SANTA CRUZ >> The majority of high school sports programs nationwide take a break to enjoy Christmas vacation. But in Santa Cruz County, the 11th annual Aptos/Santa Cruz Warriors NorCal Tournament has center stage. Sixteen teams — eight boys and eight girls — will showcase their skills on Thursday through Saturday.

Unlike last year, when the boys and girls’ tournaments were held at three locations, this year, all 16 teams will play all three games at Kaiser Permanente Arena, home of the NBA G League’s Santa Cruz Warriors.

It’s a big time venue with big-time atmosphere.

“There’s no trouble filling the bracket,” Mariners girls coach Bruce Funk said. “The girls all look forward to playing at the Santa Cruz Warriors venue.”

Said Brian Bowyer, the Mariners’ boys coach: “The kids love playing there.”

Action begins the day after Christmas. There was discussion into running the event on Friday, Saturday, and Monday, but it was decided that would be too much trouble for the out of town teams competing.

In the first round of the boys’ tournament on Thursday, Aptos (6-3) plays Pioneer (6-2) of San Jose at 9:30 a.m., Los Gatos (7-1) plays Soquel (4-5) at 11 a.m., Santa Teresa (5-4) of San Jose plays North Monterey County (3-2) of Castroville at 3:30 p.m., and Half Moon Bay (5-1) plays St. Mary’s (5-6) of Stockton at 5 p.m.

“It’s gonna be tight,” said Bowyer, of the competition.

Aptos, led by senior guard/forward Isaiah Ackerman, is having a solid preseason. The Mariners beat Hollister to win the consolation championships 44th Annual Bob Hagen Memorial Tournament at Gilroy High on Dec. 14, and lost to Bellarmine College Prep in the championship of the 76th annual Carmel Classic on Saturday.

“Our best game of the year is the game we lost,” Bowyer said. “It seems in the last tournament we really got it going. Isaiah, he attacks the rim so well, but we started sharing the ball. Instead of going for a contested layup, we made the extra pass for an open three.”

Including Ackerman, who has been an all-tournament honoree twice this season, the Mariners feature five senior starters. Point guard Demian Matlow has missed three games with an ankle injury, and has been replaced by junior Diego Mejia.

Guards Nick Tovani and Ryan Solorio, and 6-foot-8 center Owen Warmerdam also have been huge for the Mariners thus far.

Tovani, who scored 20 points against Bellarmine, has been a steady all-around contributor, Solorio contributes on offense but shines on defense, as does Warmerdam, who is a shot-blocking machine.

“He’s a force around the basket,” Bowyer said of Warmerdam. “He’s a rim protector we haven’t had in a long. long time.”

Though Bowyer believes his team has the potential to be one of his better squads, he isn’t making any predictions for Aptos’ tournament. The Mariners’ first opponent, Pioneer, is solid, he said.

It’s a quality field, too. Half Moon Bay was a Central Coast Section Open Division qualifier last season. Los Gatos is the defending CCS Division I champion, and St. Mary’s reached the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II quarterfinals in 2023-24. NMC is the only team that didn’t make the playoffs last season.

“We’re going to be better as the year progresses,” Bowyer said.

On Friday, the consolation semifinals take place at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., and the semifinals take place at 6:30 and 8 p.m.

Saturday, the seventh-place game is at 12:30 p.m., consolation championship at 2 p.m., third-place game at 5 p.m., and championship at 8 p.m.

In the first round of the girls’ tournament on Thursday, Branham (4-4) of San Jose plays Westmont (5-2) of Campbell at 12:30 p.m., Los Altos (1-6) plays Mills (4-3) of Millbrae at 2 p.m., River City (4-7) of West Sacramento plays American (6-1) of Fremont at 6:30 p.m., and Half Moon Bay (6-1) plays Aptos (7-1) at 8 p.m.

The Mariners have played surprisingly well considering standout guard Gabby Wickham transferred to Woodside Priory in Portola Valley after completing her freshman season last year.

“I scheduled very well,” Funk said. “It’s equity. The toughest part of our preseason is coming up. And after this tournament we have Summit Shasta, Christopher, and Prospect.”

Funk said his team played in several summer leagues and worked hard, but took its lumps.

“I think it has paid off,” the coach said. “We’re playing pretty good defense, we’re creating turnovers in the half court, and we’ve started shooting the ball better of the past four games.”

Senior forward Berkeley Ashby is averaging 13 points and 6.8 rebounds for Aptos. Junior forward Abby Sherwood is averaging 7.8 points and 8.0 rebounds, and sophomore shooting guard Eliya Chavez is averaging 6.6 points.

“Abby has been our anchor,” her coach said. “She’s getting a lot of double-doubles.”

Funk said he’d be happy to go 3-3 over Aptos’ next six games. The schedule gets significantly more intense right away.

The girls’ field has four solid teams. Branham won the CCS D-I title last season, Mills reached the D-III final, and HMB reached the D-IV final. But, perhaps the best team in the field is American, which qualified for the North Coast Section Division I playoffs last season.

The Eagles feature sophomore point guard Shirina Shi, who is already generating interest from multiple colleges, including NCAA Division III UC Santa Cruz.

“She’s quicker than lightning,” Funk said. “She can shoot, and take it to the hole. … And they have a good freshman (Anika Batra), who can shoot threes all night.”

Funk isn’t focused on American, he’s worried about HMB. The Cougars have a talented junior shooting guard in Xochitl Nieves, and a big, strong post player in 6-foot junior Zoey Lemoge.

“Half Moon Bay is going to be a real challenge for us,” Funk said.

On Friday, the girls’ consolation semifinals will beheld at 9:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m., and the semifinals at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m.

Saturday, the seventh-place game is at 9:30 a.m., consolation championship at 11 a.m., third-place game at 3:30 p.m., and championship at 6:30 p.m.

It’s unknown whether Santa Claus is going to leave coal in both Aptos coaches stockings. Funk gave his team Monday off, but had them practice on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. Bowyer had his team practice on Monday and Tuesday.

Both coaches wanted to run through the playbook and get some conditioning in before taking Christmas off.

Funk also had a piece of advice for his girls playing on a G League court, which features a high school 3-point arc and an NBA distance arc.

“We talk about it every year,” he said. ” ‘No launching it from the G League three.’ “

Bowyer said his players know better.

“If they don’t know that by now, they’re probably not on the court anyway,” he said. “But they all back up in warmups and shoot a couple of NBA threes.”