There are several weeks remaining in the 2004 Coronado High School spring sports season, but the first Islander league champion has crossed the finish line and that would be The Boys Golf Team, as they clinched the Harbor League title last week.

Under the direction of Dr. Lee Price, the linksters dominated league rivals Crawford and Christian last week and then threw in wins against Eastlake and Hoover for good measure, to run their overall record to 15-2, to go with a perfect 10-0 league mark.

The way they went about securing the league title was impressive, as Coronado, led by medalist Kyle Worley’s 34, shot a 1-under par 179 to defeat Christian by 36 strokes at Cottonwood Country Club. Then they shot even par at Coronado Municipal, paced again by Worley and Taylor Hakes, to defeat Crawford 180-204. Senior Kevin Mathis continues to lead the Islanders in stroke average this season.

"We’re sending seven or eight players to Balboa for the City Conference finals," said Price. "Those results will help the seeding for the CIF match play and helps determine the league most valuable player and the all-league team."

This week Coronado faces St. Augustine and Mission Bay in early-week matches. City Conference play will take place Wednesday and Thursday.

George Green’s Track Team had a good week as both the Boys and Girls squads defeated Hoover. Green delivers his report. "We knew the Hoover meet would be a close call for the Boys, so we loaded our strongest events with our best athletes and let them have the events we thought we couldn’t win. This meant a long day for Jake Ruzevick, Reid McLean and Adam Munns.

Rather than trying to defeat their sprint crew, McLean scored his points by winning the long jump (19 feet, 7 inches), the 400-meter run (51.6 seconds), and the 300-meter hurdles (44.4). Ruzevick cruised to three first place finishes, in the 1600 meters (4:47.6), the 800 meters (2:07.2) and the 3200 meters (10:53.8). Munns won the high jump (6 feet, 2 inches), placed second to McLean in the 400 and placed second in the triple jump. David Zodrow contributed 10 points by winning both the shot put (35 feet, 10 inches) and the discus throw (108 feet, 10 inches). Blake Gorey picked up a pair of thirds behind Ruzevick in the 1600 and 800, as well as a second place in the 3200. Also contributing were Leon Jacob with a third place in the 200-meter urn, and a second place earned by Alton Smith in the 110-meter hurdles.

By the time the last event of the day rolled around, the 4 x 400 meter relay, Coronado was ready with the team of McLean, Mike Mitchell, Munns and Ruzevick. Barring a disqualification of an injury, Coronado had this race wrapped up. As an anti-climax, Hoover’s lead runner jumped the gun and was disqualified. The final score was Coronado 72, Hoover 54.

The Girls outscored Hoover 87-40, winning all but two of the 15 events contested. Beth Wittry, Ashlee Houston, Megan Mushovic and Nila Heurtelou took the 4 x 100-meter relay in 53.02. Heurtelou won the 100 and 200 in 12.8 and 26.8 respectively, while Wittry took the 800 in 225.1 and the triple jump in 31 feet, three inches. Mushovic placed third in the triple jump with a leap of 30 feet, 9 inches, second place in the discus throw and third in the high jump.

The high jump was a Coronado clean sweep, with Jamie Klages winning the event (5 feet even), Sara Player (4 feet, 10 inches) finishing second, and Mushovic (4 feet, 8 inches) in fourth.

Klages and Player also finished 1-2 in both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles, while Katherine Wingert won the 1600 in 5:43.9, the 400 in 63.6, and the 3200 in 12:30.8. In those events, Morgan Gary placed third in the 400 and Caitlin Bigham was third in the 3200. Gary and Houston also picked up second and third place points in the long jump.

Alexis Castro won the shot put and Heurtelou, Player, Wingert and Wittry won the 4 x 400 in 4:24.

Saturday, Ruzevick entered the UCSD Triton Invite 1500-meter run and finished in one of the best prep times of the season in 4:08.46, a time second only to Mar Vista’s Troy Swier at that distance, who ran a 3:55.22 earlier in the season.

In Coronado Middle School action, sixth grader Sallie Privett placed second in both the 1,500 and 800 meter runs in the youth division of the Swift Performance Track meet in Gardena with times of 5:04 and 2:29. Also at Gardena, eighth grader Ben Enowitz placed third in the Youth 3,000 (1.86 miles) in a time of 10:20. Enowitz has been trying to break 5 minutes in the mile this season and did it the hard way by running the mile ‘split’ (at the start of the event) in 4:54 and then hanging on for the balance of the race."

The Boys Volleyball Team ‘held serve’ so to speak in the Harbor League last week by defeating Clairemont 25-18, 28-26, 21-25 and 25-17 in the Chieftain’s gym. Clairemont is in third place in the Harbor League. The win ran the Islanders record to 6-1 in league and 8-10 overall.

"It was a good match," said Head Coach Phil Trotter. "Other than Bishop’s, they are the real competition in the league." Jared Gibson led the Islander offensive attack with 19 kills, followed by Jonathan Smith with 12 and Alan Cooper with nine kills and no hitting errors. Jed Considine continued his fine play at the all-important setter position and added 37 assists to the offensive mix.

The big match looming on the horizon is the return tilt with the Knights of The Bishop’s School, which will be played on the road May 11. Coronado lost a tough five-set match in their first encounter. Said Trotter of his team and their pursuit of the Harbor League title, "we need to work hard and get better. "

The Boys Tennis Team was 1-2 in their three matches last week, highlighted by a 14-4 win over El Capitan Wednesday. "We took all nine doubles sets and beat them 5-4 in singles," said Head Coach Robbin Adair. "Daniel Souza played No. 3 singles and won all three of his sets. He hits the ball with a lot of authority on both sides. Alan Hernandez and Matt Rowan also played singles and performed well."

