Leading our look at Coronado High School sports is the Boys Water Polo Team, which forged a 3-2 mark last week, while competing against some of the strongest competition in the state in their sport. Their first encounter was the renewal of the Islanders rivalry with Knights from The Bishop’s School. To review the bidding, Coronado defeated Bishop’s in four consecutive CIF Division II finals up to last year, when the Knights exacted some revenge by winning all three of their matches against Coronado, including the CIF Division II title game. "We hadn’t beaten Bishop’s in a while," said Head Coach Randy Burgess. "It was good to get off to a good start knowing that we may have two more games with them this year." As has been the case throughout the season thus far, Coronado‘s victory was a team effort, with six players accounting for the goals scored by the Islanders in the 11-8 win. Matt Digges and Tommy Corcoran scored three goals each, with John Arnold adding two scores, Chris Brown contributed four assists and a goal, and solo goals were tallied by Sean Castillo and Joey Jankiewicz. Mix in an 11-save effort by goalie Scott Syverson and you have the makings of an overall team effort. The Islanders then made their annual trek to the SoCal Invitational, hosted by Corona del Mar and Tustin High Schools in the Los Angeles area. Arnold paced the Islanders in their opening round battle against Los Alamitos, scoring five goals from his center-forward position. Jankiewicz added three goals, Brown had five assists, Syverson stopped nine shots and the Islanders came away with a solid 9-5 victory.Round two found Coronado matched against Harvard Westlake, with both teams sporting undefeated records as they entered the pool. "We were down 9-5 at halftime, after a slow start," Burgess noted. "We fought back and made it close. We got to within one goal in the third quarter before losing 13-10." Corcoran scored four goals, Digges contributed three and Jankiewicz had four assists.A 7-6 victory over San Clemente set up a game for fifth place against perennial prep water polo power Long Beach Wilson. "It was the most physical game of the year," added Burgess. "The game had a total of 18 exclusions, plus three double ejections. They had four more power plays than we did and they won by four goals 11-7. Each situation was a learning situation this week and the loses were great learning experiences for us."This week is a relatively light one for the Islanders, with an early week match at La Jolla High School the only contest scheduled. In a reflection of his coaching philosophy, Burgess summarized the week ahead. "We have a fairly easy schedule this week, which means we get to train hard." On the horizon looms an Oct. 25 road rematch with Long Beach Wilson.

Islander Head Track Coach George Green checks in with the news from the Boys & Girls Cross Country Teams. "Even without Jake Ruzevick, who was touring Ivy League schools in Boston, the Islander cross country team had no trouble with Christian at the first dual cross country meet of the season, held at Morley Field Thursday.

Brad Munns, Ryan Haig and Jack Harms finished 1-2-3 to lock up the meet, followed
by Blake Gorey (5^th), Reid McLean (7^th), Judd Lyon (9^th), Alton Smith
(10^th), and Andrew Cox (13^th) to win easily 18 – 41 (low score wins). 

Katherine Wingert, Beth Wittry, Caitlin Alley and Ashley Walsh occupied the first four spots in the Girls race followed by Karoline Ivarsson (6^th) and Caitlin Bigham (7^th) in a 16-43 romp. Munns clocked 18:24 for 3.1 miles and Wingert 18:22 for 2.75 miles. On Sunday two Coronado Middle School cross country runners slipped into their
alter egos (and uniforms) of the Southern California Roadrunners to place first
and second in the 12 and under girls division of the "Do The Bridge" 8-kilometer (5
miles) that ended in Tidelands Park.

Not only did Sallie Privett win her division she was the first female finisher out of all age groups placing 21^st out of over 440 runners with a time of 33:11. Her teammate, Brianna Basak, was 77th overall and the 16th female finisher."

