Sports

By JON CHOWN, Special to the Pajaronian PEBBLE BEACH—Swirling winds opened the door for Phil Mickelson to come from behind and claim his sixth title at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, but leader Nick Taylor shut it with a birdie chip on the 15th...

The ‘Catz’s mystique is back, ladies and gentlemen. The Watsonville High boys’ soccer team made history Saturday evening after winning their first-ever NorCal Championship in the program’s history. After the final whistle blew, junior forward Justin Alfaro sat down for a quick minute to soak in...

The Aptos High Mariners have been the cream of the crop in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League all season long. That trend continued at April 25's league championships. Senior Kourosh Safari repeated as the SCCAL singles champ with a grueling 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win over Santa Cruz High’s Jack Tierney, while the Mariners’ duo of Carter Bond and Jake Kluger breezed through Soquel High’s pair of Lincoln Cooley and Casey Valcarcel, 6-1, 6-3, for the doubles title at the Seascape Sports Club.

No. 2 Aptos will play top-seeded Monterey for the Central Coast Section Division III championship at Palo Alto High.

The Seahawks began the season with a 31-7 thumping of Contra Costa College in non-conference play.

Soquel erased a double-digit first half deficit to snap Aptos’ 26-game regular season win streak against Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opponents with a stunning 52-42 upset on Friday night.

Aptos, ranked 35th in the state by maxpreps.com as of Thursday afternoon, isn’t the only team around the area that is determined to accomplish some history this winter.

Over the last nine years as the head coach of the Cabrillo College baseball team, Bob Kittle has had numerous student-athletes from all over Santa Cruz County pour into his program. Just last spring, Kittle had at least one player from all but one public school in the county on his roster. Bringing in the best of the best, and watching the talent and personalities from various backgrounds mesh into a powerhouse representation of the county has been one of his favorite aspects of the job. “Santa Cruz County is unique,” Kittle said in a recent phone interview. “There’s a sense of pride in this county… It’s connected.”

The Seahawks knocked off the defending California Community College Athletic Association champion MiraCosta College, 3-0, on May 10 at West Valley College to become the first team from Northern California to win the state beach volleyball championship.

Third-year Aptos head coach Stefan Hocom was named the SCCAL Coach of the Year. Photo by Tony Nunez