Highlanders 8th Grade Tournament

Monday night, October 29th, the 8th grade Highlanders volleyball team kicked off their end-of-season tournament with a win against Foothill 25-13, 25-20. They then played host Stanley. Down 24-20 in the first game, they rallied for 6 unanswered points and a 26-24 win. They lost the second game, then had the match of the night. With many lead changes and several long rallies, the Highlanders were not able to score the game point at 14-13. Stanley and Piedmont matched points to 15, then Stanley pulled ahead for a 15-17 win.

The Highlanders play Martinez today at Stanley and a win gets them to the semis on Thursday.

Volleyball Tournaments Saturday and Monday!

Get your purple on!

Our PMS Volleyball tournaments begin this Saturday.


The 8th grade Scots are hosting the 8B tournament at Morrison gym in Piedmont, first match around 9:00am.

The 8th grade Highlanders play Monday at Stanley.

Tuesday Night Lights

Come out this Tuesday, October 23rd and see the 8th grade Scots and Highlanders teams play at Witter Football under the lights.

Monday Night Football - in Piedmont!

8th Grade Highlanders Volleyball Defeats WCI, Stays Undefeated

The Highlanders remained undefeated after a win against Walnut Creek Intermediate on Thursday, Oct 9th. The Highlanders took the first game 25-22 behind excellent play, especially a nice serve run from Sabrina Kim, but dropped the second game 25-16. The girls regrouped and came on strong in the third game. Serving, passing were on the mark and the Highlanders won the deciding game 15-9.

8th Grade Highlanders Football Defeats Stanley

The Highlander 8th grade flag football team avenged their only this loss this season to Stanley. In Tuesday’s rematch the Highlanders shutout Stanley 14-0. The defense was led by Chris Conn who knocked down many pass attempts and made many tackles. Other outstanding players on defense were Cade Becker and Will Jiang who made many stops on defense, and Max Manalo-Leclair who pressured the Stanley quarterback all game.

The offensive line led by Christian Turner, Jacob Watson, and Max ML provided great pass protection as Nick Pacult completed passes of twenty yards to Andrew Meredith, a 15 yard touchdown pass to Quinn Porter, and a point conversion to Meredith. The second touchdown was a 25 yard touchdown pass from Pacult to Meredith. Later in the game Becker  intercepted two passes that sealed the fate for Stanley. The Highlanders record is now 5-1-1.

PMS 7th Grade Flag Football Pounds Lawrence

It took a PMS goof last Wednesday to unlock a PMS offensive floodgate that dominated an extremely athletic Lawrence Middle School team in Berkeley 19-2. On paper LMS was the superior squad: faster, bigger, er, faster, and more talented.  But - as many have said - "that's why they play on grass."  PMS held a cocky but ineffective LMS offense to a 0-0 stalemate until late in the first half,  aided by OK defense but more-so by glaring LMS offensive miscues; dropped passes, penalties galore, and muffed hand-offs. After pinning LMS to their own one yard line, PMS took over on downs. It was very late in the first, the boys had 99 miles to go, and instead of just running out the clock with under-center quarterback keepers, they instead committed a stupendous blunder - miss-firing a deep shotgun snap so badly it barely stayed in the end zone - an instant 2 point Lawrence safety!  A safety being the most ignominious of football errors, PMS then had to kick the ball to LMS who almost ran in for a TD if not for a flag snagging dive by the kicker.  Two plays later and it was half time 0-2 LMS. Whew!

A confident blob of Purple took the field on defense second half.  Realizing the lack of respect LMS had shown by incessantly throwing the bomb first half, the PMS coach astutely adjusted by sagging the secondary deep.  Presto! Interception and a fantastic run-back for a near pick six that was quickly converted two plays later.  More stifling defense; this time with  D-line personnel changes and line backer blitzes that had the LMS quarterback throwing it away sideline and flags dropping well behind the line of scrimmage.  Back on offense - with the shot gun that's work great all year.  Pow! Short passes and great sideline runs leading to another score.  In the end, the PMS safety boondoggle looked like a match to can of gasoline.  Way to go Purple!

