
Meanwhile, the crosstown Dons kept pace with Foothill by picking up a pair of wins over Monte Vista and Granada last week.
In the Monte Vista game, the Dons were led by Nick Nayak (9 kills), Max Riter (7 kills, 7 digs) and Bryce Nohava (14 service points, 2 aces).
Against the Matadors, the Dons got great play from Colin Bowers who had 29 assists while pitching in for six blocks on defense. Other standout performances included Riter (10 kills, 15 digs), Parker Brookhart (17 digs from libero), Luke Melvin (16 kills), Ryan Yu (13 service points, 7 blocks), Jackson Mello (7 service points) and Spencer Thiel (7 blocks).
Boys' tennis
The Falcons traveled down to Fresno and won the Fresno based California Tennis Classic by winning all five of their matches. The Falcons beat Pleasant Valley (5-1), Clovis West (4-2), Del Oro (6-3), Central Valley Christian (6-0) and Bullard (6-0).
The senior-laden team then came and beat De La Salle 9-0 to open EBAL play.
Across town for Amador, the Dons ran into a strong Cal High team and dropped a 7-2 match to the Grizzlies last week.
The two matches the Dons won came at the No. 2 singles where Minsung Kim defeated Jerry Xu 6-1, 6-1, and then at the No. 3 doubles where the team of Aidan Doan/Abhiraj Jalagekar beat the Cal team of Satvik Malloy/Vishesh Verma by the score of 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 (tiebreaker).
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