Athlete of the Week Articles

Moving from being a panther to a cougar, graduating senior Chad De La Guerra has a bright future ahead of him. The Pioneer Valley High School graduate will be playing for College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, where he hopes to make the starting lineup for the Canyon Cougars. This achievement is due to […]

Atsuko Wolcott has always been fascinated by the art of karate, and she reveled in the mental and spiritual aspects of the sport while watching her sons at karate practice. It wasn’t until the age of 48, after both of her sons had graduated from high school, that Wolcott found the courage to take a […]

The ground shakes and the engine roars, an angry machine begging to be set loose. The cars line up at the start, waiting for that green flag to signal the beginning of a fast-paced event. This adrenalin fueled, heart-pounding sport could only be racing—a competition that sends cars flying around a dirt track at speeds […]

Carlos Angulo steps up to the starting block, takes a deep breath, and waits for the start of the race. At the signal, he’s off the block in the blink of an eye, racing ahead of the pack. Since last May, Angulo has been training and racing for a shot at the track at the […]

There’s water everywhere, splashing in your eyes and mouth while your teammates scramble to get organized. This may sound similar to a Navy Seal operation, but it’s just a regular day for water polo player Lukas Sheckherd. Sheckherd, an up-and-coming water polo star, took up the sport as a hobby in elementary school. “I saw […]

Gordon Keck, 11, has come a long way since his days of riding dirt bikes with training wheels. Keck, who is from the Santa Ynez Valley, recently clinched a spot at the American Motocross Association’s (AMA) Amateur National Motocross Championship—the World Series for aspiring dirt bike riders. The 29th annual championship will be held at […]

Summer calls to mind images of floating in a pool or going on a picnic, but if you’re Luis Escobar, your mind is on miles and miles of running in extreme heat and rugged terrain.  Escobar doesn’t just run marathons; he tackles ultra marathons, races that are a minimum of 26 miles. The upcoming Badwater […]

Don’t be fooled by 13-year-old Sienna Pita’s quietly shy demeanor; once she hits the BMX track, she becomes a whirlwind of speed and intensity in her pink gear on her blue bike. It’s been three years since Pita’s cousins, who are also BMX racers, took her out riding. According to her mother, Kristina Pita, she […]

It just keeps getting better. For sophomore Sadie DeQuattro, the saying couldn’t be more true. The setter for the Allan Hancock College women’s volleyball team will leave in the fall to play for Lindenwood University in Belleville, Illinois. DeQuattro began her volleyball career early on in middle school, inspired by seeing her mother coach the […]

For a 13-year-old junior high student who just won the Elks’ Team Roping Championship, Chance Machado is pretty modest. Chance and his father John are part of a father-son roping team who, in the Santa Maria Elks Rodeo’s final round on June 5, roped a calf in 9.6 seconds, putting their three-round aggregate time at […]

To most people, the true test of an athlete is not how easily the sport comes to him, but how much work he puts into it. By this definition, Ryan Bower can be considered one of the best pitchers in the Los Padres League. Bower, a senior starting pitcher for the Lompoc Braves, can’t remember […]

Not many 17-year-old high school students can say they have three boxing title belts to their name. Amateur boxer Ruben Perez, a student at Santa Maria High School, can. Recently, Perez took home the championship belt for the 141-pound division at the ADIDAS National Tournament held May 13 to 15 in Oxnard. Perez fought all […]