Flu and the effects that it had on Islander student-athletes was the common theme through all of the story lines of the Coronado High School winter sports teams this week.

The team with perhaps the most talent from top to bottom of the winter teams is the Girls Soccer Team and they had a murderous six-game schedule, had to combat the flu and an injury to Co-Captain Ashley Copp, all in one week. Head Coach Miles Rodriguez had only 11 healthy varsity players at the end of the 6-day period, and had to call on three junior varsity athletes to finish off play in the Barons Tournament.

Play started Monday with a 6-0 victory over Santa Fe Christian. The Islander goals came courtesy of Kelly Walsh with two tallies and single-goal efforts from Copp, Anni Korhonen, Rhett Chase and Dayna Queisser.

An example of the depth of the team is found in Korhonen, who is a freshman from Finland. Her father is in the Finnish Navy and is on assignment at NAS North Island for a couple of years. Ramirez decided to keep her on the varsity and she responded with several goals during the week’s play. "She is a great kid and very composed," said an enthused Ramirez of his newest player. "We decided at the last minute to keep her on the varsity and she gives us depth at the right mid position."

Next came a 10-1 victory over Chula Vista and the scoring parade included two goals each from Copp and Queisser and one each from Walsh, Chase, Korhonen, Marissa Nagler, Kindall Caldwell and Vanessa De la Garza.

Coronado’s first Western League contest followed Friday with a 2-2 tie against Our Lady of Peace. In this game Copp separated her shoulder. "We’re forced to play at Sunset Park with Niedermeyer Field closed to let the grass grow," said Ramirez. "Sunset has divots and holes in the field. Ashley hit a sprinkler cap and fell and separated her shoulder. She’ll be back in 2-3 weeks."

Down 2-0 early to OLP, Queisser and Nagler scored to tie the game.

The Islanders then returned to play in the Barons Tournament, defeating a new charter school in San Diego County, named Preuss Academy by the score of 8-0. Queisser scored a hat trick, as did Chase, with single goals from Jade Hughes and the ever-present Korhonen.

In the semi-finals, the Islanders defeated La Jolla Country Day 1-0 on another Nagler goal, placing them in the finals against Francis Parker. What makes this interesting is that the final game of the tournament against Parker marked the third game for both teams that day.

According to Ramirez, "that’s the way the tournament is formatted, with the quarters, the semis and the finals on one day. We were out there all day. We got there at 9 am and didn’t get home until 8 pm. That’s too much to demand of the kids. It’s just too much."

With both teams forced to play three times in a single day, Ramirez and his Parker counterpart agreed to go directly to penalty kicks if the regulation clock ended in a tie, which of course it did at 1-1. "Neither team would have made it through overtime. If we would have been at full strength the result would have been different," Ramirez said. We didn’t have our depth or specific players in their positions."

Parker captured the Limited Division title based on penalty kicks, winning 3-2. Queisser accounted for the only goal in regulation, pushing her to 12 total goals in the first seven games played. It’s no coincidence that the Islanders are undefeated, with a 5-0-2 record. In interscholastic soccer, games decided by penalty kicks are recorded as ties.

Three more games follow this week with an early-week contest vs. Horizon, a home match against University City at Sunset Park Wednesday at 3:15 and Friday at Point Loma at 3 pm.

The Girls Basketball Team, not to be outdone by their soccer counterparts, was able to dress and play only six players in their 61-28 victory over Mar Vista Tuesday. Four of the six Islanders scored in double figures, led by Alexis Castro with 14, Anne-Marie Strohbeck with 13, and Brooke Becky and Vanessa Gosenheim with 11 each. Ashley Depfer finished with eight points and Amanda Marks contributed four.

"We practiced all with five or six kids," said Head Coach Toler Goodwin. "In some ways it was a very non-productive week. As much as anything, we want to maintain our conditioning." The flu was bad enough that Strohbeck, a senior, missed her first varsity practice in 4 years.

They’ll need to be in good shape with this week’s slate of games. They host La Jolla Wednesday at 6:30 pm, travel to Francis Parker Thursday at 5 pm and then host Orange Glen Saturday at 3:45 pm.

After a relatively slow start, The Boys Basketball Team kicked into overdrive last week with five games and emerged with a 3-2 record. Playing the annual ‘Small Schools Tournament," the Islanders defeated Calvin Christian twice, defeated Mt. Vernon High School from Salt Lake City and lost to Francis Parker and The Bishop’s School.

Head Coach Sandy Dillon has a senior-dominated lineup, with virtually all of the projected contributors being seniors. Tommy Corcoran starts at center, with Bobby Tally, Jimmy Harrison and Brett Milke essentially playing guard positions and Tony Moore at forward and defending the opponent’s best offensive player. Significant minutes will also go to seniors Cote Perkins, Kyle Hammel and Gene Pontes. Reid McLean is the only junior who figures to get extended playing time.

According to Dillon, the Islanders haven’t been practicing well, but the team put forth a good effort in defeating Mt. Vernon, which features a 6-7 center and two 6-4 forwards. "Corcoran is playing well, rebounding and playing really good defense. I was proud of Tony Moore, who has been sick all week. He got a leg cramp, went back in and sucked it up. We wouldn’t have won if he didn’t play well. Tally and Gene Pontes have really been playing well."

