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Nado Natterings |
A weekly column by David Axelson |
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Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive
Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation
2 April 2008 Issue No. 13
Last week was relatively slow
on the
Islanders
Compete in
CHS Head Track
and Field Coach George Green checks in with news from his team. “Due
to spring break,
In the
Invitational long jump, Kyle Brown soared to 22 feet, 4 inches to place
third, then came back later in the Invitational triple jump for another third
place showing, with a mark of 44 feet. He finished behind a jumper from Iona
Prep in
In the
girls Invitational 1,600-meter run, the front runners went out way too fast
then slowed way down and bunched up once they heard the first lap time. After
this, the race became strategic with
Islander
Baseball Team Posts 3-0 Mark in City Conference Tourney
The CHS Baseball Schedule
typically consists of several tournaments at the outset of the season, the last
of which annually is the 20-team City Conference Tournament. All of the teams
from the Western, Eastern and Central Leagues participate, with the clubs
divided into four divisions of five teams each.
Last week
Wednesday Coronado boogied
over to Mira Mesa, where they bested yet another Division I (larger schools)
opponent, by the score of 6-1. “Mira Mesa was a good day all the way around,”
said Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci. “They helped us a lot with critical
base running mistakes. Bryan Crabb threw a great game. We turned two
double plays on line drive outs and had one ground out double play. They
committed two base running errors, trying to gain an extra base in the last
inning. They played like rookies and we played like veterans. Their pitcher was
a hard-throwing guy who hit both Pokorny and Keith Englehart to open the
game. That was the key to the whole game. They thought they could intimidate
us. Our first four hitters scored Wednesday and never looked back.”
The week’s third contest was
over when it was scheduled, as the first 11 hitters for
To advance from their bracket,
“Last year we won the first
(semi-final) game and then got thumped in the second,” Ceci recalled. “That’s a
tough twin bill and those are some tough teams. We’re playing pretty well,
knock on wood. The kids have been very efficient. In years past we have had to
rely on emotion to win ballgames. The kids are showing the ability to be real
stable and workmanlike. We kept the pressure on Crawford the whole time. We’re
pleased and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
Softball
Opens Western League Play
Despite being on spring break,
the CHS Softball Team opened Western League play last week and fell on
the road to Point Loma 6-1 and then to University City 14-7 Friday at home. As
is the case in Western League baseball, there are no weak teams in the Western
League in softball.
“Point Loma struck for four
unearned runs in the first inning,” said Coronado Head Coach Marti Bonelli.
“The defense rebounded and played much better for the balance of the game, only
allowing single runs in the fourth and sixth innings. Offensively we were
stymied by an All-League pitcher and a very solid defense.”
Friday Coronado hosted
The bad news followed shortly
thereafter when the Centurions sent 12 batters to the plate in the third
inning, scoring seven runs on six hits.
Perhaps the best defensive
play of the day was turned in by the
Wednesday Coronado travels to
Boys Volleyball
Off to 5-4 Start
Steve Merrill’s CHS Boys
Volleyball Team was off last week, but had a positive result a week ago
against The Bishop’s School, winning games one and three, while losing games
two, four and the fifth set tiebreaker by the score of 15-11.
“In the Bishop’s game, middle
hitter Brett Clifford played real well,” said Merrill. “Dan Ross
was our librero (defensive specialist) and contributed in our back row defense
and with his serving. Nick De Marco got a start at outside hitter and
helped with the left side attack. Junior Quintero played well at outside
hitter.”
Merrill employs push-ups and
sit-ups as a coaching device of sorts, making his players perform one exercise
or the other for mistakes in practices and games. A typical practice includes
300 or so pushups, although not all at one time. “We can’t keep making the same
mistakes. We do pushups on serves into the net or if we make mistakes on a free
ball or give up an ace,” Merrill said. “
This week the team returns to
the court Tuesday at Bonita Vista and Thursday Coronado will host
Boys
Lacrosse Wins Big Game vs. Torrey Pines
Friday night found
What made the game interesting
and caused considerable heartburn on the
Now that spring break has
concluded, the games come in a fast and furious fashion, with three on tap for
this week alone. Monday Coronado hosts Granite Hills at
The game, which is at
CHS Track
and Field Team Combines with La Salsa Restaurant for Fundraiser
A quick reminder that the La Salsa
Mexican Grill, located at
The concept is simple. Take a
copy of the special fundraising flyer, which can be downloaded from
IslanderSportsFoundation.com, with you to La Salsa and 20 per cent of the net
sales of your food order will go to the CHS Track and Cross Country Teams. In
addition, you can phone in your order ahead of time by calling 435-7778. Eating
and donating at the same time is a wonderful concept.
