The Dos Pueblos High School varsity sailing team makes its name known to students at DPHS after placing sixth at the 2025 Sea Otter Regatta.
This year, the DPHS varsity sailing team is made up of Leo Korman (12), Porter Murray (12),
Emerson Wadell (10) and Savannah Zollett (9), who all competed in the gold division in Monterey Bay, CA, held Oct. 11-12.
For Zollett, the regatta marked her first competition with the DPHS sailing team and her debut in the gold division.
“I was nervous because it was my first one competing with this school and this team,” Zollett said. “The gold division is a harder competition; there are more advanced sailors. I was pretty happy with how we did—I was not expecting to do that well.”
“It got really windy, so that was a challenge,” Zollett said. “As a smaller sailor, it’s a lot harder to keep the boat flat and controlled in heavier wind.
Additionally, Wadell shared that the unpredictable wind conditions required quick adjustments for the team.
“The wind is a lot shiftier going back and forth in directions, so you’ve got to be able to adapt a lot easier and quicker to those changes,” Wadell said.
Despite the tough conditions of the competition, Wadell said the team stayed confident and focused.
“Going in, I felt really, really good,” Wadell said. “We had been working hard throughout the year to prepare for the beginning of the year. We had been working hard throughout the year to prepare for the beginning of the year … and coming out [sixth] was really a great finish,” Wadell said.
The annual Regatta, organized by The Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association (PCISA) and hosted by The Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club, brought together 24 high school teams from across California for the two-day competition.
“The DP team will have an A and a B division boat, and the A Division team goes out, they sail two
races against about 30 or so other teams and schools,” Kaschak said. “Then they come in, they rotate, and then their B division boat goes out and will sail two races against the other B divisions, then at the end of the weekend, whoever has the lowest score emerges as the winner.”
The team started preparing for competition at the beginning of the school year under the guidance of their coach, Nick Kaschak.
“We actually have a pretty big team. We’ve got about 14 or 15 active members,” said Kaschak. “We are able to send two of those teams, a varsity and a JV team, to all of our local regattas here on the Pacific Coast.”
Kaschak is the head coach and program director of the Santa Barbara Youth Sailing Foundation (SBYSF) and has been coaching the DPHS sailing team for nine years.
Kaschak’s sailing career started when he was five years old, and was inspired by his dad.
“My dad got me into sailing; he is a pretty successful sailboat racer and cruiser, and sailor in his own right,” Kaschak said. “When I was maybe five or six, he took me out on a boat for the first time, and since then, I went through various junior sailing programs. That’s kind of how the journey began.”
Kaschak shared that sailing provides students with an opportunity to pursue a career in professional sports.
“Sailing is not only a high school sport, but it’s also a collegiate sport,” Kaschak said. “You can get recruited to sail in college, and it’s also an Olympic sport.”
While the team is “proud of their placement,” the sailors said they are making improvements for their next season.
“Places to improve on, probably working on our start,” Wadell said. “That was probably the weakest part of our race.”
The DPHS sailing is open to all students interested in participating. Sailors with or without previous experience are welcome to reach out to Kaschak at [email protected]. Practices are held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Santa Barbara Harbor.
