Give Miles Ramirez, head coach of the Coronado High School Girls Soccer Team credit. More than a month ago, Sunday, February 1 to be exact, Ramirez "called his shot." Coming off of a week where his team had lost two games, one of them to University of San Diego High School by the score of 2-0, Ramirez said, "the next time we see them, they won’t have any more punches. We’ve seen everything they’ve got."

Keep in mind that Coronado had never defeated USDHS in girls soccer going into Saturday evening’s CIF Division III playoff against the Dons, played at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego. Defeating USDHS represented the proverbial windmill to Ramirez as Don Quixote, the ultimate quest.

To make the job more formidable, except for one week of the entire season the Dons had been ranked No. 1 in all of San Diego County. "Quite frankly, I don’t think anyone gave us a prayer to win the game," Ramirez said.

What Ramirez couldn’t have predicted was the dramatic fashion in which the game was won by the Islanders. Tied at the end of regulation 1-1, senior standout Dayna Queisser took a pass from Vanessa De La Garza who had intercepted a USDHS pass, and drilled home the shot for a ‘Golden Goal’ and the CIF title. All of this came a scant three and one-half minutes into overtime and Coronado emerged with the 2-1 victory, a landmark win for the program and the CIF title.

Queisser played a major role in both Islander goals. Coronado’s first goal came when the Don’s sweeper fouled the Cal-Berkeley bound senior in the penalty box. Junior Ashley Copp then converted the penalty kick. Queisser, who was double-teamed throughout the entire game, finished her senior season with 23 goals, helping lead the Islanders to a 21-4-5 mark. Queisser produced the game-winning goal in all four playoff games this season and had the playoff game-winning goal a total of six times during her Islander career.

Don’t think the Islanders backed into the title. Coronado defeated unranked Santana, followed by No. 3 ranked Our Lady of Peace, No. 2 Westview and No. 1 USDHS to earn the Division III crown. While fighting their way through the bracket, Coronado yielded only one goal in the playoffs, a credit to the stingy Islander defense and junior Goalie Jamie Klages, who had eight saves in the title tilt.

"Sasha Vido played tremendously well," said Ramirez, who earned his second CIF title as head coach of the Islander girls soccer program. "Really the entire team stepped up. Rhett Chase did a great job of organizing the defense. The key point in the game was that we weren’t intimidated by them. We matched their intensity and physicality. If there was a 50-50 ball, we were going after and winning it. There wasn’t a better team in the county that day than us."

For the CHS Class of 2004, this marked their second CIF title, the first coming as freshmen when they defeated Francis Parker for the Division IV crown. Seniors from that club still involved in the program include Queisser, Chase, Teal Jensen, Christian Alley and Jade Hughes.

Ramirez was still enthused about his club’s effort 24 hours later. "It was definitely a day to remember. I could tell we were going to win by the kids’ mindset and their preparation. Rhett said at the beginning of the season, at the tryouts, that we would be in the finals. In all of our playoff games, we didn’t allow the opposing team to get started offensively. I’m very happy for the girls. They worked so hard all year long. Everyone played and everyone contributed. When I made a substitution, they went in and did a number for us. There is a great collection of talent on this team."

Ramirez also credited Assistant Coach Rich Keyes for his role in the championship season. "I have to give special thanks to Rich. He was our tactician all season long. Rich put a lot of time and thought into the game plan for the USDHS game."

We’ll make the prediction this time. Ramirez and the Islanders will return to many CIF title games in the future.

From the "it’s probably not going to be this easy all year" department, let’s introduce you to the Islander Baseball Team, which blitzed Madison 11-0 to win the opening game of their 2004 campaign. Head Coach Sam Ceci, who usually gives new meaning to the term "brutally honest," was downright giddy when discussing his team and their prospects. "It’s probably the best team we’ve had from top to bottom, facing the toughest schedule we’ve seen. We have five good infielders and four solid outfielders. We’ve never had this kind of depth before."

In fairness to Ceci, scoring 11 runs in the first game of the year will turn the most taciturn coach into Mary Poppins. That run total often represented a 2-week supply of plate-crossing for last year’s squad.

Baseball is a relatively simple game when you have pitching and the Islanders have a staff paced by sophomore hurler Kevin Couture that will win a lot of games this season. "We’re pretty formidable with Kevin on the mound," said Ceci of the Harbor League’s ‘Pitcher of the Year,’ an accolade Couture earned as a freshman. "He’s almost unstoppable."

Senior Loren Murillo, who was 4-0 last year is in the No. 2 slot. And junior transfer (from Francis Parker) Michael Hollinger, who is 6-4 and throws hard, will also compete for the No. 2 spot. Geoff Thorne will be the closer. Others who will see mound time include Max Weinfurtner, David West and Josh Okerman.

