SAN JOSE >> Three boys basketball league champions were among the six teams from Santa Cruz County that were seeded for the upcoming Central Coast Section playoffs on Wednesday.

Aptos, the unbeaten Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League regular season and tournament champion, received the No. 1 seed in Division III. Watsonville, the co-champion with North Monterey County in the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Mission Division, was seeded 10th in D-I, and St. Francis, the unbeaten PCAL Santa Lucia Division champ, was seeded No. 5 in D-V.

While honored and happy for his boys, Mariners coach Brian Bowyer said the seed is merely a number.

“Last year we were a number two seed and lost to the seven seed in the quarterfinals,” he said. “You can’t overlook anybody. In the quarterfinals, all of the teams are good and all the teams are playing well.”

Santa Cruz, the SCCAL runner-up and defending D-III NorCal champion, and Scotts Valley and Soquel, who tied for third place in the SCCAL, also made the playoffs.

The playoffs open with the first round on Friday. The second round takes place Saturday, and the quarterfinals are on Tuesday.

Watsonville and Scotts Valley begin the playoffs in the first round Friday.

Watsonville (17-7), the No. 10 seed, hosts North Salinas (12-12) at 7 p.m. If the Wildcatz win their opener, they’ll face No. 7 Homestead (20-4) in Cupertino on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“We’re happy to host a game for the first time in 15 years,” said Andre Bailey, the Wildcatz’s second-year head coach. “We want to shake the tree and see how good we are.”

Three other D-I enrollment schools, Menlo-Atherton, Milpitas, and Bellarmine, were seeded in the prestigious Open Division, which helped the Wildcatz’s cause.

Bailey credited 6-foot-6 junior wing Leon Madec, and his younger brother George, a 6-3 freshman guard — both transfers from Clovis — for helping change the team’s mindset. “They got the kids to think bigger,” their coach said. “It’s easier to change the mindset when you have more than one kid saying it. They have others searching outside their comfort zone.”

The Wildcatz have more height than normal. They also feature 6-5 forward Anthony Razo, and 6-4 wing Nate Aguilar.

“We can really score,” Bailey said. “We can play with anybody when we take care of the ball and actually play some defense.”

The top four seeds — No. 1 Palo Alto (20-4), No. 2 Los Gatos (18-6), No. 3 Carlmont (14-10), and No. 4 Mountain View (11-13) — have byes for the first two rounds and begin action in the quarterfinals.

If the Wildcatz win their first two games, they’d square off with Los Gatos.

Scotts Valley (12-14) is the No. 9 seed in D-IV and opens with a home game against Stevenson (11-13) on Friday at 7 p.m. If the Falcons win, they’ll face No. 8 Jefferson (12-12) in Daly City on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Soquel (13-13) is seeded No. 7 and also competing in D-IV. The Knights host either Design Tech (14-9)-No. 10 Terra Nova (13-11) in the second round on Saturday at 7 p.m.

If the Knights win their opener, they’ll face No. 2 Carmel (17-6), the PCAL Gabilan Division champ and defending CCS D-IV champion, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

In addition to Carmel, No. 1 King’s Academy (20-4), No. 3 Half Moon Bay (17-7), and No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep (15-9) also begin action in the quarterfinals.

St. Francis (21-3) opens D-V play by hosting either North Valley (13-3) or No. 12 University Prep (15-8) in the second round in Watsonville on Saturday at 7 p.m.

If the Sharks win their opener, they’ll face No. 4 Oakwood (14-10) in Morgan Hill in Tuesday’s quarterfinals at 7 p.m.

No. 1 Priory (18-6), No. 2 Palma (18-6), No. 3 Summit Shasta (21-3), and Oakwood all begin action in the quarterfinals.

“Division V is probably the toughest it has been in the past 10 years, and the deepest, probably,” Sharks coach Robert Gomez said. “There used to be four to five good teams. Now, there’s 12 to 13 solid teams in D-V.”

Aptos (22-4) and Santa Cruz (15-11), the No. 2 seed, are both in D-III. Conceivably, they could meet for a fourth time this season in the championship game. They each have to win two games to make that happen.

“One game at a time,” Bowyer said. “But I’m happy for the guys to get the number one seed, for sure. … The top four teams are all very good. If all of the top four seeds are fortunate enough to advance, the semifinal games will be everything a semifinal game should be.”

The Mariners will host either No. 8 Pioneer (10-14), No. 9 NMC (17-7), or Greenfield (13-11) in Tuesday’s quarterfinals at 7 p.m.

The Cardinals will host either No. 7 El Camino (18-6), No. 10 Soledad (14-10), or Live Oak (11-13) in Tuesday’s quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m.

No. 3 Monterey (19-5), the Gabilan runner-up and defending CIF D-IV state champion, and No. 4 Sacred Heart Cathedral (9-15), the defending CCS D-III champ, have byes until the quarterfinals.