Coronado High School’s Varsity Football Program, which traces its lineage directly back to 1913, opened their 91^st season in style with a 32-0 home victory over Francis Parker High School Friday evening at Niedermeyer Field. A close game at halftime, with the Islanders holding a slim 7-0 lead over the Lancers, courtesy of a 1-yard touchdown plunge from senior captain and tailback Ryan Cummins. The second half looked like it was going to be a contest as Parker took the opening kickoff and mounted a sustained drive, well into Coronado territory. The sequence ended when the Lancer passing attack went toward Cummins’ side of the field once too often, and the senior two-way player picked off a Parker pass and returned it 92 yards for an Islander touchdown. The play marked the 13^th career pass interception for the personable, red-headed Cummins, who has been a starting defensive back since his sophomore year. "Cummins was the player of the game offensively and defensively," said Head Coach Bud Mayfield. "He stopped their best drive of the night and completely reversed the momentum. After then it was all us. That’s what you want from your senior captain. He rushed for over 100 yards and then shut down one of their best receivers on defense."Four of the five Coronado touchdowns came via the running game, which featured junior tailback Kelsey Fisher scoring on runs of 14 yards and 1 yard, and junior Mike Baker-Denson also scoring from the 1-yard line. Junior quarterback David Loving threw for 39 yards and joined Cummins, Fisher, and Baker-Denson in gaining 277 yards on the ground. Coronado totaled 316 yards of total offense in their first outing of the season.Mayfield saw Cummins and Fisher carry over their fine play in last week’s scrimmage to this week’s win over Francis Parker. "I really liked our tailback tandem with Kelsey and Ryan. It worked out perfectly. We’ll give them each a rest. This was Kelsey’s first game where he played offensively and defensively. Jack Scott played defensive end and offensive tackle and played awfully well. It was his first game at defensive end for us."Also playing a strong role in the victory was senior captain Jed Considine, who anchors the line play on both sides of the ball. Several of the key Islander running play went over the right side of the line featuring the 6-foot, 2-inch, 250-pound Considine and 6-foot, 1-inch 245-pound sophomore Ben Thorne. Both battled hard in the trenches all night long. This is a very young Islander team, with 10 seniors, 16 juniors, and five sophomores comprising the 31-man squad. Several of the seniors didn’t see much game action last year as juniors, so there is a lot of on-the-job training and learning going on for Coronado. Senior captain Nick Shepherd, the squad’s starting middle linebacker on defense and fullback on offense, was injured on a special teams play early in the game and was subsequently diagnosed with a severe knee sprain. "We were worried that it was a season-ending injury," said Mayfield. "We might keep him out this week, but we’ll see. We have an awful lot of tough games ahead."One of which may this Friday evening when Mar Vista takes the 10-mile trek from Imperial Beach to Coronado for the 7:30 pm game. The Mariners and Islanders started their football rivalry in 1951, with Coronado holding a slight advantage in the series between the two South Bay Schools. "We haven’t played them in a couple of years," Mayfield explained. "Our kids now aren’t familiar with the history of the series. We’ve played them 35 or 40 times over the years. Mar Vista has some speed. Offensively they run mostly out of the ‘I’ formation and they run the double wing. Most teams now days run multiple sets, and they do too."

Mar Vista is 1-1 on the season. After an opening loss to Crawford, the Mariners defeated Kearney 34-27 last week in their home opener.

