Sports

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...

The Aptos Mariners — battered and bruised by the end of the night — did their best Rocky Balboa impression, swinging away at the “big piece of meat” over and over again, but there was no fairy tale ending for the group of scrappy underdogs.

Stephen Curry, Quinn Cook and DeMarcus Cousins brought the rain with them. With that trio of Golden State Warriors watching courtside, the Santa Cruz Warriors put on a shooting clinic to cruise to a 123-104 victory over the Stockton Kings in their home opener Wednesday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

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.

Aptos High was ousted from the Central Coast Section baseball playoffs in heartbreaking fashion following a walk-off 7-6 loss in nine innings to top seed Menlo School in the Division III semifinals at Santa Clara University on May 26. James Riley, a freshman, finished with...

The Aptos High boys’ soccer team went on an unprecedented postseason run during the 2025-26 winter season. It began with bringing home the program’s first-ever Central Coast Section title, an accomplishment no other team has been close to doing in nearly 25 years. They sailed even...

The Mariners, who return nine seniors on a team of 14, still pride themselves on passing — they set a season goal of passing a 2.0 — and they’re not afraid to hit the deck for digs. Hewitt leads a scrappy group of back row players that have set the tone early in the season. Sophomore Cam Dueck and freshman Peyton Dueck have both spent time at libero and will be called upon to continuously keep the team in games while the offense comes along.

Aptos High senior Ella Boyes finished with a pair of top-five finishes during the finals of the Central Coast Section Track and Field Championships at Gilroy High on May 23. But perhaps none was more meaningful to her than the performance she put on to...

• Last year’s record: 7-4 (Central Coast Section Open Division III qualifier) • Last year’s league record: 6-1 (Monterey Bay League Gabilan division runner-up) • Last year’s MaxPreps state ranking: 226th • Coach: Randy Blankenship • Key losses: Blake Wheeler;

SALINAS—As the gusty Salinas Valley winds began to pick up, so did the howls from Lobos fans sitting in the stands, cheering for their Monterey Peninsula College football team as it got into victory formation to close out the season.  The Lobos defeated Cabrillo College,...