There Is No
Gray Area Regarding ESPN’s Bob Knight
ESPN’s coverage of the 2008
NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has an added element this year in the presence
of legendary coach Robert Montgomery Knight. Love him or hate him, there
is seemingly no gray area when it comes to the 67-year-old Knight.
ESPN, which has made Knight
available to the sports-loving public on their network radio and television
shows over the past couple of weeks, seemingly has opened the way for the
‘Nixonization’ of Knight on the national stage.
Richard Nixon was on a
personal roller coaster during his political career, going from president, to
despised and disgraced politician. At the time of his death in 1994 Nixon,
through a carefully crafted series of television and print interviews, had
gradually elevated himself to the role of senior statesman, particularly in the
area of foreign policy. Editorial writers, while continuing to rightfully point
out Nixon’s transgressions in office, grudgingly acknowledged the
thirty-seventh
Knight’s newly launched media
career seems equally crafted and directed towards polishing his tarnished
personal image, becoming a member of the media fraternity which he openly
ridiculed and despised during his brilliant coaching career. The television
studio version of Knight allows his depth of knowledge to come through, while
maintaining his independence. Notice that Knight alone among the talking heads
on any given ESPN show, is the only commentator wearing a sweater and not the
designated ESPN dress uniform of jacket, dress shirt and tie. We’ll have more
on Knight and his proclivity for sweaters later in this column.
Knight has constructed a
storied coaching career, amassing more wins than any other men’s college
basketball coach with a total of 902 victories. His stops along the way
included the
But Knight’s genius on the
court has often been overshadowed by his ballistic temper. While with the U.S.
Olympic Team in
More serious in my estimation
is the improper physical contact Knight had with his players, including kicking
his own son Patrick during a game in 1993. A similar incident occurred in 2006
while coaching at Texas Tech, when Knight struck a player in the chin while
attempting to have him focus on the verbal tirade being directed his way.
In 1986, while in the employ
of the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, one of my responsibilities was to write and
edit a magazine that featured both the Kings and ARCO Arena, which had common
ownership. During the 1985-86 season,
Basketball is a relatively
small world and despite the fact that college coaches and administrators have
never and will never really trust their professional counterparts, there is
interaction between the radically different worlds. My interaction with Knight
came in 1987 when the Sacramento Kings, who were wildly popular at the
professional basketball level in their recently
adopted hometown. It was decided that as an organization, we wanted to
recognize and promote basketball at the high school, college and university
levels in the
After some reflection, the
staff decided to pursue Knight as our keynote speaker for the black tie event.
As luck would have it, Knight accepted the speaking engagement a couple of
months prior to leading
Also fortuitous was the fact
that Knight was participating in the Olympic Basketball Trials camp in
Knight was charming and witty
in his 20-minute speaking presentation that evening in
But the real surprise came in
the mail a couple of weeks later, when I received the invoice for Knight’s
travel expenses, which as for all big name speakers, is part of the fee.
Instead of being billed for the short hop from
The Good Knight reveres the
ground breakers in college basketball who have come before him, among them
hoops legends Clair Bee, Hank Iba and Pete Newell. This version of Knight has
also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the libraries of schools where
he has coached, the first being
The Good Knight has also come
to the aid of former star player Landon Turner, who was paralyzed in a car
accident 26 years ago, ending what looked to be a promising pro career.
Landon’s mother Rita Turner said after a recent ceremony at Assembly Hall at
The Dark Knight has publically
sparred, and not in a positive manner, with former players and protégés Duke
Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski and New Mexico Head Coach Steve Alford. This version
of Knight also deserted his Texas Tech post this season, abandoning players he
had recruited to the program with 11 games remaining on the schedule. This was
done apparently to insure the fact that his son Pat would succeed him at the
helm of the Red Raider program. The elder Knight was roundly criticized for
abandoning the program in mid-season, including his future colleagues at ESPN.
Pat Knight guided Texas Tech
to four wins and seven losses to conclude the season, with his coaching
highlight being a victory over the
So, is Knight brilliant or a
bully? Is he incredibly loyal and witty or petty and volatile? At times he is
all of that and more. As a veteran follower of Knight, mostly from afar, it
appears to me that Knight will return to coaching and that the ESPN stint is
designed to present the reasonable, erudite edition of Knight to the public and
to athletic directors who might just take another chance hoping that the Good
Knight will emerge more often than not and put their basketball program on the
map.
It seems to me on balance that
the final question to be asked about Knight should be, ‘Would you like to have
your son play for Coach Knight?’ With Knight’s former player Mike Woodson’s
emotionally negative response to the Hall of Fame coach still in my mind more
than 20 years later, my response would be ‘no.’