SBART Luncheon: Andres Villa Earns San Marcos Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award

A pair of individual awards were presented and the majority of high school spring sports teams made their luncheon debuts at Monday’s Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table Press Luncheon.

San Marcos’ Andres Villa was honored as the school’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Sebastian Janelle was named the Special Olympics Athlete of the Month and local softball, boys volleyball and girls beach volleyball squads shared their early-season updates.

Andres Villa Named San Marcos Scholar-Athlete of the Year

Villa, a senior for the Royals, earned the school’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year award for his success on the football field and in the classroom.

He was a member of the varsity football team for three seasons and enjoyed his best year this past fall when he was named to the All-Tri-County League First Team Defense and picked up the team’s Coaches Award.

“In my 42 years of coaching I’ve had the opportunity to coach a lot of great kids and I’ll tell you, Andres is one of the most polite, most respected students and players I’ve ever coached,” San Marcos head football coach Ralph Molina said. “He worked as hard as anyone on the football team.”

Academically, Villa boasts an impressive 4.7 GPA while taking several high-level courses and serving as the San Marcos Senior Class President. He is also an academic mentor and the founder and president of the school’s Robotics Club.

The standout student and athlete received the QuestBridge Match Scholar to attend Yale University on a Full Ride Merit Scholarship, where he plans to major in electrical engineering. He also plans to walk on to the football team.

“This guy has a future ahead of him, he’s a remarkable young man and what an honor it’s been for us at San Marcos to have him,” Molina said. “He’s going to go places in this world

Villa is the fifth of 11 Scholar-Athletes of the Year for the 2024-25 school year, joining Carpinteria’s Keyla Manriquez, Providence’s Sarah Monroy, Laguna Blanca’s Chloe Gidney and Santa Barbara’s Gwen Chenoweth.

The award is sponsored by Marc Gamberdella of the Ga m berdella-Spruill Group of Merrill Lynch.

“I’m incredibly thankful and honored to receive this award,” Villa said. “I want to say thank you to coach Molina and all the other coaches, Mr. Holdren and Mr. Solis for always supporting me, and my parents, thank you so much for all you have done over the years. I dedicate this to you.”

Sebastian Janelle Named Special Olympics Athlete of the Month

Janelle was named the Special Olympics Athlete of the Month for February due to his strong performances as a member of the Floorball team.

Special Olympics Athlete of the Month Sebastian Janelle (middle) is joined by award sponsor and Carp Physio owner Omar Flores (left) and coach Jaime Rutiaga at Monday’s luncheon. (SBART / Courtesy photo)

The Santa Barbara squad defeated Antelope Valley in a recent matchup to secure a silver medal on the season. Janelle and the team will compete in the championships on Saturday in Irvine.

“He led all of his teammates in assists (against Antelope Valley) but most importantly was an amazing floor checker which disrupted the play,” Special Olympics coach Jaime Rutiaga said.

“We do have some stiff competition (in the championship) but I think with Sebastian here we’re going to win.”

The Special Olympics Athlete of the Month is sponsored by Carp Physio.

Spring Sports Season in Full Swing

The winter sports calendar is almost fully closed, as the only team competition left is the CIF State Tournament for Santa Barbara High basketball, which begins next week.

The changing of the seasons means that the SBART luncheon welcomed several new sports on Monday, with the majority of spring sports teams beginning play last week.

This upcoming week will be full of a mixture of non-league and league matchups while most teams will jump fully into league competition next week.

Despite the fact that many of the seasons have just begun, this week already features several showdowns between local high schools. Here are some of the games to look out for in town.

Tuesday, Feb. 25