Senior center Alexis Castro of the CHS Varsity Girls Basketball Team had a strong week as she helped lead the Islanders to a 75-29 win over Madison Tuesday, followed by a 64-36 victory over Hoover.

Against the Warhawks, Castro scored 23 points and against the Cardinals the University of Vermont-bound star had 26 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists. Castro is one of a rare breed in sports, a player so good that she makes her teammates better.

One person who knows first-hand about her talent is Head Coach Toler Goodwin. "Alexis is so dangerous. She can create off the dribble and she creates well for others with her passing ability. If you keep your head up, she’ll get the ball to you."

With the game well in hand at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Goodwin sent Castro back onto the court with an unusual assignment. "I told her that I was putting her back in with a couple of the young kids to make them feel like they’re involved. And I told her to get them under control and get them some shots. She has great floor vision and a great sense of the game."

Other contributors to the Islanders victory Friday evening were Janelle Kuhlow with 10 points, Ashley Depfer with eight points, Amanda Marks with six, and Anne Marie Strohbeck with five.

Goodwin also gave fans a preview of things to come next year, as for much of the last quarter he had players on the floor who figure to compete for slots in next year’s starting unit. At one point, Marks, Depfer, Jessica Davis-Ricci, Farrell Pompa, and Brooke Becky were all on the floor. Admittedly the 2003-04 Hoover Cardinal aren’t going to be compared to the 1972-73 L.A. Lakers, but the Islander youngsters ran the offense, and looked like they had a concept.

"I wanted some of the kids we might have next year on the floor together," added Goodwin. "In the playoffs you always get to some lineups that you don’t think you would use. It gets the kids familiarity by playing with each other."

The victory over Hoover improved the Islanders record to 16-7 and 6-0 in the Harbor League, with four regular season conference games remaining. Goodwin in handicapping the CIF playoff seeding thinks the Islanders will be in the 3-4 range in Division IV, with La Jolla Country Day at No. 1, Bishop’s at No. 2 and either Francis Parker or Coronado in the No. 3 slot.

A total of nine teams will make the Division IV playoffs, with the No. 8 and No. 9 teams holding a playoff to see who will face top-ranked La Jolla Country Day. A seeding problem facing the Islanders is a one-point loss at Parker earlier in the season, when several Coronado players had the flu. Also, it looks like the Islanders will also have to win the balance of their games to have a legitimate shot at the No. 3 slot.

This week the Islanders have an early-week game against Christian, followed by a game Wednesday at Clairemont.

Your Natterer and Mark Blumenthal served as the color analyst and play-by-play announcers respectively for the taping of the Coronado vs. Hoover Boys and Girls Basketball doubleheader, which will be shown on Time-Warner local cable Channel 19. If all goes well from a production standpoint, the games should debut Wednesday evening at 5 pm. If not, check out Saturday morning at 10 am. CHS grad Luke Shearer of Time Warner is the videographer and director. Mark and his company Blumenthal Insurance Services are the sponsors of the production.

The Boys Basketball Team split last week, with a 61-49 victory over Madison and an 86-74 loss to Hoover.

In the Madison win, Head Coach Sandy Dillon employed the strategy of calling every offensive play in the first half, allowing the Islanders to take a 30-12 lead at the halftime break. "We played an absolutely perfect first half against Madison," said Dillon. "We frustrated them and we had a good shot every time down the court. We had four kids score in double figures, with Jimmy Harrison with 14, Tony Moore and Brett Milke with 13 each and Bobby Talley with 10."

The Hoover game became the JayDee Luster show, as the short in stature (5’9"), but talented Cardinal freshman scored 31 points and had handed out 11 assists. Luster had a direct role in 53 of Hoover’s 86 points, thus accounting for 62 percent of his club’s scoring. In addition, Luster was 19-21 from the free throw line for the evening.

"We couldn’t get Luster stopped," Dillon said. "His (Hoover Head Coach Ollie Goulston) plan was to race the ball down the floor as fast as he could and it worked. We played really hard. We were down by 21 and got it back to eight and if we hadn’t thrown the ball away twice late in the game, we might have gotten back into it. There is no doubt that they would have panicked if we would have hit another shot or two."

"They’re worn down a little bit," Dillon continued to say of his team. "We’ll see how they respond. They wanted a tougher schedule and it was tougher than we expected."

Against Hoover, Tommy Corcoran kept the Islanders in the game in the early going and finished with 14 points. Moore stepped up with 19 points, many of them in the third quarter and Harrison also added 19. Most of Milke’s 12 points came in the fourth quarter as the Islanders outscored Hoover 22-15 in the final frame and made a late run.

