“The first thing that I make sure to talk about is awareness, that’s where it all starts. For example, if I’m not good at my jump shot, it wouldn’t matter since I’m not aware of it or working to improve it. The goals for each week lets us know we are getting better every practice,” Ruelas said.

UPBasketball’s Kaela Stonebarger and the Mills High School Women’s Basketball Team were named the 2026 CIF Central Coast Section (CCS) Division III Girls Basketball Champions on Saturday. The Vikings took on the Santa Cruz Cardinals, a team they had an 1-1 record with this season, and won the title in a close game with a final score of 35-30. This victory named them back-to-back champions and gave them their third championship title in the last four seasons.

“The biggest challenge when I first started was understanding how to properly communicate the UPB brand to the world. All I knew is that I wanted every single post to have a purpose, whether that be pushing us into the algorithm, highlighting certain players or coaches, and more. I think the alignment of UPB’s values compared to who I am as a person lined up almost perfectly and that made figuring everything out along the way extremely easy,” Sangalang said.