Phil Trotter, head coach of both the Boys and Girls Volleyball Teams at Coronado High School, is my early favorite for Coach of the Year honors for the school year-ending Axey Awards.

Consider the fact that 2 years ago, The Islander Boys Volleyball Team’s only victory was by forfeit. Fast forward to the 2004 season and we find that not only are the Boys undefeated in Harbor League play at 7-0, but they have an overall record of 9-10 against a much stronger overall schedule than in past years. In fact, if CHS wins either of their two remaining conference matches against Madison or Gompers this week, they will be Harbor League champions.

Since Coronado faces The Bishop’s School twice on the schedule, Trotter thought the Knights were in the same conference with the Islanders. The first meeting between the two squads saw the Islanders jump out to a two game lead, only to see the Knights take the final three games and the match. The Islanders get their long-awaited rematch next week at Bishop’s, but it won’t be for a portion of the league title as previously thought.

Tuesday, Coronado won their only match of the week, a 25-20, 25-17, 25-14 affair over Crawford. But the more important part of the week was Monday, when the team went to St. Vincent DePaul in downtown San Diego to feed the homeless.

"It was actually a great opportunity for the kids to bond and to put everything into perspective," Trotter said. "In sports we try to develop the whole person. The kids really appreciated the opportunity. We have a great group of kids and they have worked hard and we’ve taken a big step this year. Tuesday against Crawford, we played a pretty inspired match. They (Crawford) weren’t that strong and we were able to play the whole squad. Right now, we’re playing well. "

In the CIF playoffs, the Islanders are in Division IV, which is the bracket that contains both Bishop’s and Francis Parker. Bishop’s figures to win the Coastal League and Parker has probably the best team in all of San Diego County. The playoffs are in the future, but Trotter and his team seem to have their priorities in order now.

Head CHS Track Coach George Green brings us up to date on The Boys and Girls Track Teams. "We had originally predicted Clairemont as a dual meet the Girls should win, however Jamie Klages, our star high jumper and hurdler sustained a soccer injury over the weekend, making her unavailable. Then freshman Sara Player, Jamie’s understudy, pulled a hip flexor muscle in training Tuesday, that took her out of the meet as well. Because Jamie and Sara also complete in the horizontal jumps, sprints and relays, their collective absence represented at least a 30-point deficit.

On the line was a 4-year wining streak and the chance to win the Harbor League championship for the third year in a row. Before the meet, Ashley Houston volunteered to run the 100-meter hurdles because it’s an event she competed in during her middle school career. Clairemont entered only one hurdler, so it looked like an easy 3 points. To everyone’s surprise, she won the event thus "earning" a spot I the 300-meter hurdles along with our pole vaulter Danielle Eckert.

Houston matched their top hurdler for the first 100 meters, but crashed into a hurdle on the curve and went down. She got up dusty and bloody, but finished the race in second place, with Eckert taking third.

It was Katherine Wingert’s job to neutralize Harbor League cross country champion Judy Jimenez in the 1600-meter and 3200-meter runs. In the 1600, Wingert ran an effortless time of 5:26.5 to win easily, with Caitlin Alley third in 5:48.7. The 3200 was more of a contest, but she won going away with a personal best of 11:59 to Jimenez’s 12:08, again with Alley in third place.

Beth Wittry’s task was to take on their unbeaten freshman 800-meter runner. Because Beth is more of a 400-meter sprinter, than a mid-distance runner, she was instructed to turn the race into a 200-meter sprint by handing back until the last 200, then using her speed to kick in. The tactic worked perfectly, as the pace was slow for the first 600 meters and Wittry kicked in to win in 2:28.6. Once again Alley took the third place point.

Because Clairemont is weak in the sprint events, we ran Nila Heurtelou back-to-back in the 400 and 100-meter dashes, as well as the 200 later in the meet, with the instruction to run just fast enough to win. Her winning times of 64.3, 13.5 and 29.3 respectively were enough to gather 15 points. Houston and Wittry added six more points by placing second in the 100 and 400 respectively, with Houston also placing third in the long jump.

Megan Mushovic placed second in the high jump and the long jump and third place in the discus throw. Add three points for Alexis Castro and her second place finish in the shot put and we had 59 of the 64 points needed to win with only the triple jump and the 4 x 400 relay remaining.