The Islanders are now 16-7 and 3-3 in the Harbor League. The loss to Hoover eliminated the Islanders from Harbor League title contention, but the CIF playoffs are on the immediate horizon. This week the Islanders play at Clairemont on Wednesday and travel to Christian on Friday.

It’s been a struggle, but the Girls Water Polo Team poked their collective heads above the .500 mark last week as they went 4-3 in the seven games they played. The end of the week found them in the 32-team SoCal Invitational and by the time the smoke had cleared at the end of the day Saturday, it marked the 24^th game they had played in the previous 33 days.

The week started with Western League victories over Patrick Henry and LaJolla. Then seeded 10^th, the Islanders headed to Irvine for the SoCal event. In the first round they defeated Irvine 11-2. They then defeated Woodbridge, who was seeded seventh by the score of 9-8. Prior to their loss to Coronado, Woodbridge had lost only to Bishop’s and Foothill this season. In the contest, Islander Elizabeth Hopkins scored five goals, which helped her earn All-Tournament Team recognition.

Then the sledding was mostly up hill for the young Coronado team. Playing without senior stalwart Erin Jones, who missed the entire tournament with bronchitis, the Islanders lost to No. 1 seed Newport Harbor 15-7. They then drew No. 3 seed Los Alamitos and despite trailing 8-2 at one point, came back to lose by the score of 9-6. No. 5 seed Santa Margarita was next and the Islanders lost 7-6 in sudden-death overtime.

"It was a really positive week," noted Head Coach Dave Throop. "We jumped over some hurdles and we gained some steps in confidence. Those were five of the tougher games we will play this season. Some fatigue has set in with the team. I’m looking forward to 5 days of practice this week and 5 days of practice next week."

The CIF Division II format is that 12 teams make the playoffs, with the Top 4 teams receiving first round byes. Coronado figures to be in the 3-4 range with Western League opponent University City, who split with the Islanders this season, in competition for the No. 3 slot as well. Strength of schedule, where the Islanders play the best teams in California on a routine basis, might make the difference.

This Saturday the Islanders host Newport Harbor at LaJolla High School, with the varsity game scheduled for 4 pm and the Varsity ‘B’ game to be played immediately afterward.

After last week’s 2-1 victory over Hoover and their 5-1 loss to Crawford, Boys Soccer Head Coach Brian Hiatt is a little more upbeat about the Islanders playoff chances than he was in recent weeks. Coronado’s record is now 9-5-2, with four games remaining.

"Beating Hoover really, really helped," said Hiatt. "Now we need to beat Clairemont and Christian and finish second in the Harbor League. If we can beat Serra and Preuss Academy, we would be 13-5-2. The hardest game is going to be at Clairemont."

In the victory over Hoover, junior Stuart Gallant and freshman Taylor Patino scored the Islander goals. In the loss to Crawford, Ryan Haig had the lone Islander score.

In a trend among the winter sports coaches, several have voiced complaints regarding the level of officiating during league contests. None is more vocal than Hiatt.

"Officials are deciding games instead of controlling them. We played at Crawford and lost 5-1. Granted they are better than us and I don’t want to take credit away from the other team, but we had an official call two penalty kicks from 50 yards away. It ruined the game and put it out of reach. We see the kids every day for three and a half months, 2 hours per day, and the officials are deciding the games. Being the Harbor League rep (to the CIF soccer coach’s board) I’m going to say something about it."

The Girls Soccer Team tied their only game last week, a 1-1 affair versus Scripps Ranch, played at Alliant International University. The Falcons had one shot on goal and scored. The Islanders had 12 shots on goal and scored once. Junior midfielder Erin Buss accounted for the equalizer with 5 minutes remaining in the game.

"We had every opportunity to win the game," Head Coach Miles Ramirez said. "We’re not playing poorly, we’re just not putting the ball away like we used to. We’re controlling the tempo of the game, but we’re allowing teams to hand around and ankle-bite us when we should be three or four goals ahead."

Ramirez noted the fine play of the Walsh sisters this past week. "Junior Ashley Walsh has been contributing offensively and Freshman Kelly Walsh is helping out in the middle. Kelly plays center mid and she is doing a great job with her (ball) distribution out of the middle. They find each other a lot during the game."

Like many of the Coronado winter sports teams, the Girls Soccer club is in the 3-4-5 range for playoff seeding consideration. "There are a lot of Division III teams in our own league that are battling for the Top 4 spots," Ramirez noted. "From top to bottom, the Western League is separated by only one and one-half games. The league title probably won’t be decided until the last game."

This week, the Islanders host University City in an early week game, host Christian at 3:15 on Wednesday, and host Marian Catholic at 6 pm Friday evening. That game will be Senior Night, as well as Coronado Youth Soccer Night. "Hopefully we can pack the stands for the regular season finale," added Ramirez.