St. Joseph High School senior CJ Cole has a lot to look forward to. Over the summer, Cole and his friend and longtime football and track teammate, Fenton Will, received offers to join the football program at Cal Poly in 2017. “We got offers on the same day in late June,” the all-league wide receiver […]
PETER JOHNSON
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More to run for: For Santa Maria High’s cross country team, this season means more than finishing first
“You’re better than you think you are!” Cesar Diaz, a junior at Santa Maria High School, vividly remembers those words being said to him. He would hear them during the most trying moments of his first season running cross country—when one more mile felt impossible, when Diaz felt like quitting the sport entirely. It was […]
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Brooke Cuzick
The Nipomo High School girls’ golf team appeared to be primed for a climactic, successful 2016 fall season—until an unexpected crisis hit. “We had eight returning players. We were going to be strong,” Jim Delaby, head coach of the team, said. “Then, we lost half of them. Three girls moved out of the area. We […]
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Kickin’ it off: The Sun brings you a preview of Santa Maria area high school athletics for Fall 2016
Rejoice! The doldrums of summer are over. A new school year is upon us. And you know what that means: sports, sports, and more sports! The fall is shaping up to be another exciting and competitive season for the local high schools, and the Sun is here to make sense of it all—beginning with this […]
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Making us proud: With the community watching, Santa Maria area stars Josh Prenot and Carlos Balderas shine at Rio Olympics
Josh Prenot and Carlos Balderas could have been just happy to be there. Qualifying for their first Olympic teams ever, Prenot, a swimmer, and Balderas, a boxer, have already solidified themselves as Santa Maria Valley greats and world-class athletes, regardless of how they fared in the Rio 2016 Olympics this month. But these two young […]
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Erika Robles
The fall cross-country season hasn’t kicked off just yet, but don’t bother telling Righetti High School senior Erika Robles that. To Robles, and many of her Warrior teammates, the cross-country season began months ago with regular summer team training sessions at Orcutt Community Park. “We had a running log,” Robles explained. “We gathered each morning […]
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Keeping history alive: Former Santa Maria Indians players to share their stories at Valley Speaks on Aug. 13
Rodger Brown, 78, still remembers the signs. Sitting across from me at the Santa Maria Historical Society Museum, Brown re-enacts them with his hands, just like his third-base coach did to him 60 years ago. Brown shows bunt. Then he shows steal. He goes through the signs without hesitation, like they are engrained in his […]
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Blake Truhitte
It’s hard to pick favorites from this summer’s Santa Maria Babe Ruth U15 squad. Santa Maria won a state championship and fell one game short of qualifying for the National Babe Ruth World Series on July 27. Along the way, they proved to be a true team by getting key contributions from multiple players. But […]
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Creating space: A community effort is underway to bring more playing fields to Santa Maria
When the One Community Action Coalition formed last September following a spree of homicides in Santa Maria, group leaders were open to any and all ideas that could bring more support to at-risk youth in the community. During one of the coalition’s meetings in April, a group of local soccer club members showed up to […]
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CARSON SILVA
Carson Silva has a secret go-to maneuver in water polo that’s been working like a charm for him lately. The move is pretty simple: Be quicker and stronger than everybody else. “I’m bigger than most people,” the 13-year-old from Lompoc explained. “I’ll usually shoot over people. I’ll do a move where I jump up and […]
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Ashley Reynoso
Ashley Reynoso, an incoming junior at Righetti High School, said she sometimes feels like the new kid on the basketball block. Despite being the starting power forward for the Righetti varsity basketball team, Reynoso is quick to remind us that she’s only been a basketball player for three years. In eighth grade, she joined her […]
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Protecting pitchers: California to set pitch count limit for high school baseball players in nationwide rule change
It was the fourth inning of a CIF playoff baseball showdown between Santa Ynez and Riverside Woodcrest Christian High School on May 26, and decorated Pirates ace Zachary Torra was on the mound. Torra went into his windup, unleashed a slider, and … pop. “I felt a sharp pain in my elbow,” Torra recalled. “Then […]