Other results included a shutout loss to La Jolla, which is probably the strongest team, regardless of division in San Diego County, and a 14-4 loss to Scripps Ranch. Adair indicated that the team played well against La Jolla and came close to breaking through in several of the doubles sets.

With the make up of a postponed match against USDHS this week, the Islanders will then start their second trip through the tough Western League schedule.

The Islander Baseball Team had an up-and-down week, defeating the Dons of USDHS 9-4 behind a complete game pitching effort by Kevin Couture. They then lost to Point Loma Thursday by the score of 5-3.

Head Coach Sam Ceci was pleased with the beginning of the week. "The Uni win was a big win and it was a huge high. They hit Kevin a little bit, but we made the plays and had some timely hitting."

Leading the hit parade were the top two hitters in the Islander lineup, J.T. Rogan and Josh Okerman, who both had three hits against the Dons. Rogan also had three runs batted in and scored twice. Okerman contributed two RBIs and scored twice. Couture had a single and two RBIs, while Geoff Thorne, Jacques Spitzer, David West and Mike Hollinger rounded out the 11-hit Coronado attack.

Okerman, who was featured in a picture which ran in the Wednesday, April 21 edition of "The San Diego Union-Tribune," but was mis-identified as Ebere Winston, has caught Ceci’s eye with his recent offensive production. "Josh has caught fire here in the last 2-3 games. Earlier in the season he was hitting the ball at people. Things happen around the kid. He has been filling the two hole (in the batting order) real nicely right now."

The Point Loma game found the Islanders trailing 3-0 and then 5-2 on their way to a 5-3 loss. Coronado’s offense was highlighted by a 2-3 effort by David West, which included a triple; two hits from Couture; and two more from Okerman. West, Couture and Okerman each had an RBI in the contest.

"Point Loma was winless in the Western League before our game," Ceci said. "But they were in every game. They’re not a bad team. The kid that threw against us did a nice job. We got behind early and couldn’t muster much of an attack. West’s triple was our bright spot hitting. Every day we go out there, we have to work for the wins."

Coronado is now 2-2 in the Western League and 12-7 overall. This week they start a brutal portion of their schedule with an early-week game against Clairemont, followed by away games at University City Saturday, USDHS Monday and Mission Bay Tuesday. "Clairemont is a big one for us," said Ceci of the coming games. "We need to get that one in the bank. We have three away games in 4 days. Our pitching may be pretty thin at that point."

Good news from the Coronado Middle School Girls Basketball program, according to Head Coach Robin Nixon. "With 10 days left in the season, the ‘A’ team is 6-4, including impressive wins over Christian and Bishop’s, and a close loss to La Jolla Country Day. Leading the team is point guard Tiffany Depfer and our leading scorer is Emily Bell.

Other team standouts include Angela Strohbeck, Neisha Scales, Nora Kaminiski and Becca Jacoby. The team has some great talent and if they keep it up, we can expect some great results at the high school level in the future."

Some thoughts on the recent NFL draft by the San Diego Chargers. Credit has to be given to Chargers Owner Dean Spanos and General Manager A.J. Smith for doing their research ahead of the draft. Along with Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer, they criss-crossed the country, interviewing and working out the several top potential draft picks, regardless of their position.

I believe what they found was that the presumptive No.1 pick, quarterback Eli Manning of Ole Miss, was a talented athlete, but not a player on whom that they wanted to lavish ‘No. 1 Pick in the Draft’ money. Instead, they thought that North Carolina State’s Phillip Rivers would handle the job nearly as well and for a lot less cash.

By drafting and then trading Manning, the Chargers made the best of a bad situation. They however didn’t handle the media fallout that followed Manning’s announcement that he didn’t want to play in San Diego, well at all. Frankly, the 3-day circus which followed made the franchise as a whole, club management and ownership look inept.

Given that Manning was unhappy at the prospect of becoming a Bolt, the fact that the Chargers were able to trade Manning, get Rivers and a third round draft this year is just short of astounding. However, the real keys to the trade are the first and fifth round draft picks they received in the 2005 draft.

Credit GM Smith for being handed lemons and making lemonade. With virtually no bargaining power, he was able to obtain a first round draft pick that could prove to be an extremely valuable commodity next year. Manning doesn’t figure to play much this season behind incumbent Giant quarterback Kerry Collins and with a new coach and a totally new system in New York, the Chargers could be looking at two high draft picks, perhaps two of the Top 5 in ‘05.

Smith is building for the future, which is good, but the 2004 edition of the Chargers is going to be difficult to watch. There’s LaDainian Tomlinson and well, not much else. Even potentially great NFL quarterbacks need a couple of years to learn the intricate defensive sets they are confronted with and to adjust to the manic pace of the pro game. Many experts think Rivers is a ‘can’t miss’ prospect. Even if that is true, he will still need time to learn on the job.

San Diego is also a franchise that has had four winning seasons in the last 20 years and is currently at war with the city government over both the current and future sites where the team will play.

Manning may have been at least partially correct when he thought Gotham looked better than America’s Finest City. Maybe if he had come and looked around Coronado ahead of the draft, he might have changed his mind.