Piedmont Defeats Orinda in 7th Grade Volleyball

The 7th grade Piedmont girls volleyball team won their match up when they faced Orinda Intermediate School on October 3rd. They won two straight games in the best of three format (25-12, 25-14).


The first game was led by strong serves and 6 straight points from Ruby Perkins. The second game showed solid returns and defense from Casey Kama, Lian Call, Hayden Stone, Clarke Elliott, Hanna Pajt, Lindy Wakeling, Nicole Shoptaugh and excellent serves and several aces from Maggie Lucas and Nicole Shoptaugh.

PMS Cross Country Team Hosts Meet at Lake Temescal

On September 27, 2012, the PMS cross country team hosted its annual meet for the East Bay League schools at Temescal Regional Park in North Oakland. Over 350 runners from 15 different schools participated in the meet. It was a picture perfect day, not too warm and nicely chilly in the shade.

Piedmont Middle School is still at the leading edge of technology, being the only school in the league using chip timing to record race results. This technology makes use of small plastic "chips" or bands worn on the runner shoe laces and as they cross the finish line their time place is automatically recorded. This means results are available virtually instantaneously with no manual entry required.

Four different races were held during the meet starting with the 6th grade Girls race. Erin Hong did PMS super proud finishing first with a time of 7:43.5, a full 12 seconds faster than the 2^nd place runner. Josephine Gross Whittaker and Naomi Hollinger also finished amazingly with respective times of 8:05.6 and 8:05.8.

The next race was the 6th grade boys. Piedmont had 5 boys finish in the top 12 of this race! They were lead by Lorand Cheng in a time of 7:25.6 for a 5^th place finish.  Henry Cooper, Dylan Thayer, Sam Von Herrmann, and Mitch Curtis rounded out the rest of the top 12 finishers, all coming in faster than 7:47.

The 3rd race of the day was the 7 & 8th grade girls. Leading much of the race, coming in 2^nd place and setting a new PMS 8^th grade girl’s course record in 7:34.7 was Skyler Liu. The two other top 12 finishers from PMS were Leah Kochendoerfer in 8^th place and Minnie Cooper in 11^th place.

The 7 & 8th grade boys race was the largest group, having 132 participants. Blake Gruendl was the top PMS finisher in this race, coming in 8^th place with a time of 6:50.5. He also set a new school course record for 8^th grade boys and broke the old record by almost 20 seconds.  Daniel Jones and Nick Loduca were among the top 20 finishers with times under 7:08. 

Congrats to all who gave it their all and raced. Much thanks to all the volunteers who helped the race go smoothly.

For more information about the team and to review complete results and pictures, go the the team website at: www.pmscc.com

Cross Country September 24 at Golden Gate Fields Racetrack

On September 24, 2012 the Piedmont Middle School cross country team participated in the annual Golden Gate Fields (GGF) meet in Berkeley. About 400 students from 13 different schools participated in this annual East Bay League meet which was hosted by Albany Middle School.

It was a beautiful if breezy day at Golden Gate. The infield was an ideal location to have the first meet for the 6th graders and many of the upper grade participants. The race route is flat and grassy the whole way round, meandering between ponds with fountains.

Four different races were held during the meet, starting with the 6th grade boys race. PMS placed 3 boys in the top 10 finishers of this race. Henry Cooper placed 6th, Dylan Thayer placed 9th, and Mitchell Curtis placed 10th. 

Next went the 6th grade girls. Our PMS girls are the defending League champions – wooo hoot! Erin Hong represented the new girls accordingly, placing 3rd among the 6th grade girls, and Zoe Rickard placed very well at 12th. 

Next was the 7th and 8th grade boys race, where Kyler Mortimer lead the 17 PMS runners in this race, finishing 21st. Ellie Coleman and Ava Podell, represented 7th and 8th grade girls superbly in the last race, finishing 5th and 11th respectively.

The trooper of the day was Mini Cooper, who despite a bit of spill, dusted herself off and finished well. Kudos Mini!

For more information about the team and to review complete results and pictures, go to the team website at: www.pmscc.com