Since there are no points for second place in relay events, we had to win one of these remaining events. After her first attempt in the triple jump, it was clear that the 800 and the 200 had taken too much out of Wittry’s legs for her to defeat her counterpart from Clairemont. We had to win the final relay to win the meet. They had their best team on the line and we were nearly out of runners. Eckert was the freshest of those left standing, so she joined our three workhorses Wittry, Heurtelou and Wingert to win the relay in 4:26.5, and the meet by the score of 67 to 59.

Clairemont won the Boys meet by the score of 68-49 in spite of triple wins by Jake Ruzevick in the 1600, 800 and 3200 meter runs. Reid McLean won the 100, the 300-meter hurdles and the long jump. Adam Munns won the high jump and David Zodrow won the discus throw. Zodrow also placed second in the shot put. Mike Mitchell placed third in both the 400 and 200-meter dashes and Alton Smith placed second in the 100-meter high hurdles and third in 300-meter hurdles.

Friday Munns and McLean participated in the Orange Glen all-boys meet held at Escondido High School. It was a good day for both athletes and for our high jump and hurdles coach Kerry Elders. Munns placed second in the high jump with a personal best of 6 feet, 6 inches, just behind the top jump in the county, a 6 foot, 8 inch effort by Serra’s Desi Burt. Munns is now in sole possession of the second best jump in the county. McLean set a personal best mark in the 300-meter hurdles with a time of 40.82, which was good for fourth place in the meet and ranks sixth overall in the county this year.

Sunday, Coronado Middle School prodigy Sallie Privett, placed 74^th out of 2,530 runners at the Dr. Seuss Union-Tribune Run for Literacy 8K. This is one of the largest 8K races in the country and Sallie covered the distance (4.97 miles) in 31:27, an average pace of just under 6:20 per mile. She was 11^th out of the 1,504 female finishers and first in the 12 and under age category for both boys and girls. She would have also won the girls 13-17 category. The only high school girl who place ahead of her was Sariah St. Laurent, who won last year’s CIF Division I Cross Country title. You won’t see Privett running for a high school any time soon however, as she is only in the 6^th grade."

The Boys Golf Team under the direction of Dr. Lee Price have already clinched the Harbor League title, but had some matches to complete the regular season last week. First, they were in an 18-hole event last week with St. Augustine, Christian and Santana and finished second to the Saints, one of the best teams in Division II according to Price. The other match was a 209-210 victory over Mission Bay, with Sean-Ryan McCray winning medalist honors with a 37, followed closely by Bryan Reed’s 38.

Coronado finished 10-0 in the Harbor League and 16-2 in dual meet competition. Now that the regular season is over, it gets complicated.

Last week, the City Conference, which is comprised of the Eastern League, the Western League and the Harbor League, held their post season tournament, which is essentially a qualifier for the CIF Match Play Tournament. The Top 32 golfers in the Conference qualify for the CIF Match Play. Due to the fact that Coronado won the Harbor League team title, they have already qualified as a team for the CIF Team Championship, which will be competed Monday, May 10.

Qualifying for CIF Match Play were Kevin Mathis, Taylor Hakes, Kyle Worley, Bryan Reed, Stuart Gallant and Stewart Harris. Due to their finish in the City Conference Tournament, Mathis, Hakes and Harris won Harbor League First Team honors, with Worley, Reed, Gallant and McCray named to the Second Team.

If you are confused by the preceding five paragraphs, you have four choices: A. Accept the fact that the Golf Team had a good year and go on to the rest of this article. B. If you think the Golf playoffs are confusing, wait until you get to the Tennis playoffs. C. Know that the Golf Team members mentioned so far shoot near par and would have to give you probably a stroke a hole for a match to be competitive. D. All of the above.

The Boys Baseball Team is having a surprisingly good season as they are currently 14-7 overall and 4-2 in the tough and competitive Western League, which places the Islanders in second place behind Mission Bay and ahead of USDHS, University City, Clairemont, La Jolla and Point Loma, roughly in that order.

These results are even more amazing when you consider the relative enrollments of the schools that Coronado is competing with. Coronado is the smallest school in CIF Division III, which contains 21 teams. CHS has less than half of the students of five or six of the larger schools in the division.

