Coronado High School has a new athletic trainer and equipment manager in the person of Connie Martinez, who replaces Sonja Johnson-Doherty in the position. Johnson-Doherty accepted a higher paying position as a full-time personal trainer, but plans to remain in the San Diego area.

CHS Athletic Director Sandy Ferguson is high on Martinez. "I’m pleased we were able to find somebody of her quality to replace a very valuable employee. Connie has the experience, the education, and appears to be a very organized person."

Trainers are critically important to the success of an athletic program. Other than the obvious role of treating injuries, trainers also act as psychiatrist, advisor and counselor to the athletes.

At CHS, the job also entails keeping track of the uniform inventory for more than 20 teams. You haven’t lived until you’ve tried to collect a uniform from a high school athlete, whose Top 50 priorities don’t include the jersey from the season that just ended.

Martinez was born and raised in Phoenix, where she played one year of high school volleyball and was a cheerleader for 3 years. She earned her undergraduate degree from Arizona State University, where she was a dance line member for 2 years.

While working with the Sun Devil’s sports program, Martinez worked with athletes from the women’s soccer and football as her main priorities. She also assisted with men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, swimming, diving and softball. ASU at the time had six full-time trainers and 24 student trainers. She left Tempe with an undergraduate degree in exercise science.

Then she made a geographically challenging move, as Martinez left the sun and fun of Arizona, to pursue a Masters degree from Syracuse University. "It was a huge change in weather," said the 27-year-old Martinez. "It was fun though. I was a graduate assistant there in the sports medicine department. That paid for my school and gave me a stipend as well. It was a good program and a good situation."

While at Syracuse, Martinez specialized on women’s volleyball, women’s lacrosse and field hockey, but worked with all of the sports in the Orange athletic program.

After earning her Masters degree, also in exercise science, Martinez took a position with the training staff at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, where she worked for 2 years. "The training center is an outdoor sports facility and I worked with kayakers and a lot with track and field athletes," Martinez said. "The archery and softball teams were there on a regular basis. I also worked with a lot of the Para Olympic teams from soccer and table tennis. We did see some bobsledders for a couple of months of training."

Among the famous athletes she has worked on are softball star Jennie Finch and track and field Olympic gold medalist Maurice Green. Martinez also got to see a lot of the world, following the kayak team to Brazil and traveling with the National Jr. Women’s Softball team to the Pan American games in Mexico and the World Championships in Nanjing, China.

Fitness also plays a large part in Connie’s life. "Recreationally, I like to run and pay beach volleyball. I like to hike also. Just last month, I went with the kayakers and hiked up Half Dome at Yosemite National Park. It was a 10-mile hike and was near 10,000 feet in elevation."

The bad news is that Martinez was in a temporary staff position at the Olympic Training Center. "I was looking to start something that was a little more permanent after 2 years at the training center." The good news is that Coronado resident and fellow Trainer Allison Noggle, who is currently in Athens with the Olympic softball team, heard about the CHS trainer opening and passed the information along to Martinez.

Despite the long hours and the pay scale, the training position at Coronado has been a stable one. Older CHS alums will remember Lisa Winsten, who was the Islander trainer for 8 years. Johnson-Doherty kept the equipment room organized and the athletes healthy for the past 5 years.

Last night, the U.S. Men’s Olympic Water Polo Team cost me a couple of hours of sleep. A tease in the midnight news said that the men’s water polo team played "immediately following this newscast" and that "the game was exciting."

Armed with that information, I scooted over to the computer to see that the USA defeated Croatia 7-6 and that Islander grad Jesse Smith (CHS, ’01) had scored two goals in the contest. I figured it was worth staying up for a while and I was right on that score. Layne Beaubien (CHS ’94) and Genai Kerr (CHS ’95), along with Smith, were given mentions on the NBC Olympic broadcast. Beaubien was also the focal point of a recent article in "Sports Illustrated" that discussed the team’s exhausting training regimen for the past 4 years, in great detail.

In the "San Diego Union-Tribune’s" game story Monday morning, Staff Writer Chris Jenkins described Smith as, "another of the many water polo stars from the factory at Coronado High…" Hmmm. One can only hope Jenkins was on a deadline and was looking for an alliterative phrase and that was the best he could achieve on short notice. Take it from me, all of the witticisms a writer goes for don’t become literary bon mots and instant classics.

CHS Athletic Director Sandy Ferguson helped point out another Coronado/Olympic Water Polo Team connection. One of the members of the U.S. Women’s Team in Athens is Tahlia Munro, the daughter of Rod Munro, who was the Islander Athlete of the Year in 1966 at CHS. The younger Munro was born in Goleta, graduated from Santa Barbara High School and is playing her collegiate water polo at UCLA (’07).

CHS Girls Volleyball Head Coach Phil Trotter called to correct me on the starting date for the beginning of fall practice for his team. If you are interested in playing Girls Volleyball this year, your first practice is Aug. 18 at 10 am at the Coronado gymnasium. For more information, please contact Coach Trotter at philtrotter23@hotmail.com. Trotter also passed along the information that the team, which marched undefeated through the Harbor League last year, will upgrade their schedule by competing in the Eastern League this coming season.

A couple of weeks ago I pointed out that the Mark Loretta of the Padres was having a great season. Well, add rookie shortstop Khalil Greene to that list. The 24-year-old Greene is currently hitting .262, has nine homers and 48 runs batted in. That’s great production for a rookie middle infielder. Loretta is now sporting a .340 batting average and leads the National League in base hits with 159. It looks like the Padres, Cubs and Giants will be locked in a three-way race for the NL wild card spot in the playoffs for the balance of the season.