After 28, 21 and 3 points in their first three games, Milke rebounded with games of 29 points against Calvin Christian and 34 points against Mt. Vernon, on the strength of 6 three-pointers and 12-24 shooting from the field.

Looking forward to the Islander Christmas Tournament, Coronado will host Castle Park, Silver Valley from Barstow, Julian and Lutheran. On the 26^th, the Islanders will play Lutheran and Julian, on the 27^th Silver Valley and on the 29^th Castle Park.

Phil Trotter, head coach of the Islander Girls Volleyball Team called to say that several of his players were honored with recognition from the Harbor League for their fine play. Megan Mushovic was named Harbor League MVP, and was joined on the All-Harbor League First Team by Jamie Klages. Second Team honors were awarded to Katie Arnold, Janelle Kuhlow and Kelly Phelps.

The Boys Water Polo Team held their annual awards banquet at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course last week. The Western League and CIF Division II awards were the same, so the following athletes earned dual recognition. Tommy Corcoran was named Western League and CIF Division II Player of the Year. John Arnold was named to the First Team, Matt Digges and Scott Syverson were named to the Second Team and Chris Brown to the Third Team.

The Team Individual awards went to: Team Captains – Syverson and Corcoran; MVP Corcoran; Most Valuable Offense – Arnold; Most Valuable Defense – Tim Farrell; Coaches’ Award – Digges; Most Improved – Dylan Carr; the Golden Tassel for academic-athletic excellence – Matt Landon; Islander Sports Foundation Award – Syverson.

The Junior Varsity Awards were: Team Captain – Daniel Pedrotty; MV Offense – Joe Moffitt; MV Defense – John Landon; Coaches’ Awards – Justin Clapper and Mario Batiz; Most Improved – Steven Sullivan.

The Novice Awards went to: Team Captain – David Foy; MV Offense – Prince Sefa-Boakye; MV Defense – Jackson Crow-Mickle; Coaches’ Award – Phillip Bowen; Most Improved – Casey Brown.

While we’re in the pool, the CHS Girls Water Polo team debuted last week with a 13-9 loss to USDHS. One of the interesting elements to the early-going this season is that they were not able to schedule an official scrimmage and their first game was against a strong Western League opponent.

"We went into this cold," said Head Coach Dave Throop. "Uni had already played six games. We knew we would make some first game mistakes, which are correctible. As an example, we gave up nine goals to one girl, which is a rare thing. We’re a good team and we’ll correct those mistakes."

To counter that scoring outburst, Islander Co-Captain Mary Lowe scored five times and Co-Captain Erin Jones added two more. Katherine Burt and Elizabeth Hopkins each added a goal.

And then there was the flu bug, which impacted the water polo squad, according to Throop. "We were pretty hard-hit with the flu, like a lot of students were. We had up to eight girls out of practice. Every day our training group was pretty skeletal. Against USDHS we had 10 girls suited up and all 10 played. It gave everybody a chance to get their feet wet."

Assuming that last quote wasn’t meant to be a pun, we’ll move along. Throop will have senior Coral Kuvala and junior Megan Braun split time in goal. Four starters return from last year’s 20-2 team, in Lowe, Jones, Burt and Hopkins. Also competing for starting spots are senior Cindy Van Orden, Sophomore Sandra Fernandez and Freshman Katie Estrada.

"We suffered some big losses in personality and talent from last year with Genevieve Jordan and Katie Hansen graduating and Rachel Jordan transferring to Fallbrook," Throop added. "But, for the first time ever, we have a really big training group with 22 girls working out with the varsity group. They are very eager and very interested in learning. We’ll do much more teaching this year."

Throop is assisted by Program Director Randy Burgess, Varsity Assistant and CHS Alumna Beth Jay (CHS ‘99), alumnus Corey Berta (CHS ’95), and Ian Silverman returns as JV Head Coach.

CHS Head Track and Field Coach George Green checks in with some youth sports news. "This weekend at the USATF National Junior Olympic Youth Cross Country Championships held in Albuquerque, San Diego’s Southern California Road Runners won the Midget Girls National Championship. What’s remarkable about this accomplishment is two of our top girls on the team succumbed to the mile-high altitude with breathing problems.

The team, however, was deep enough to overcome this deficit and earn a win over Los Gatos Athletics by the score of 79 to 103. Three Roadrunners were named All-Americans by finishing in the top 25 out of the 300 plus field. Erin Gillingham placed second over the 3k course in 11:33.7 followed by Haidee Ortiz (eighth in 12:19.7) and Dede Spinler (17^th in 12:25.7). The remaining team members’ order of finish was: Vanessa Zucker, Tiffany Duffy, Shanna St. Laurent, Bridget Nicolai and Sallie Privett.

In the Bantam division Darren Fahy placed third in the boys’ race and Maegan Garritson 19^th in the girls’ event. In the Midget Boys’ race Parker Stinson made the cut in 21^st place. In the Youth Boys’ division Travis Kuhlman placed 18^th.

Out of all 10 divisions (5 girls and 5 boys), and over 2,500 runners the SCRR’s midget girls were the only California team to win a National Championship. The Southern California Roadrunners is the only youth team in San Diego dedicated to distance and cross country running and we took 46 runners to the Nationals. Details about the team and how to join can be found at our web site at www.scrr-sd.com."