All-American water polo player Tommy Corcoran proved he can dominate a game on a basketball court as well as in the pool Monday evening. The CIF San Diego Section Water Polo Player of the Year scored 16 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and added three assists and a steal to help lead the Coronado Islanders to a 55-47 victory over Castle Park in the finale of the annual Islander Christmas Tournament.

Trailing at halftime 27-21, the Islanders tuned up their play on the defensive end of the floor in the third quarter and pulled ahead 36-33 at the end of three quarters. Although the Islanders held a slim lead, it was anyone’s game.

The Trojans scored a free throw to open the final stanza and make it a 2-point game. Then the Islanders rallied and scored the next 13 straight points to put the game in the victory column. Corcoran dominated the first four minutes of the quarter, with four defensive rebounds, a layup, and two assists. The game was on the line and Corcoran made sure it didn’t get away.

Basketball is the ultimate team game and as good as Corcoran was Monday evening, he didn’t win the game by himself. Senior Tony Moore played a fine game scoring 10 points, while contributing eight rebounds, four assists and three steals. Backcourt running mate Jimmy Harrison added five points and six assists.

The rest of the scoring included 10 points from Bobby Talley, six points and six rebounds from Julian Cole, and eight points from Brett Milke.

Coronado scored 24 field goals during the contest and was credited with 17 assists, which is an unusually high ratio. That indicates the team is unselfish, working hard and moving without the ball on offensive.

Head Coach Sandy Dillon, who one would have to assume, had a forthright and honest discussion with his team at halftime regarding their effort on the defensive end of the floor, earned his 250^th victory as head coach of the Islander boys basketball team with the victory. Coronado is now 10-3 on the season.

Heading into the Christmas Tournament, Dillon and Assistant Coach Ken Cole changed up the practice format a bit, with Cole running the workouts. "It’s amazing what a couple of days of practice can do for a team," said Dillon. "The kids enjoyed it because it was different."

In the earlier games in the tournament, Coronado paced by four players scoring in double figures (Milke, Harrison, Moore and Talley) dominated Lutheran 84-51 and then spanked Julian 74-32 behind double figure scoring from Talley, Milke and Moore. Silver Valley High School from Barstow was the next victim by the score of 93-49. Milke’s 26 points led the way, with Moore, Cole, and Harrison all in double figures.

Since Silver Valley defeated Castle Park 71-63, the assumption would have to be that Coronado would roll over Castle Park handily, but working off of comparative scores, especially on the high school level, is akin to reading tea leaves for a living. You can read what you want into the results.

This coming week figures to be a challenging week for the Islanders, as they travel to Imperial over the weekend and face the squad that Dillon describes as "the best team in the Valley." Next week Coronado travels to Francis Parker to face a Lancer team that is among the better teams in the city.

"They beat us 76-61 when we played them," Dillon said during a recent conversation. "We weren’t very healthy. They have a 6-6 and a 6-4 kid and they compliment each other really well. It should be a really good game at their place."

The Girls Basketball Team is in the middle of the toughest schedule they have played in years and are faring quite well thank you, with an 8-5 record so far this season.

Earlier in the year, the Boys Basketball Team avenged a lopsided loss to Bishop’s with a lopsided win in a week’s time. The Girls squad performed a similar feat, avenging a 22 point loss to Orange Glen with a five point victory in the first round of the Santana Christmas Classic.

The reason for this turnaround was a little more obvious as senior Alexis Castro was visiting the University of Vermont for the first tilt between the Patriots and the Islanders and scored 18 points while snaring 19 rebounds in the return game. Head Coach Toler Goodwin summarized his team’s effort. "Everybody had to play well for us to win. We just did a better job of matching up with their primary scorers and eliminating their opportunities. Having Alexis back to balance out the size equation was a big factor."

Contributing to the victory were senior Co-Captains Anne Marie Strohbeck with 10 points and Janelle Kuhlow with six. Junior point guard Vanessa Gosenheim, and freshman guard Brooke Becky rounded out the Islander scoring.

After the victory over Orange Glen came a 41-39 loss to Ocean View High School from Orange County and a 52-43 loss to Ramona. The Islanders complete the tournament play with a game against Patrick Henry High School.

The Ramona game was tight throughout with the Islanders trailing the Bulldogs by one at the half and leading by one at the end of three quarters. Castro contributed 17 points and 14 rebounds to the cause, with Strohbeck adding 12 points, five rebounds and five steals. Ramona outscored the Islanders 19-9 in the final frame to earn the victory.

The point of playing a strong tournament and non-conference schedule is to get in position for conference play and the CIF playoffs. "Our schedule is even tougher than last year," added Goodwin. "And there are some real reasons for that. Going in to last year, we weren’t sure if we could walk and chew gum at the same time."

Congratulations to Scott Syverson, who was named by the Union-Tribune as the captain of the water polo All-Academic Team. Probably a good choice since the Princeton-bound senior has a 4.53 grade point average.

Also honored as All-Academic First Team members in their sport were football players J.T. Rogan (3.94) and Joey Naple (4.56) and junior cross country athlete Jake Ruzevick (4.33)

Word comes from Ralph West, who is the major domo of the CHS Baseball Booster Club that there will be a Varsity vs. Alumni baseball game Sunday, Jan. 4 at Strand Field. If you are a true baseball fan, batting practice will be held at 10 am, with the game slated for 12 noon. If you have missed the ‘ping’ of the metal bats, this is the place for you. Check out the newly installed grass infield while you’re there.

Natterette Kristen Axelson, is home from graduate school at U.C. Davis for the holidays. She picked up an old copy of Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut that we had in the house for a little light reading. In the book was a ticket stub from the Kansas City Kings vs. Cleveland Cavaliers NBA game dated Jan. 19, 1974. The price for the floor ticket was $6. My how times and the economics of professional sports have changed.

In the last 24 hours, I have been party to two learned discussion regarding the Chargers and their pending No. 1 draft pick. In both conversations I contended that the Bolts can not and will not win with Drew Brees at quarterback. The response in both cases was something to the effect of, "the Chargers need so much help at so many positions, they can’t afford to take a quarterback with the first pick."

I hate it when people apply logic to a sports discussion.

However, the days of winning in the NFL with a 6-foot tall quarterback are long since past. I believe that Brees gets the most out of his talent, by all accounts practices hard and wants to win. But, he’s also just good enough to get you beat.

Renting a veteran quarterback for a couple of seasons just delays the education process for a new signal caller that will have to be drafted and taught the pro game. The Doug Flutie experiment got the Chargers no further down the road toward success than they were previously. Draft Eli Manning from Ole Miss or Ben Roethlesberger from Miami University, and let them learn the game by making the inevitable mistakes that rookie signal callers make. The most important element is to find a quarterback who wants to play the game, unlike former first round bust Ryan Leaf.

Buying a couple of years of mediocrity by renting a veteran signal caller is the safe call, but it’s the incorrect path to pursue if you want to return to the Super Bowl in this decade.