The Islander Varsity Football Team had a rare bye in the schedule this week, which gave the Coronado squad additional time to prepare for Friday evening’s home contest against Madison, the opener to the Harbor League season for both teams. When asked about the impact of the week off, Head Coach Bud Mayfield provided a typically candid answer. "We’re in uncharted territory, because we’ve never had a bye week before. The question is ‘how will we respond?’ It gave us an opportunity to refresh our own fundamentals. We work on our problems before we work on the team we play. We’ve got to fix us first. We can’t coach them (the opposing team)."The Coronado vs. Madison pairing is starting to have the look of a rivalry as the Islanders defeated the Warhawks two of the last three times they met on the gridiron, with the Harbor League title on the line. "We weren’t supposed to beat them either time," said Mayfield. "We beat them during the passing league this summer as well. They’ll be coming after us with some grim determination. But we usually play really well at home. We’ll have our 12^th man (the fans and students) behind us."Coronado enters the game at 5-0, and ranked No. 10 in last week’s Union-Tribune writer’s poll. Madison is coming off of a 7-0 loss to USDHS, which places their record at 3-2. Employing a new phrase coined by the ESPN sports media conglomerate, this could be "separation week" in the Harbor League. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm Friday. Speaking of football, the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll took a major hit last weekend, going 11-11-3 (three teams didn’t play). Five of the games featured teams which were both ranked (Oklahoma vs. Texas, Miami vs. Florida State, Ohio State vs. Wisconsin, Georgia vs. Tennessee and Minnesota vs. Michigan), but a .500 record in a major poll is a surprising outcome to say the least. Scholarship limitations have created parity in college sports and it appears that the class of the college field is Oklahoma and Miami and I’m not sold on the Hurricanes.

Next-to-last football mention – "How ‘bout those Chargers?" Final football mention – "How ‘bout those Aztecs?"

The Girls Volleyball Team won a big match last week as they defeated Clairemont 15-25, 25-13, 25-19, 24-26 and 15-6 to push their Harbor League leading record to 3-0. "We played better in the end than in the beginning," said Head Coach Phil Trotter of his squad. "Megan Mushovic played well, plus Jamie Klages had 15 kills and is really starting to come around. Katy Arnold had 10 kills and really played a great all-around match. Our other hitters Ashley Copp and Deidre Kelly also played well. Our defense is getting better with help from back row specialist Alex Vido, who is really quick."Playing over the weekend in the LaJolla tournament which was played in part in Coronado, the Islanders started play 0-3 in pool play. Contributing to that record was the fact that eventual tourney champion Santa Fe Christian was in the same pool. "We played some tight games," commented Trotter. "We actually played Santa Fe Christian really tough, along with the other teams. We lost to Chula Vista 15-12 in the third (final) game. We played well and beat Durango from Las Vegas and lost to Imperial High School 15-12 in the third game in the consolation semi-finals."Trotter added that the week’s play may preview the CIF Playoffs. "I’m happy with the group and we’re moving along. We have talented kids who are learning to play together. Imperial is in our CIF division and if that is an indication, we should do well. If we continue to improve, we should be ready for the playoffs."An early week game at Madison is followed by a home match against Gompers on Thursday. The CHS Girls Golf Team faced their toughest conference opponent last week in the USDHS Lady Dons, coming out on the short end of a 227-250 score in a match played at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course. Head Coach Kari Weidner mentioned the play of her No. 1 and 2 players Monica Ascolani and Alexi Sanchez who shot 43 and a 48 respectively. In other team news, freshman Lexi Donovan’s play has earned her the sixth spot on the varsity rotation. Starting this season, the Girls Golf teams in San Diego County play six matches against each opponent, with the best five scores counting toward the team total.

"We start our second round of the conference schedule this week," added Weidner. "I’d like to come out with wins on Tuesday and Thursday." The matches are both on the Coronado Municipal home course against LaJolla and Scripps Ranch.

The Girls Tennis Team continued their play against some of the toughest teams in the county, most of which compete in the Western League. "This is the strongest Western League in a long time," opined Head Coach Robbin Adair. A 14-4 loss to USDHS Tuesday and a 16-2 loss to LaJolla later in the week proved his theory. Adair handicaps the CIF playoffs as LaJolla being the favorite in Division II and USDHS being the co-favorites with Bishop’s in Division III. In between the league matches was an 11-7 loss to Granite Hills in a non-league tilt. "The Granite Hills match was close," Adair said. "We lost five sets by tiebreakers." The seven Islander matches were won by Justine Gordon with two wins, Briana Acuna with one set, Kelsey Dampier/Gretchen Nielsen won two sets and Blaire Herron/Elizabeth Hopkins, and Patience Collum/Stephanie Haldeman won one set each. This week in three straight matches starting Tuesday, Coronado plays at Scripps Ranch, art El Capitan and at University City. The match against U.C. starts the second round of Western League play for the Islanders.