Grizzlies on hunt for Santa Lucia Division title | PCAL football

PV on track to compete in new system under first-year coach Ray Myers

August 24, 2026

PAJ2635 PV football 2026 preview - WEB-1 — Pajaro Valley High Adrian Gonzalez, No. 34, is the first one to tackle his teammate Nick Martinez in a light scrimmage during practice on Aug. 20. The Grizzlies will host Gunn High on Aug. 29 at 12:30pm. (Juan Reyes/The Pajaronian)

Pajaro Valley is heading into the 2026 fall campaign coming off its first winning season in the program’s history.

They were runner-up in the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Santa Lucia Division with a 5-1 record in league play, while finishing with a 6-4 overall record in 2025.

Despite a new coaching and system change, Grizzly senior Joaquin Hidalgo is forecasting for another successful run this year.

“I feel like our expectations are still high this year, and we hope to, like my coach said, keep this trend rolling and hope for success this season,” he said.

At the helm is first-year PV head coach Ray Myers, who introduced a double wing offense to his players that seem to be catching on at a high rate of speed.

“They’re picking up on things very quickly,” Myers said. “They’re being very coachable with it, too, which is awesome.”

Hidalgo said it’s been a great experience having Myers and his dad Ron Myers—a longtime coach in Santa Cruz County—because they get a different point of view after three years under the same scheme.

“My philosophy in life is to look at different points of views to understand everything on a wider basis,” Hidalgo said. “Being under this more old-school system has been pretty good. Learning new things, learning how they used to do things back then.”

Myers preaches to the players every day that football is all about details, whether it’s being on time to practice or riding together on the bus as a team.

“Their game is won and lost in details, and if you can win in the details every single day, then I’ll prepare you to win for the details on game day,” he said.

Hidalgo mentioned that practices have been fast-paced, yet organized in what he referred to as a “very beautiful system” that features a deep running backs corps with him, Nick Martinez and Adrian Valadez in the backfield.

“It kind of is made for us,” he said. “Demographically, not being super tall, super fast, that offense works perfect for us. It caters to our abilities and what we can do as football players.”

Leading the charge in the trenches is senior lineman Markus Flores, while Uriel Murillo will serve as a double threat at the tight end position.

Flores is excited to block in the double wing formation because they’re capable of building a wall for their running backs. Plus, it’s a form of smash-mouth football that gets him pumped up just thinking about it.

“You’re looking out there to block somebody,” he said. “Once you find somebody, you just make sure that you do your assignment, get that touchdown or any of those yards for our running backs, and lead us to victory.”

Flores added that having a large amount of returning players is a big help getting everyone on the same page.

“It’s gonna be fun,” he said.

Landin Manzi, a junior, will return as the starting quarterback but the Grizzlies have back-up Ethan Andrade and Sebastian Vazquez as a third option.

“It’s always great to have options,” Myers said. “You want to get your best 11 on the field, so it definitely gives us options to get our best 11 on the field.”

PV will line up in a 3-4 defense to give the linebackers more freedom of either rushing the quarterback or dropping back into coverage.

“We have good containment, and we have a very decent run stopping [defense],” Flores said. “Once we do our job, just hold our gaps, our linebackers, we have the trust in them.”

Newcomers to the team include a pair of big linemen in Chris Gonzalez at 6-foot-2, 280 pounds, and Manuel Martinez. Others to look for are running back/linebacker Noel Rincon, running back/defensive back Waldo Ayon and tight end/linebacker Bruno Cruz.

Myers said he was impressed with the new group during last week’s scrimmage against Rancho San Juan and King City at Alisal High on Aug. 21.

“For some of those guys, it was their first-ever time playing varsity football, and you wouldn’t have noticed it by the film,” he said. “They did not look like a JV player. They looked like they were playing varsity football right from the first snap.”

Hidalgo is looking forward to having his best season yet, but he also wants to enjoy his final year as a senior captain donning PV’s school colors of hunter green, black and silver.

Hidalgo and his teammates have an extra incentive to push themselves even harder for this season.

The Central Coast Section announced during its annual board meeting in April that no “A” league teams will be permitted to compete in Division V bracket, which is where PV would end up if it can clinch a postseason berth.

“Last year we were trying to make a playoff push and just barely didn’t make it,” Hidalgo said. “But if that division was there for us, we would have made it, and I feel like we would have made some sort of run. Having it this year is a huge opportunity for us to be able to go do something bigger than we’ve ever done here before.”

PV will kick off its regular season at the Grizzly Den against Gunn High in non league play on Saturday at 12:30pm.

Then they have a pair of non-league games on the road starting at Evergreen Valley on Sept. 4 at 7pm, followed by Independence on Sept. 11 at 7pm.

The Grizzlies begin PCAL Santa Lucia Division play at Santa Cruz on Sept. 19 at 6pm. The rest of the division includes Gonzales, Greenfield, Harbor, Marina, Rancho San Juan and Seaside.

“There’s a lot of really good teams and a lot of really good coaches that coach up their teams well,” Myers said. “It’s just gonna be fun to see what happens within that division.”