Andres Santa Maria was named the Special Olympics Athlete of the Month and local fall sports teams gave updates on the end of the regular season and postseason play at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Cafe.
Santa Maria earned the honor because of his participation and performance in soccer.
“Andres is a phenomenal soccer player,” Special Olympics coach Jerry Siegel said. “As a playmaker, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
In a tournament in Glendale in which his team earned a silver medal, Santa Maria scored an impressive six goals in one game. On Sunday, Santa Maria and his team won a gold medal in a tournament at Girsh Park.
“Andres is a phenomenal athlete, a wonderful sport, supports his teammates and is not full of himself despite all of his success,” Siegel said. “He’s everything you could hope for in an athlete.”
As for the rest of the luncheon, many fall sports are beginning their CIF-SS playoff runs this week, including football, boys water polo and girls tennis.
On the gridiron, Santa Barbara High and Bishop Diego are the two local 11-person teams competing in the playoffs, with the Dons in Division 4 and the Cardinals in Division 7.
Both teams play their postseason openers on Friday. Santa Barbara will be on the road to face off against St. Paul while Bishop Diego will host Redondo Union.
“The boys are playing really well and we are really excited about it,” Santa Barbara coach Nate Mendoza said. “[St. Paul] plays old-school football, you don’t really see three backs in the backfield.
“We’re excited to just keep playing.”
For the 8-person football schools, both Laguna Blanca and Cate earned a spot in the playoffs.
In boys water polo, San Marcos (Div. 2) received a first-round bye while Dos Pueblos (Div. 2), Carpinteria (Div. 2) and Cate (Div. 5) will compete in the opening round of the playoffs on Tuesday.
“We’re lining up to have a very exciting matchup to start the Division 2 playoffs,” Warriors coach Karl Fredrickson said.
In girls tennis, the local teams competing in the CIF-SS playoffs will be San Marcos (Div. 1), Santa Barbara (Div. 2), Dos Pueblos (Div. 2), Cate (Div. 3), Laguna Blanca (Div. 4), Carpinteria (Div. 4) and Bishop Diego (Div. 6).
The girls tennis playoffs begin on Wednesday.
The student-athletes in attendance, by order of appearance:
San Marcos Football: Quinn Donnell, Danny Diaz
Santa Barbara City College Football: Will Doherty
Carpinteria Cross Country: Audrey Kramer, Victoria Martinez
Carpinteria Girls Tennis: Valeria Zamora, Taylor Trembly
Carpinteria Boys Water Polo: Micah Smith, Cody Schwasnick
Bishop Diego Cross Country: Joe Simolon, Connor Kolbusz, Luke Johansen
Santa Barbara High Football: Javier Tinoco, Jordan Mitchum
Santa Barbara High Cross Country: Nicholas Tassos, Bode Andrulaitis, Jaia Beall
San Marcos Cross Country: Autumn Richardson, Gabrielle Jaramilla, Asher Holmes, Andrew Robilio
Dos Pueblos Cross Country: Sophie Saleh, Selah Blackwell, Will Matthews, Eamon Gordon
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