Sports

The Mariners were pumping their fists, dishing out hugs and taking photos with their outright Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship banner after downing Soquel, 63-54, in the league tournament final on Feb. 17.

After two long weeks of losing, the Cabrillo College baseball team finally found the winning formula again.

The Aptos High boys’ volleyball team completed its Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League season with a 12-25, 25-23, 25-23, 26-24 win over Pacific Collegiate School in the league tournament championship match at Harbor High on Friday night.

Grieves, a 2009 Aptos graduate, has been hired as the new girls basketball coach, he confirmed with this newspaper on Monday evening. Grieves spent the last three seasons with the school’s boys junior varsity team, and is well acquainted with the talent-rich squad he will inherit for the upcoming 2018-19 winter season. His junior varsity team often scrimmaged with the girls varsity team over the years, and his family is ingrained in the Aptos youth basketball scene.

The Mariners were also hoping the Toreadores would take their foot off the pedal a bit after. That wasn’t the case either.

Sophomore shortstop Shea Garcia capped a 10-run explosion with a monster grand slam over the centerfield fence, and Aptos High cruised to a 10-6 victory over San Lorenzo Valley High on Friday to clinch its first Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League title since 2011. “It took us some time,” said Aptos head coach Phil Rojas, “but it’s rewarding now.” Early on, it looked like the Mariners (13-9, 11-1) would have to wait until next season to end their league title drought.

Alex Austen, a senior offensive lineman for the Aptos High football team, stands at a towering 6-foot-5-inches and 311 pounds. Standing next to his fellow lineman, the starting left tackle makes them all look like members of the freshman squad. Six-foot-2, 283-pound senior tackle Joseph Gutierrez-Lee might as well be 5-foot-7 and 150 pounds.

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.

Despite having one of the best female ballers in the state, sophomore point guard Heleyna Hill, on the roster, the Cabrillo College women’s basketball team has demonstrated that it is not invincible.

Aptos edged the Capitola-Soquel, 5-4, on Saturday at Scotts Valley to finish up its undefeated run to the District 39 Little League All-Stars Majors championship.