Three Coronado athletes proved author Thomas Wolfe wrong last week – they did go home again.

After literally traveling the world playing water polo for the U.S. Olympic Water Polo Team, Layne Beaubien (CHS ’94), Genai Kerr (CHS ’95), and Jesse Smith (CHS ’01) returned to the San Diego area last Wednesday, along with their teammates and faced the Hungarian Olympic team in the second half of an international doubleheader at the Coggan Family Aquatics Center at La Jolla High School.

Kerr, who is the reserve goalie for the U.S. squad, played the entire game against the team generally considered to be the best in the world. Beaubien, who is a defender and in his sixth year as a member of the U.S. national team, played well in that role against the powerful Hungarians. Later in the week, Beaubien converted on a penalty shot to help lead the U.S. past Serbia & Montenegro in a match played in Mission Viejo.

But the star of this game, from the U.S. and Coronado perspective was Smith, who scored three goals and earned a penalty shot, which was converted by teammate Tony Acevedo. Smith directly accounted for four of the eight goals scored by the U. S.

The storybook ending was not to be this evening, as the U.S. lost to Hungary 11-8 before a crowd of 2,325, fully 15 percent of whom seemed to be from Coronado or have a Coronado connection. In the first game of the aquatic twin bill, Serbia & Montenegro dominated Australia 14-6. All of this leads up to the Olympic Games competition, which will be held August 15-29 in Athens, Greece, where all three Coronado athletes will compete against the best in the world.

In other local sports news, the Independence Day 15K Run and 5K Run/Walk was held a week ago Sunday, with a large contingent of local runners on hand. Robin Privett was kind enough to assemble an honor roll listing of the top participants from Coronado. In the 15K, Jim Morse finished second in his age group, Jim Pokorny was second in his group, Linda Copp second in hers, James Woolf won the 71 year-old group and Myron Hunt finished second in his age group.

In the 5K, CHS rising senior Jake Ruzevick finished sixth overall, CHS Asst. Track Coach Jack Nash was 13^th overall, CHS graduating senior Katherine Wingert was 38^th overall, and 12-year-old Sallie Privett was 45^th overall. Finishing first in their respective age groups were James Callaway, Lisa Thompson, and Barb Woods. Finishing second in their age categories were: Brianna Baszak, Dan Orr, Harry Gimber, Susan Whelan, Bill Martin and Dorothy Moore. Third place age group finishers included Nathan Andersen, Mollie Privett, Geri Mott and Mary Leighty. Congratulations to all.

This weekend, the California State Games will be holding their gymnastic competition at the Coronado High School Sports Complex. The event starts Saturday and runs from 8 am through 8 pm. Sunday the competition begins at 8 am and concludes at 4:30 pm.

A reminder that Coronado Youth Football and the CHS Football Boosters Club are collaborating on the Coronado Football Clinic, open to kids ages 7-15, which will be held Sunday July 25, 2004 from 1-5 pm. The clinic will be held at the Coronado Cays Field, adjacent to the firehouse and will cost $25 per child. Signups will start at 12 noon the day of the event.

Individual stations, covering the fundamentals of football will be set up and manned by the CHS high school coaches and varsity players. The youngsters will go through the stations to learn the basics of blocking, tackling, throwing and kicking. The stations will focus on offensive and defensive line play, linebackers, defensive backs, running backs, quarterbacks, agility drills and conditioning.

Among the participating instructors will be CHS Varsity Head Coach Bud Mayfield and CHS JV Coach and S.D. Youth Football Coaching Director Tony Isabella.

For more information regarding the Coronado Football Clinic, please contact CHS Football Booster Club President Ken Maskevich at 437-8319.

For the Coronado High School and Coronado Middle School athletes, circle Monday, August 9 from 6:30 to 8:30 pm, as the date and time for your athletic physicals for the coming year. Physicians Dr. Patricia Kettlehake and Dr. Laura Sagerlund have agreed to head the effort this year. Athletes should assemble on the fourth floor of the parking lot at the Bank of America Building, located at 1050 B Avenue.

Please note that all athletes must have a valid, current physical before they can begin practice with a CHS or CMS team, at any level. Physical forms may be downloaded from the Islander Sports Foundation’s website, which is www.IslanderSportsFoundation.com.

The doctors provide the physicals, which cost $15 per athlete, or $25 if there are two athletes from the same family. For three or more athletes from the same family, the charge is $10 per athlete. The fees are then donated back to the CHS athletic department and are used to purchase training supplies (athletic tape, wraps, etc.) for the year.

Finally, although it didn’t seem to get the local play that it should have, the city of San Diego and the San Diego Chargers have settled their skirmishing, at least for now, regarding the contract issues that have separated the two entities. The city, apparently assuming that the Chargers would appear in the Super Bowl every year, guaranteed the club a sellout for every game, including pre-season games, for the duration of the original contract.

The Chargers, who are guaranteed the same, equal share of all of the national broadcast television and national cable television monies as the other 31 NFL teams, need to generate revenue from suites and in-stadium signage. There aren’t enough suites in the existing Qualcomm Stadium to maximize this revenue category.

So the answer to the problem is of course a new stadium. The Chargers will build the proposed new $400 million facility at their expense. Except for the land. And the infrastructure improvements. And the $57 million in bonds that are left to be paid off for the last remodel of Qualcomm Stadium.

The Chargers are important to San Diego. During the months of November and December, when the East and Midwest are slogging their way through the snow, Charger home games, played in the sun and 60 degrees are televised throughout the country. From a tourism standpoint, there isn’t a marketing budget in existence big enough to purchase that kind of publicity. The underlying message is ‘Although our team has only had four winning seasons in the past 20 years, our weather is better than yours.’

The NFL, with the addition of the Houston Texans this year, will have 32 teams. Don’t look for expansion any time soon. There may be some franchise movement, after all Al Davis still runs the Raiders. The NFL is running out of major markets that can financially sustain a team. San Diego needs to hold on to the Chargers and within reason, needs to put together a financial package to make it happen. Big time cities need an NFL franchise and San Diego is no exception.