SBART Press Luncheon: Sebastian Sutch Honored as Scholar Athlete of the Year for Cate

Nate Jones of San Marcos Football and Mina Yazadzhiev of San Marcos girls’ tennis were honored as SBART Athletes of the Week at Monday’s press luncheon.

Yazadzhiev stepped out of high school competition to win the Santa Barbara City Championship tournament in women’s singles and mixed doubles. She has also dominated Channel League competition this season.

“Mina is our number one singles player and she also plays doubles every once in a while, and she has beaten everybody else’s number one in Channel League, which is awesome and also when we’ve been traveling, she has been beating all the number one’s outside of our league as well,” said San Marcos coach Emily Carver. “She has also gone undefeated in doubles as well.”

Jones was a force on both sides of the ball in the Battle for the Goodland against rival Dos Pueblos and led San Marcos to a 28-7 victory with two interceptions and nearly 100 yards rushing on 17 carries. 

“The last few weeks he has really stepped up his play for us. He has really become a big leader for us,” said San Marcos head coach Ralph Molina. “I’m happy that he showed up Friday night. He never came off the field, I even put him on special teams because we weren’t doing a good job of covering stuff.”

                                                Cate Scholar Athlete of the Year

Based upon his extraordinary exploits in cross country, track and field, soccer, and most especially in the classroom Sebastian Sutch received the Scholar Athlete of the Year Award for Cate.

Sutch holds school records in the 1600 meters, 800 meters and 4X400 relay. He was CIF Division 4 Champion in the 1600 meter and 800 meters as well as Santa Barbara County Champion in both events. In addition, Sutch holds a 4.42 GPA with a 1570 SAT score. He will be attending Yale to compete in Division 1 track and field.

“I just want to thank coaches {Tim} Wear and {Wade} Ransom and my teammates at Cate,” Sutch said. “There are a number of people that are exceedingly qualified for this award so it’s an honor.”

                                                SBCC Football Surges in Second Half

The SBCC football team was locked in a scoreless tie with Antelope Valley at halftime, but exploded in the second half to leave Lancaster with a 45-13 victory.

Ajani Cuevas Gillis sparked the rally with a 48-yard interception return for a touchdown. The SBCC defense followed that up with a fumble return for a touchdown 13 seconds later.

On offense the Vaqueros received an outstanding performance from Kayden Chan, who caught six passes for 74 yards with two touchdowns.

“I value defense and special teams, but I’m an offensive minded coach and it was 0-0 at halftime,” said SBCC coach Craig Moropoulos. “It was all about getting something going. Our defense had played well and we came out in the second half and the final score was 45-13.”