Aptos High School Athletics Looks to Continue Recent Success
By Michael Oppenheimer
The second decade of the 21st Century has seen the Aptos High School sports teams making their mark on the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League and with the 2013-14 school year just around the corner, Mariners Athletics has a reputation to maintain.
“Every one of our programs will be in the thick of the SCCAL title hunt this fall,” athletic director Mark Dorfman said. “We have great athletes and strong coaches in every program. That combination is a good breeding ground for success.”
Success is a word that Aptos is getting used to using. Last year alone, the Mariners won SCCAL titles in Boys and Girls Cross Country, Girls Tennis and Football, with both the varsity Tennis and Football teams defending back-to-back titles.
“The players have a target on their back this year,” said Randy Blankenship, Aptos’ varsity football head coach. “The other teams are not happy seeing them keep winning.”
Said Tennis coach Linda Hitchcock: “We have eight returning players from last year’s league championship team. We are ready.”
Dorfman is also expecting the girls volleyball team to have a strong season.
“We had four starting freshmen on last year’s squad, and they’re all back for more,” he said. “No question Shannon Cotton (graduated) is a big loss and we play in a strong league, but we’ll be in the hunt with everyone else.”
The Mariners’ continue a tradition of strong running teams, competing annually in both Cross Country and Track and Field with San Lorenzo Valley and Scotts Valley, who also have strong running traditions.
“The meat of our teams are all back this year,” Dorfman said. “The Girls are coming off a [Central Coast Section] championship and I know both teams will be fighting for another title.”
With young teams in Girls Golf and Boys and Girls Water Polo (and a need for a few more golfers), Dorfman knows those teams will have to come together fast, but he has high hopes for them as well.
“We have a lot of young, hard-working kids on these teams,” he said. “We compete in a top-tier league and we have great coaches and a great program. We’ll be competitive all season long.”
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Football
Aptos football is performing exceptionally well in league under Blankenship’s leadership. Since he took over in 2010, the Mariners have put together a 17-1 record in SCCAL play, going 5-1 in his first year and earning the league title with back-to-back undefeated seasons since.
Blankenship is looking forward to continuing the current level of success. In fact, he’s expecting even more from his already-strong team.
“We’ve had a tremendous offseason,” Blankenship said. “We’re bigger, faster and stronger than we were last year. These kids have been working hard.
According to Blankenship, the key to his team is the strength of his offensive line and his abundance of hard-working running backs, and he has a hard time singling any one of them out.
“I think we’ll have the best O-line in the league” Blankenship said. “These seniors all have worked together in the past and are going to be more-than ready for the coming season.”
The line is anchored by 2-time all-league starting center Alex Marquez. He is flanked by Joe Demera, Aptos’ strongest and biggest player, a 305-lb Lineman who just ran the full Wharf to Wharf race, and Vine Porporato, who Blankenship is predicting will be the league’s top lineman this year. On the outside is Zack Black, a second-year starter, and Ethan Clarke, another strong lineman with experience.
These five young men will be blocking for the Wing-T offence, which features up to four running backs at a time, lead by senior Eli Ungerecht and featuring 11-13 other running backs on any given day.
“All of my running backs are working hard,” Blankenship said. “Competition is the key to success: If they’re not working hard they’re not going to play, and they’re all working hard.”
On Defense, Linebackers Dante Gomez and Austin Verdugo are a couple of juniors that Blankenship expects to help control the middle of the field.
“Those guys are a couple of thumpers,” he said. “They will be the best set of linebackers since I’ve been here, and we’ve had some good ones.”
“And what’s fun is they’re both only juniors,” Blankenship added.
Girls Tennis
Hitchcock’s returning players include junior singles stars Teagan Knight, Kelly McMinn and Sanika Kshirsagar. Seniors Jamie Ferrell, Melissa Tao and Julia Fuller, along with sophomores Ella Armerich and Maddy Miller round out the returning starters.
Water Polo
Boys coach Jasper Billings has high hopes for the team aftera disappointing 2012.
“We finished sixth in our 7-team league,” he said. “This year our goal is to finish in the top three and qualify for the post-season tournaments.”
With five returning seniors and three strong sophomore scorers, Billings is expecting a good season.
For the girls team, coach Tim Outtrim is looking for his players to improve on their third-place finish in 2012, which starts with an intense off-season working.
“This week was the team’s ‘Hell Week’,” he said. “This means being at the pool at 5:30 in the morning, then back again at 5 p.m.”
After graduating nine seniors from last year’s team, Outtrim has only five returning varsity players, but his pick of new players from the JV team, which captured the league title last year and has many players ready to move up.
“Players to watch out for in 2013 include [goalie] McKenzie Phelps and starters Trinity Sieraski, Kylie Krbek and Autumn Knapp.
For more information about the Aptos Mariners’ sports teams and schedules, visit www.aptosathletics.org
TPG editor Noel Smith contributed to this story.