APTOS — Pauli Pappas, Cabrillo College’s star forward who led the program to its first conference crown since 1979, was recently named the co-Most Valuable Player of the Coast Conference South division, the coaches announced.
Pappas said she received word of the honor a day after Cabrillo’s final conference game of the season, and that all she received for the award was a T-shirt.
Pappas said the memories of the magical season, paired with the shirt, were more than enough.
“I didn’t really intend to get M.V.P. but it was definitely a good feeling,” Pappas said. “I couldn’t have done it without my teammates and my coach.”
Cabrillo third-year head coach John Wilson earned Coach of the Year honors for guiding the Seahawks to a share of the CC-South division championship with Foothill College, their first postseason appearance since the 1999-2000 season and a 20-5 overall record.
Sophomore point guard Lauren Lacey and sophomore wing Grace Giguiere landed spots on the CC-South division First Team.
It was just three years ago that Wilson took over a Cabrillo program that was forced to fold because of low numbers.
Wilson, a Coach of the Year honoree and Central Coast Section champion during his nearly two-decade stint at Soquel High, said the awards were a nice step in the right direction for the budding program.
“Given where we started, winning coach of the year is satisfying for me but it doesn’t mean as much as seeing Pauli get M.V.P. and Grace and Lauren getting first team,” Wilson said. “They made history… It’ll be fun for them to look back in a few years and see that they started something special.”
Pappas led the team in points (19.8), rebounds (9.6) and steals (1.6) per game, while shooting an efficient 54.8 percent from the field.
She was also named to the CCCAA All-State Second Team.
Giguiere, a sharpshooting wing from Scotts Valley, was second on the team in points (14.8) and rebounds (9.4).
Lacey, a pass-first point guard from Los Gatos, paced the team in assists (8.7), was second in steals (1.5) and fourth in points (10.6).
Together, the trio helped Cabrillo breeze through the first round of conference play on a 12-game winning streak that lasted more than a month.
A pair of losses at the tail end of their season led the Seahawks to a 10-2 finish in conference.
“It was a special season with a special group of players,” Wilson said. “Nobody expected us to do this. Well, [the players] did, but nobody outside of the team expected 20 wins or a conference title.”
With Giguiere and Lacey returning from last season, and a handful of impactful freshman joining the team, Cabrillo felt good about its chances of being competitive in conference action this season.
Wilson was also working hard to recruit Pappas, his niece, to come out of “retirement” to play.
Wilson had the entire family egging on Pappas, a standout basketball player at Santa Cruz High before graduating in 2012, to give it a chance.
A graduate of San Diego State in the midst of applying to physical therapy doctorate programs around the country, Pappas was reluctant to return to the court at first. But when Wilson’s father, Bobbie, died in April of last year, Pappas finally agreed to lace up the sneakers once again.
“I wanted to do it for my grandma and for my uncle,” Pappas said. “I wanted to make them happy.”
Slowly but surely, the rust started to fall away. An all-league selection and CCS champion while at Santa Cruz, Pappas’ on-court IQ shone through early on, and her shot returned near the end of the Seahawks’ preseason slate. Her strong play only continued during conference action.
“She got better and better as the year went on,” Wilson said. “She sees the court really well… That was her strength when she played in high school, and now that she’s more mature, the game really slowed down for her.”
Pappas shared the conference M.V.P. honor with Foothill’s Ashleen Quirke, who is set to play NCAA Division I hoops at Pepperdine next season.
Pappas said she would not return to Cabrillo next season, and doesn’t have plans to play basketball at a four-year college.
She hopes to be accepted into a doctorate program to continue her education.
“This season was nothing but fun,” she said. “I fell in love with basketball again.”
