High School Sports

Aptos High girls soccer head coach Gina Castañeda was competing as she usually does in the annual Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley softball tournament in late August to help raise funds for youth non profits. Everything was fine until she was accidentally punched in...

St. Francis High graduate Aaliysah Gomez had an incident when she was 2 that had doctors saying she would be blind and never able to see out of one eye. Years later, she managed to overcome that obstacle and never let her foot off the...

Aptos High School won a bid to host a Central Coast Section Division III girls basketball semifinals game no matter which teams were going to be competing that evening. It so happened the No. 3 Mariners earned a spot as the “visitors” at their home...

WATSONVILLE—Monte Vista Christian girls’ lacrosse team was off to its best start in the program’s short history by winning seven straight games to start the season. But the Mustangs hit a minor bump on the road following a 17-8 loss to Scotts Valley High in...

The Soquel High School football team paraded onto their home field Wednesday, sandwiched between the school’s band percussion team and the varsity cheerleaders in a special proclamation ceremony after becoming the first football team in Santa Cruz County to win a California Interscholastic Federation...

This week’s edition of the Pajaronian Sports Ticker highlights local prep athletes for their performances during the week of March 20-26.  Coaches and athletic directors are encouraged to submit scores and stats to [email protected]. Follow sports editor Juan Reyes on Twitter @jmreyes831 for scores and...

Aptos High senior Jewels “Sparky” Chavez was a huge difference maker this season for the Mariners softball team and she became what head coach Phil Rojas called the best leadoff hitter during his tenure with the program. “I nicknamed her (Sparky) because of how she...

Going into last week’s league-opener, the focal point for Watsonville junior lineman Luis Marquez was to contain Monte Vista Christian’s passing attack.  It was the same attack that saw Mustangs quarterback Dominic Pierini set Santa Cruz County records against the Wildcatz in last season’s meeting.  On...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley High sophomore Kristof Garcia is one of the youngest players on the Grizzlies boys’ soccer team roster this season.  However, the standout midfielder is slowly developing into one of the best on the pitch, especially the way he’s been playing as of late.   Garcia...

Monte Vista Christian junior Dominic Pierini and his teammates were eager to get back on the football field for their first official day of practice on Aug. 4. So much so, they were already on the field just as the clock struck midnight and wasted...