Head Coach Sam Ceci guided his club to a 14-1 win over Clairemont and an 8-4 victory over University City last week. "We accomplished everything we wanted to this week, in grand fashion actually," Ceci noted. "We’re playing real well at the moment. We play Monday and Tuesday (USDHS and Mission Bay) and then we’re off for 7 days. If we can win three of these last four games that would be huge for us. It would put us in better shape than we had hoped for."

In the Clairemont contest, the heroes were many, including Kevin Couture, who was the winning pitcher. Said Ceci of his leadoff hitter J.T. Rogan, "He continues to get on base, which is a key for us. Jacques Spitzer got three hits, with three RBIs and Geoff Thorne was 4-5 with three RBIs. David West hit the ball real well with a 3-5 day and four RBIs. We had played 19 games and not had a homer. Jacque hit our first homer and David had a 3-runhomer."

The victory over University City avenges a 5-4 loss earlier in the season to the Centurions. Junior David West earned praise from Ceci for his efforts against University City. "David got a couple of big hits and a couple of RBIs. He’s gifted and has the tools. He can throw, run, hit for power and do a lot of things. He got one of the key hits in the game. Also, Loren Murillo pitched a good game. U.C. has a good team and Loren did a good job."

Ceci joins me in wishing a quick recovery to Ralph West, who is the president of the Baseball Booster Club. Ralph had some health challenges recently and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Last week The CHS Swimming Team earned a pair of victories. They defeated Patrick Henry on the Boys side 108-63 and the Girls won by the score of 102-81. According to Head Swimming Coach Dave Throop, the team has one dual meet remaining in the regular season, which is against La Jolla Wednesday.

Throop thinks his troops are ready for the CIF Division II meet. "Come the conference meet and the CIFs, I think we will be swimming pretty well. I’m still trying to figure out what will be a perfect situation (which events to enter) for everybody. They are pretty sore and are training hard. The Boys have a chance to be in the Top 5 in the CIFs and the Top 2 in the league. The same is true of the Girls. I see two or three of the girls doing particularly well in the post-season and that many guys as well."

Throop also doubles as the head coach of The Coronado Peninsula Water Polo Club’s Girls 14 and under team, which finished in third place in the Speedo Cup in St. Louis earlier in the year. A week ago the same team lost 6-5 in double sudden death overtime in the final of the Commerce Cup, to the host team representing Commerce. "That was a huge hurdle for them to get to a major final," Throop said. ""They played well, but made a tactical mistake at the end and lost in the finals."

Next on deck this coming week is the San Diego County Cup, which hosts 120 boys and girls teams from throughout the U.S., all in the 14 and under age group. "This will be the girls last tournament in the 14 and under division," said Throop of his team, drawn almost entirely from Coronado. "It’s their last hurrah. Whether we win or lose, it will be a great way to finish out their age group experience."

The Boys Tennis Team was 1-2 last week, which featured a 13-5 win over St. Augustine, a 14-4 loss to USDHS and a 13-5 loss to USDHS. From an individual standpoint, senior Nick Ivarsson went 8-1 in his sets last week, with the doubles combo of Alan Hernandez and Dan Schneider having a good series of matches as well.

According to Head Coach Robbin Adair, the last regular season match of the year will be an early-week contest against USDHS Tuesday. The CIF Playoffs will start Tuesday, May 11^th.

Finally, The CHS Softball Team has had their challenges this year, but they were competitive last week in a 7-4 loss to Francis Parker, one of the best teams in Division IV and in their 5-2 loss to Mission Bay Wednesday. In the Mission Bay game, Sara Noceto was 3-4 with a stolen base.

According to Head Coach Ed Shanholtz, the highlight of the Parker game was a three-run homer by Sunshine D’Amico. Shanholtz also noted the exceptional play of senior shortstop Missy Lopez, who is hitting close to .500 in Western League play and .400 for the season. "She has a knack for bunting for base hits," Shanholtz said. "She has really good speed and she’s really good at it. It’s hard to throw her out because she is so quick out of the batter’s box.

This week the Softball squad has an early week game against San Dieguito, Point Loma on Wednesday and Friday at Clairemont.

Next Week we’ll take a closer look at The Boys Lacrosse Team, which is currently ranked among the Top Three in the state of California and The Girls Lacrosse Team as they both prepare for the CIF Playoffs.