APTOS >> Delaney McCann, a former NCAA Division I player who served as an assistant coach at D-III UC Santa Cruz the past two seasons, has been hired to take over the women’s basketball program at Cabrillo College.

McCann replaces interim coach Tony Marcopulos, an emergency fill-in who led the Seahawks (19-11 overall) to third place in the Coast Conference South Division and the second round of the 3C2A NorCal Regional playoffs last season.

“I’m super excited,” said McCann, 28, a former forward/center at Seattle University. “I bring a new perspective to the program. I’m a younger coach, so, hopefully, I’m more relatable to the student-athletes.”

Cabrillo’s 2024-25 roster featured seven sophomores but was primarily led by its freshmen class, which included five out-of-area players, four hailing from Nevada. All five freshmen left the program after Marcopulos announced he wasn’t returning for a second year at season’s end.

“I started with zero student-athletes,” McCann said. “Some returned home and some of them transferred to San Jose City. I didn’t have a chance to talk to them before they left. It’s unfortunate. … But over the years, I’m going to be able to build a good, quality players and have a quality program.”

Seahawks athletics director Mark Ramsey said the time it takes to make a hire put McCann in a bad position for her first season. The position was posted in the spring and McCann was officially hired on June 16.

Still, he’s optimistic she’ll do great things with the program.

“She stood out,” Ramsey said. “She has connections in the community, being here, being at UCSC, and part of AAU programs. It’s going to be a good pipeline for local students to continue their basketball careers at Cabrillo. I’m confident she’s the right person to build this program from scratch. She’s definitely putting in the work. She hit the ground running. She wants to be successful and is putting in the work to make that happen.””

After her hiring, McCann reached out to several county coaches and inquired if they had any dedicated, recently graduated players looking to further their playing careers.

She currently has five guards on her roster — San Lorenzo Valley’s Taylor Dunn and Violet Derr, Pajaro Valley’s Claudia Guerrero Chavez and Ashley Campos, and “Ellie” Sarbar, an Iranian who played a year at Mission — and she plans to continue on the recruiting trail to grow that total.

“I need bodies,” McCann said. “I’m looking for players who are interested, competitive, and want to work hard. Yeah, it’s going to be a growing year for me. I’m a competitive person, but I also want it to be a fun experience.”

A 6-foot-1 forward/center, McCann, who has a 3-year-old son, Brandon, continues to play in women’s leagues, which is how she connected with UCSC head coach Monica Armstrong.

McCann has lived in the county for six years. She coached one season of boys basketball and three seasons of girls basketball at New Brighton Middle School. She joined Armstrong’s staff at UCSC two years ago and gained invaluable experience.

“That was a leap of faith and I wouldn’t trade it for the world,” she said, noting she developed a great bond with Armstrong.

McCann’s also in the process of trying to find assistant coaches, which is an unpaid position. She’s hoping to have a similar connection with them as she did with Armstrong.

McCann totaled 951 points, 627 rebounds, 145 assists, 147 blocks and 87 steals in her four-year varsity career (2011-15) at Canyon High in Canyon Country. She was named All-Foothill League first-team selection as a junior and senior.

McCann used her medical redshirt season after contracting mononucleosis while at Cal Poly Humboldt and transferred to Seattle University (2015-19), where she redshirted her first season.

“My playing time was on and off the first two years,” she said. “But that gave me a good perspective. Everyone’s important and everyone plays a role.”

As a junior, she helped the Redhawks win the Western Athletic Conference Tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The Redhawks made a first-round exit after 88-45 loss to Sabrina Ionescu-led Oregon. As a senior, she averaged 14.7 minutes, 4.1 points, and 2.6 rebounds over 29 games, including three starts.