Athletes of the Year

Dante Aranda-Pacheco and Quinn Healy

In 1976-77, in the inaugural year of the Santa Cruz County Athletic League, the Santa Cruz Sentinel sports writers established the Santa Cruz County Male & Female Athlete of the Year Award. They discontinued the award in 2021.

In 2023, the athletic directors of the league brought back the award. Every SCCAL school has unlimited nominations, and then the SCCAL athletic directors select the winners.

Under the new criteria, the nominees must be from an SCCAL school, and must be a senior.

This year’s winners are:

Quinn Healy, Soquel High: Water Polo SCCAL Player of the Year, CCS Player of the Year, led Soquel girls to the CCS Open Division championship and Nor Cal runner up.

Swimming SCCAL champion in 200 & 400 freestyle relays, 2nd place in 50 freestyle, 3rd place in 100 breast. CCS 12th place in 200 free relay, 13th place in 400 free relay.

Grade-point average 4.3 weighted, 3.9 unweighted

Quinn will attend Stanford and play water polo in the fall.

Dante Aranda-Pacheco, Aptos High: 1st-team Pacific Coast Athletic League running back in football, member of league championship football team, league champ at 220 lbs. in wrestling (9th in CCS), also plays lacrosse.

Dante will attend San Jose City College to further his education. n