Scotts Valley High athletic director Louie Walters has seen many great female athletes come and go throughout his time at Scotts Valley.
Many have continued their tremendous success at the next level in college, but recent Scotts Valley graduate Grace Giguiere has left a mark that none of the previous Scotts Valley greats have done prior to her.
“Best all-around female athlete in Scotts Valley history,” Walters said. “We’ve had some great single and two sport athletes but none did what Grace did in three sports.”
Not only did Giguiere participate in three different sports, but also played major roles in helping lead the Falcons to Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League titles in tennis, basketball and softball this past year.
Giguiere will take her multi-sports mentality to the next level this fall when she attends Cabrillo College in Aptos. She plans to major in health science and also play on both the basketball and softball teams.
Giguiere is familiar with both coaches at Cabrillo and feels she will fit in just as nice at Cabrillo as she did at Scotts Valley. The constant support of family and friends enabled Giguiere to get through the grind of playing three different sports.
“Without the support of my family and all my teammates I don’t think it would’ve been possible to play three sports,” Giguiere said. “Without their support it wouldn’t have been possible to get through the year.”
On the hardwood, Giguiere averaged 13.1 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.4 steals for the basketball team that went undefeated in SCCAL play en route to capturing its third straight SCCAL title. She was a first-team all-SCCAL selection.
On the softball field is where Giguiere, who has been playing since the age of three, truly shined.
Giguiere had her best season on the diamond during her four years playing for the Falcons, where she led the team in every major statistical category including batting average (.475), hits (38), RBI (24), home runs (6) and doubles (9) for Scotts Valley, who won its second straight SCCAL title.
“She’s always open to coaching and is just that kid that every coach wants to have on the team,” Scotts Valley softball coach Lisa Rasmussen said. “She’s the one that’s always listening and always there putting forth. She’s just a great player to coach.”
Giguiere garnered SCCAL Impact of the Year honors for her success this past season in league.
For all the SCCAL titles and accomplishments Giguiere accomplished this past year, it was the connection and bonds she made with teammates and coaches is what she’ll remember most.
“I’m mostly going to remember playing with my teammates on all three teams,” Giguiere said. “That’s what makes a team — the people you play with — without them it wouldn’t have been half as fun. I looked at all three team members as family.”
The fact she’s going to continue playing multiple sports in college seems so fitting for someone like Giguiere. In a time where so many kids are solely focusing on one sport and playing year around Giguiere showed that you don’t have to be a specialist to be extremely successful.
“Grace is a perfect example of how you could play three sports in high school, be great in all three and have fun,” Walters said. “She will leave her legacy as the best female three sport athlete we’ve ever had at Scotts Valley High School.”
Ryan Silapan can be reached at rsilapan@prep2prep.com and you can follow him on Twitter @RyanSilapan
