Sports

After a disappointing campaign in 2017, there is a palpable excitement heading into the first season of the Rodriguez era. The tempo has been upped, and the player-to-player accountability has been restored. A repeat of last year’s 4-6 record, which was the program’s first losing season since 2013, won’t be acceptable for the players.

The reigning Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League M.V.P. will be back for her fourth and final varsity campaign with an uber-talented Aptos High girls basketball team this winter.

Senior pitcher Dylan Vargas took the loss for Watsonville, which is 2-13 on the year and will make the long trip to Soledad for the second game of the two-game series today at 4 p.m.

Watsonville senior Adan Magaña had never lost to longtime rival Pajaro Valley prior to last week’s anticipated meeting between both teams. The standout linebacker made sure it would stay that way.  Magaña was a menace on the field for a defensive unit that played lights-out, including...

With energy to spare and a couple of bounces here and there, No. 2 Mt. Madonna swept the No. 3-seeded St. Francis High Sharks 25-19, 25-22, 25-21 to advance to Friday’s Central Coast Section Division V championship game back at Watsonville High.

Paloma Ramirez had 16 points and seven rebounds, Mackenzie Tellez added 13 points, eight rebounds and five steals and Monte Vista Christian completed its dominant showing in the Don & Martha Price Christmas Classic with a 74-41 win over Valley Christian-Roseville in the tournament final on Saturday in Watsonville.

She took sixth in the Division III race by completing the 5,000-meter Woodward Park course in Fresno with a time of 18 minutes, 23.7 seconds.