The position players include Thorne, who will do the vast majority of catching and is the team’s most potent power threat; senior Bryce Blumenthal at third base; Couture plays shortstop when he isn’t on the mound; Blake Spitzer plays second base and shortstop when Couture pitches; Weinfurtner backs up Spitzer; while senior Jacques Spitzer holds down first base.

The outfield features J.T. Rogan in left, Ryan Nunn in center, and either Josh Okerman or David West in right. Other players who figure to contribute include Will Nygard and Drew Chance.

The team makes a big leap in the level of their competition to the Western League this season, which has produced the CIF Division III champion seven times in the past 10 years. "It’s the dominant league in Division III without a doubt," Ceci said. "We have our work cut out for us, but we think we can compete with them. We don’t sneak up on too many people any more. We had a chance to stay in the Harbor League, but we didn’t think we could continue to improve as a team in that league."

Not only is the Western League tough with the likes of Mission Bay, USDHS, La Jolla, Point Loma, University City and Clairemont, but the Islanders non-conference schedule includes St. Augustine, Morse, Serra, Madison, Horizon Christian, and Hoover. Once again Coronado is the smallest school in enrollment among the 22 teams in Division III.

In the Madison game, Couture struck out 10 Warhawk hitters, including six in a row at one point. The Islander first inning yielded nine runs, with seven of the tallies scored with two outs. Thorne, Couture and Rogan all had two hits in the game, with Couture and Rogan scoring three runs each. Coronado pounded out 13 hits on their way to the victory.

The coaching staff consists of Ceci and his assistants Jerry Brown, Brad Couture and Bill Seager. Blaze Smallwood and Bo Blumenthal lead the JV squad.

The Boys Basketball season ended with a CIF Division IV semi-final loss to The Bishop’s School last Tuesday, by the score of 57-49. With 6:48 remaining in the contest, the Islanders trailed the Knights by 16 points and then Coronado staged a furious rally to get the game to within four points with 1:03 remaining in the game.

Coronado had to foul to regain possession and Bishop’s hit six of their final eight free throws to put the game out of reach.

"We played well, they just played better," said Head Coach Sandy Dillon of the game. "I can’t be too upset, because the kids played hard. I would have liked to get to Cox Arena to see what that was like, but it just didn’t happen. It was just a really good year. We were 21-8 and seven of our eight losses were to teams that made the semis or finals in some bracket or another. We scheduled tougher this year and we played teams tough."

Seniors Tony Moore and Bobby Tally led the Islanders in scoring with 12 points each, with Jimmy Harrison adding another 10 points. Center Tommy Corcoran had six points and an Islander-high 10 rebounds. Julian Cole contributed four points and five rebounds. Bishop’s held Islander’s leading scorer Brett Milke to five points on seven shot attempts.

Adding to the Islanders problems was the fact that Bishop’s was red hot from the floor, well over 60 percent in the early part of the game. The Knights game stats found them converting on 20 of their 42 field goal attempts for a .476 shooting percentage.

In related news, Milke was named to the All-Harbor League First Team and Moore earned All-Harbor League Second Team honors.

Next season will be one of new faces for the Islanders as 11 of the 13 varsity members from 2003-04 will graduate, leaving Kevin Couture and Reid McLean as the lone varsity holdovers. However, there is help coming from the JV level in Hunter Chance, Jonathan Smith, Brian Farley, Chas Marks, Ryan Guard, Blake Spitzer, Adam Munns and Brad Munns to name a few. That group posted a 22-2 mark on the JV level and were undefeated in Harbor League play.

The Girls Basketball Team met a similar fate, losing to Bishop’s on the road in the semis by the score of 52-38. Senior Alexis Castro, who is bound for the University of Vermont, scored 14 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out six assists.

Castro received considerable help from senior Anne Marie Strohbeck, who contributed nine points and nine rebounds. Fellow senior Janelle Kuhlow added 10 points in her final Islander outing.

"I thought we played extremely hard, but we made a few too many mistakes as a group," commented Islander Head Coach Toler Goodwin. "Defensively we played well and with a great deal of intensity all the way through. We just didn’t get enough shots and enough chances to score points. Janelle really gave us a spark in the third quarter."

Coronado trailed by four points at the end of the first quarter and by 10 at halftime, before staging a rally that got the Islanders to within two points with five minutes to play.

The team finished with a fine 21-8 overall record. The Bishops game was the career finale for Castro, Strohbeck, Kuhlow, Nikki Hayden and Ashley Settle. Goodwin returns a nucleus that includes Amanda Marks, Brooke Becky, Vanessa Gosenheim, and Ashley Depfer as players who saw considerable varsity floor time. Also returning are Farrell Pompa, Jessica Ricci-Davis, and Lisa Hejl, all of whom gained varsity experience this season.