Sports

he Aptos High baseball team continues to stay on pace at making another postseason run into the Central Coast Section playoffs.

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.

It was a special, and historical, Wednesday night for four local high school soccer teams that kept their Central Coast Section postseason runs alive for at least one more weekend. The Watsonville boys’ group is returning to the section finals for the first time since...

APTOS—The high school football season unofficially kicked off this past weekend with the Santa Cruz County Jamboree at Cabrillo College. St. Francis, Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high schools along with four other schools within the county scrimmaged for the first time this season at...

REDWOOD CITY–The Aptos High girls’ basketball team has relied on its defense throughout the season.  That approach helped the Mariners bully the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League en route to regular season and tournament titles.  It helped them get the Central Coast Section championship game for...

Marea Zlatunich could have had a very different high school experience. Now a league, section and state champion runner for the Aptos High Mariners, Zlatunich didn’t show up to the first day of cross country practice during her freshman year. “I honestly didn’t want to do cross country,” Zlatunich said. “I did it as an eighth grader and I wanted to quit after the first day, but my family didn’t let me.” But when her friend, Annika Niles, begged her to come out for the second day of practice because “she didn’t have any friends on the team,” Zlatunich reluctantly obliged. It turned out to be one of the best decisions of her young life.

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 Aptos High boys’ basketball team turned on the afterburners before the start of Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League play last season and soared to a share of the league championship.  The Mariners shared the SCCAL title with Santa Cruz High by beating the Cardinals...

Top-seeded Aptos won its second Central Coast Section Division III crown in the last three years, and the Mariners made it look easy with a 58-37 redemption win over No. 2 South San Francisco on Feb. 23 at Palo Alto High.

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.