Yes, school is still out for summer but the student athletes at Aptos High School are always training hard.
Look no further for the pay-off of that hard work than the Football program success: Four consecutive SCCAL championships and two consecutive CCS Championships, not to mention many more trips to CCS Playoffs.
No, Head Coach Randy Blankenship doesn’t have the young men practicing in pads, scrimmaging, or walking through plays on the field year round, but they are living the code of what it means to be a Mariner student-athlete 365 days a year.
The Aptos High School Football Lift-a-thon was a major success again this June! The players sought sponsors who donated based on the amount of weight each athlete lifts.
The weight lifting competition was really more about team building and acknowledging each athlete’s self-improvement. The competition is broken into two classes: Varsity and Junior Varsity. The gym was set up with five lifting stations and the players were introduced as they took their place at the strength appropriate station. “The crowd really gets into it when they see a player reaching deep to keep going,” commented Athletic Director Mark Dorfman.
This year the strongest JV player was freshman Austin Thelander with a top lift of 225 pounds. “Well I’ve always been good at picking stuff up. It’s kind of cool to be appreciated for it,” said Thelander.
Top Varsity lifter Adrien “Fluffy” Galindo benched 350 pounds and used the Lift-A-Thon as motivation for his final season, “It’s all gone in a blink of an eye, but this (next season) is my fourth quarter and I’m going to give it all I have and then some,” said the junior Mariner.
They each received a donation from Sid’s BBQ on behalf of the Aptos Sports Foundation of a dollar a pound equaling a total of $575. Owner John Siddel said “When I heard about the weight lifting program I had to support the kids. Especially, the lineman, after all they eat a lot of food!”
In addition to the donation for the program, each of the top lifters were treated to an “all-you-can-eat” BBQ feast and Sid’s T-shirt.
So as we head into fall sports and the start of a new school year, give the Mariners a high five if you see them around town for their hard work already this season!
It is important to note that the Aptos Sports Foundation supports all athletic programs at Aptos High, junior high, and Aptos youth sports programs.
Some exciting news to report from the Aptos Sports Foundation!
While most of you were probably deep in to your summer vacations or at least planning them, the Aptos Sports Foundation was still hard at work for the kids. In a very significant move the Foundation entered into a formal public-private partnership with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. The Declaration of Cooperative Support and Collaboration was created on June 24, 2015 with a 6-0 vote by the board of trustees.
As was discussed by Foundation President Paul Bailey and the Board of Trustees at the meeting, this formal partnership in no way means the Aptos Sports Foundation gets carte blanche on everything we want to do moving forward. We still must follow every state and county law, permit requirement, dot every “I” and cross every legal “T” so to speak. What this does do is publically acknowledge the work that the Foundation and the Board has been able to accomplish over the past 20 years, and publically acknowledge that both parties will continue to improve on that relationship moving forward.
In its 36 year history, the Foundation has raised and donated funds, materials and labor totaling more than $3.3 million. Past projects include the Trevin Dilfer Memorial Field which included an all-weather track and field, lights at the pool, a completely rebuilt baseball facility and the things that don’t often get the spotlight: whistles, lane lines, wrestling mats and uniforms. Most recently, the collaboration brought about a practice field at the entrance of Aptos High School to be used by various schools and community sports teams.
That is all well and good, but the Aptos Sports Foundation has plans to do much more and be much more for the kids of our community. By entering in to this formal partnership with PVUSD we can continue our mission of improving facilities, funding after-school sports programs at Aptos High School and its feeder schools.
To learn more visit: aptossportsfoundation.com
