A lot could be said about last season’s remarkable run for the Aptos High boys’ basketball team which not only turned several heads, but became the dark horse of the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League.
They finished co-champion with Santa Cruz High and they reached the Central Coast Section Division III semifinals against Burlingame High.
The Mariners set sail for their 2023-24 campaign looking to prove that last year was no fluke.
“League is going to be tough as it always is,” Mariner head coach Brian Bowyer said. “Santa Cruz, of course, is Santa Cruz. They have to be considered the favorites in the league and deservingly so.”
Despite losing the league’s reigning most valuable player in Aden Cury, Santa Cruz boasts two seniors coming off All-SCCAL First Team honors in Ben Dotten and Demeke Smith.
Bowyer—who was awarded the SCCAL’s Coach of the Year for the 2022-23 season—is entering his seventh year at the helm despite having to commute over the hill from his teaching job.
The Mariners (5-2) are establishing team roles to fill the voids of valuable teammates who graduated last season including Trevor Brady and Kevin Hamlyn.
One major difference this season for Aptos will be its roster depth of 13 players including six seniors, all of whom are ready to contribute at a moment’s notice.
Aptos, which has won three straight after opening the season with a 1-2 overall record, is finally showing off the work they put in during the offseason.
Their most recent win was a 58-35 victory over North Monterey County High on Wednesday. They also had an impressive 67-45 win over Monta Vista High of Cupertino in the Gilroy High Tournament on Dec. 9.
Leading the way is 6-foot-3 junior guard Isaiah Ackerman, who earned All-SCCAL First Team honors by averaging 10.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game in 2022-23.
“The first game I think we were a little bit nervous, but as of right now I think we’re looking really good. We all like each other and there’s really good chemistry,” Ackerman said. “In the offseason we worked really, really hard every practice, every open gym, every summer league game to prepare for this season and try and take it back.”
During the offseason, Ackerman worked on his inside, outside and midrange shot by attempting as many as 1,000 shots every day.
At the center position, juniors Jackson Bloom and Owen Warmerdam have shown rapid development and flashes of a breakout season.
Owen Warmerdam—standing at 6-foot-8—is the grandson of the late Mariner head coach Bill Warmerdam who led the program from 1970-92, winning 10 league championships during that span.
“I think we’re going to be pretty deep,” Bowyer said. “We’re trying to play a more up-tempo style on offense and defense, so we are getting more guys into the game. We are trying to run some more full court pressure, speeding the game up, and looking to attack quicker on offense.”
In addition to a sense of team camaraderie, depth and pace will be the focal point in outplaying teams like Santa Cruz, which tends to play more physically imposing.
The players worked tirelessly in practice, open gyms and summer league games during the offseason to engrave the free-flowing offense to become second nature.
While full court pressure and defensive toughness is something the Mariners are still working on during practice, that is often the case for most teams early in the season.
“I’ve just seen a lot of heart, like loose balls, everyone is diving on the ground,” Aptos senior forward Luke Garvey said. “We’re so deep. I think there’s multiple players on our bench that could start on any other team. I think you could sub those five out, put a whole new five in, and we’re right there.”
Aptos is generally a senior-oriented team when it comes to players entering the game. However, the shift to more elastic substitutions will give starters a chance to rest and invest more energy on defense.
Lighting quick senior guards such as Mateo Calfe and Johnny Cornejo will aim to assist the high tempo and defensively intensive Mariner mindset.
“The two teams we played to start the year were both really good teams,” Bowyer said. “I feel fine coming out of it one-and-one; I think both the teams made us better for sure. I like where we are right now.”
After an offseason of working out the “kinks,” as Bowyer put it, and figuring out what style of defense would be best suited for this season, everything finally appears to be coming together at just the right time.
Aptos will host Wilcox High (0-2) on Dec. 18 at 7:30pm.
