Athlete of the Week Articles

Because of the central role pitchers have on a team, the success of Allan Hancock College’s Bulldogs softball this season would not have been possible without starting pitcher and first year player Nathalia Powell. She leads the league in wins, with 18, in saves, and in strikeouts, with a whopping 107. She has also had […]

Santa Maria High School golf player Nick Balderama has been leading his team this season, consistently making the lowest score in almost every tournament and placing in the top 10 in the Los Padres League.   According to Jay Cheney, the Saints’ golf coach of two years, Balderama is one of three returning golfers this […]

Pioneer Valley wrestler Courtney Tompkins is her own toughest critic. Despite having just returned home from the wrestling nationals in Oklahoma City, Okla.—where the junior took third place and earned All-American honors for the second year in a row—Tompkins wasn’t as thrilled as would be expected. “Third place was my goal but I made a […]

Coach Sandy Pearson remembers the first time she met athlete Jasmine Miles (pictured center),  who was all business and no smiles. Pearson said she wanted to see the young woman smile at least once. At age 23, Miles is tall and lean—a perfect athletic build. What struck Pearson about Miles more than anything was watching […]

This is Sparta(n tennis)! With a current record of 9-4, Orcutt Academy’s boys’ tennis team has fought hard for its good record, and junior Jeff Burr has been central to the success so far. Playing No. 1 singles, Burr has helped his team advance with his great ground strokes. “My forehand and my slice, I […]

Brent Dionisio can jump higher than most people are tall. At a track meet against Righetti High School on March 14, the Pioneer Valley High School junior, who’s 5-foot-11, briefly elevated his entire body to a height of 6 feet and 6 inches during the high jump competition—his personal best. For this feat and for […]

Righetti High School has been having anther exceptional season in swimming, and senior Jeremy Grden of the boys’ team is a big reason why. Apart from setting a number of CIF fast consideration times over the course of their five meets so far, Grden humbly gives credit to his teammates for the team’s successes. “I’m […]

Cabrillo High School soccer player Jamie Miller (pictured here in white) played an integral role in the Conquistadores’ success this season. The center midfielder scored seven goals and had 12 assists, leading her team to its first ever CIF Final. It wasn’t just Miller’s athletic ability that made her stand out, however; it was also […]

Sara Dominguez is clearly an athlete of a higher class. The most impressive thing about the junior softball player may not be her full-ride scholarship to Division 1 Seattle University, nor her ability to handle the catching and pitching positions, but her humility as a talented player and her desire to bring out the best […]

Itzy Pinon (No. 8, pictured above) just wrapped up her senior season of soccer at Righetti High School with an impressive 14 goals on the year and helped lead her team to a second-place finish in the Pac 7 conference. The talented forward started playing soccer when she was 5 years old; she said that […]

Take one look at baseball player Marc Baker, and it’s easy to see he was made for pitching. The right-handed hurler stands at 6 feet, 6 inches and weighs 220 pounds, but he might as well be all arm. A 2011 graduate from Nipomo High School, Baker was drafted out of high school to the […]