With the conclusion of the Coronado High School sports season, we’ll venture into other levels of sports during the summer. We will continue to run local, CHS and Coronado Middle School sports notes as they occur, as is the case this week.

If you have information that you would like to include in Nado Natterings, please contact me through the Islander Sports Foundation. Contact information will follow at the end of this column.

In the 7 years that I have been writing this column, I have been critical of the San Diego Chargers organization on several occasions. They have presented an inviting target, having posted but four winning seasons in the past 20 years.

At the time of the trade with the Arizona Cardinals that secured the second pick in the 1998 NFL Draft that became Ryan Leaf, I was critical of the move, which sent draft picks and a railroad car full of cash to the desert. I thought the Chargers over-paid to move up in the draft to secure the Washington State star quarterback, who had one, and only one, great college season. Either the cash or the draft picks should have worked, but not both.

The Chargers got fleeced by a franchise with a 40-year history of ineptitude. Never mind that the draft picks the Cardinals received from San Diego were in turn squandered on lackluster talent. In the hands of almost any other team, the picks were worth their combined weight in gold.

And this was before Leaf decided he didn’t really want to play football anywhere, but especially not in San Diego. The Chargers made a bold move that has taken the franchise 5 years from which to recover.

Sometimes, luck just isn’t with you. The No. 1 pick in 1998 was Peyton Manning, the starting quarterback from the University of Tennessee. Manning has since made the Pro Bowl four times in his six seasons with the Indianapolis Colts and is widely considered to be the best player, regardless of position, currently playing in the NFL.

In 1998, there were many "draft experts" who considered the choice between Manning and Leaf to be a toss-up. Both players had their proponents, both had their naysayers. The Colts picked Manning and Leaf is out of football and deservedly so. He simply didn’t have the heart to play the game and that is a character trait very difficult to measure with a stopwatch.

In 2004 the Chargers truly earned the No. 1 pick in the draft, as a result of their miserable 2003 season, where they posted a non-competitive 4-12 record. It seemed at the time that they weren’t that good.

Several personnel decisions went bad, notably the David Boston as game-breaking wide receiver experiment. The Arizona Cardinals couldn’t handle Boston or make him productive. The Chargers took a chance, and it again failed.

Throughout the years, the Spanos family, owners of the Chargers, has shown a willingness to spend money to improve the team. Almost without exception the major player personnel decisions have been made have been ill-advised.

All of which leads us to a discussion of the Charger quarterback corps. In the modern-day NFL, you can’t win consistently with a 6-foot quarterback. San Diego already has a 5-foot, 9-inch back-up in Doug Flutie, to go with their 6-0 starter Drew Brees. In a league where offensive and defensive linemen are 6-4 to 6-8, that provides the smaller quarterback with too much to see over to complete a high percentage of passes. In other words, Flutie at his age and height and Brees without a lot of NFL experience and at his size, are just good enough to get you beat.

Credit the Chargers organization with recognizing that they had troubles at the game’s most significant position. In the driver’s seat of the 2004 draft, the Chargers took action. Team personnel including President Dean Spanos, General Manager A.J. Smith and Head Coach Marty Schottenheimer went on the road and visited in person with all of the potential top draft picks and conducted workouts with the players.

The met Ole Miss quarterback Eli Manning; Miami (Ohio) University signal-caller Ben Roethlisberger; the top line prospect in the draft Robert Gallery from Iowa; top receiver prospect Larry Fitzgerald from Pittsburgh; and North Carolina State’s quarterback Philip Rivers.

I believe what they saw was that Manning, the younger brother of the aforementioned Peyton Manning, was the best pick of the lot for what they needed – a strong-armed quarterback that the franchise could re-build around. But I think they also found in Rivers, a player with 95 percent of the upside of Manning, but who would cost the franchise less money in the long run.

The Chargers selected Manning with the No. 1 pick and then traded him to the New York Giants in exchange for the draft rights to Rivers. The subsequent proclamations by Archie Manning, a former NFL quarterback himself and the father of both Eli and Peyton, that Eli didn’t want to play in San Diego were just chatter. If the Chargers truly believed that Manning was significantly better than the other first round quarterback picks, they would have drafted Manning and endured the slings and arrows that were sure to follow from his agent and the family over the summer. Besides Manning’s options would have been to either sign with the Chargers or take the season off and wait to be selected in the 2005 draft.

Rivers at 6-4 and 226 pounds has the size and the credentials to help turn the Chargers around. He has started more games at quarterback, 51, than any other player in NCAA history. He has also thrown 95 touchdown passes and for 13,484 yards. He has proved over time that he can play.

After the Charger’s spin machine went to work with the obligatory pronouncements that Rivers was who they wanted all along, he was the best player available, etc., the personable Rivers has participated in a couple of mini-camps with the team. The talkative Rivers may well make the NFL’s All-Interview Team before he makes the Pro Bowl, but that in turn would be a welcome relief from Leaf.

The Chargers did their homework and their legwork and made an educated guess borne of necessity. And they are due to have some luck in a significant personnel decision. Spanos has again shown that he will spend the money to be competitive. Now all the Chargers have to do is work on the offensive line, the defensive line, and basically every position other than the ones played by LaDanian Tomlinson (featured running back), Donnie Edwards (linebacker) and perhaps the defensive secondary.

Don’t forget that the annual July 4 15K Run and 5K Run/Walk is fast approaching. One of my favorite questions is, ‘When is the July 4 race this year?’ Why, it’s on Sunday, July 4. Although the Coronado Independence Day Parade will be held July 5 (the legal holiday) this year, the race will be held July 4.

You can go to www.IslanderSportsFoundation.com and follow the links for the race to get more information on the race. Also, there is a full page ad for the race appearing in this week’s edition of The Coronado Eagle & Journal.

Congratulations to Randy Burgess, head coach of the CHS aquatics program and The Islander Boys Water Polo Team has been named the 2004 recipient of the California Coaches Association’s Boys Water Polo Coach of the Year award. The honor qualifies Burgess for National Coach of the Year honors.

Burgess has coached the Islanders for a total of 21 years and has compiled a record of 491-115 (.810) during that time and a total of 14 CIF titles. His 2000 and 2001 Islander teams were acclaimed as the best prep water polo teams in the nation.

The 2000 team, which was 29-1 and the winner of both the prestigious SoCal and NorCal Invitationals, fielded nine players who would earn All-American status in high school. Burgess has coached a total of 41 prep All-Americans at Coronado High School, including 14 CIF-San Diego Section Players of the Year.

CHS Baseball standout Loren Murillo has signed a national letter of intent to pitch on the Division I level next year for the Chicago State University Cougars of the Mod-Continent Conference.

Murillo, who was 6-3 with a fine earned run average of 3.30 as a senior in 2004, will face a Cougar schedule next year that will feature four of the Top 25 Division I teams in the country. This season Murillo won a 7-2 complete game victory over USDHS in the CIF Division III playoffs. He also pitches for the San Diego Apaches Baseball Club during the travel season.

Murillo credited CHS Head Baseball Coach Sam Ceci as "a positive source of encouragement who challenges all of us to improve every day."

If you would like to submit an item to "Nado Natterings," please go to the Islander Sports Foundation’s website, which conveniently enough is www. Islander Sports Foundation.com, and follow the contact link.