In what may be a sign of good things to come, the CHS Girls Volleyball Team won the Silver Division of the San Diego Fall Classic played at the Epic Volleyball Club over the weekend. Based on the results of Friday’s tournament play, Coronado started Saturday by playing Valley Center and losing a match that would determine seeding slots for the Silver Division competition. Coronado lost 25-15 and 25-15. As Head Coach Phil Trotter assessed the situation, "we weren’t ready to play. Then we decided to do some things that are important for our success this year. We stayed positive, we played together and we worked hard. Those are three keys for the season. We started doing those things and good things happened."The Islanders defeated Mt. Carmel in a three-game match and then defeated San Dieguito 25-21 and 25-23, coming from behind in the latter game to take the victory. Coronado then faced Valley Center again and defeated them 25-19 and 25-15 to win the division. All in all, Coronado was 6-2 in the tournament, which is a fine result for the Islanders in a tournament containing this many quality teams. One of the big differences for the Islanders in the turnaround from the first Valley Center game to the second according to Trotter, was the play of 6-foot, 4-inch Jacy Norton. "She remained positive and lifted the play of her teammates by encouraging them and by playing hard herself. She provided the leadership that we’re going to need from her."Playing that many games in two days requires contributions from several players and Trotter was quick to acknowledge the fine play of several members of his team. "Megan Mushovic is really learning how to set. She is a great all around player and has the focus and the heart that are rarely found in high school athletes. Kelly Phelps really started to believe in herself and put the ball back. All three of them are juniors, so that’s a good sign." "We also got great all around play from Deidre Kelly and Emily Howe," Trotter added. "It was great to see. We also had to play two freshmen, Christy Mebust and Kelsey Fitzgerald and they contributed. Caitlin Kennedy came in and played really well. This tournament needs to be a steppingstone for us. We need to feed off of this result, if we’re going to be competitive in a very tough CIF division. Our only loss that we didn’t avenge was to USDHS, which was the runner-up to Vista High School in the Gold Division. The girls have a lot to feel good about at this point. If they work hard, it’s going to be a really nice year for us."

This week, Coronado hosts Horizon Christian Wednesday at 3 pm.

CHS Head Track Coach George Green brings us the Boys and Girls Cross Country happenings from last week. "Jake Ruzevick almost made it two victories in a row last Friday at the Mustang Invitational held at Rohr Park. He dueled with St. Augustine’s Marco Anzures for the entire 3.1-mile course in the small schools race in hot, humid conditions. Anzures eventually built a 10-yard lead with 200 yards remaining.At the finish line, a sprint by Ruzevick left him a fraction of a second shy of first place. Anzures ran a time of 16:48.7 to Jake’s 16:49. Both runners were a step faster than University City’s Riley Booker, who won the large schools race in 16:49.7. Coronado’s Brad Munns nearly cracked the 18-minute barrier, despite being mis-directed by a course marshal on the final loop of the race, and placed 14^th in 18:01. He was followed closely by Islander freshman Ben Enowitz in 16^th place in 18:02. Reid McLean, Alton Smith, and Drew Lewis rounded out the rest of the team scoring for 7^th place.

In the 2.2-mile JV race, freshman Michael Davies placed 28^th with a time of 14:26, followed by Judd Lyon, Josh Fink, Olivier Schmeid, and Tim Bowman.

Ashley Walsh was the top Islander finisher in the girls small schools varsity race. She covered the 2.2-mile course in 15:49, good for 15^th place. She was followed by Hope Alexander, Karolin Ivarsson, and Katie Gomrick."

Temporarily at least, the golf bragging rights in her household belong to freshman Lorena Ascolani, rather than her senior sibling Monica, AKA Ascolani the Elder. Lorena led the Coronado charge and earned medalist honors against Our Lady of Peace last week, shooting a 42 at Coronado Municipal. The result was a 242-269 win for the Islanders. Four shots back were Monica and Alexi Sanchez, who spent the 2003 season as the Islanders No. 1 and No. 2 players by scoring average, respectively. CHS Girls Golf Head Coach Kari Weidner thinks winning with her two best players performing at less than their best means good things lie ahead. "Lexi Donovan shot lower than her average. She came through well for us. It’s nice to have our highest score in the 50’s (for nine holes). We’re looking pretty deep this season and our depth should work toward our advantage."

Based on the scores from last week, the first full week of interscholastic competition, Weidner thinks the squad from USDHS will give Coronado a run for their money this year. "My guess is our biggest competition will be USDHS. They’re going to be pretty tough in our league." This week the Islanders have one match scheduled, which is against Francis Parker Thursday.

Following a week of scrimmages and training, the Islander Boys Water Polo Team has their first regular season game Wednesday against University City at the La Jolla Jewish Community Center, followed by a Saturday contest against a tough Newport Harbor team on the road. Last week’s scrimmage was against Carlsbad High School and Marina High School from Huntington Beach. Carlsbad is the defending San Diego CIF Division I champion, and features a senior-laden team. "They handled us," said Head Coach Randy Burgess. "There aren’t going to be too many teams that are going to be better than Carlsbad this year. We have a lot of things to work on, but the kids looked good. It’s a different team than last year in multiple ways. It’s a mixture of juniors and seniors and two young kids that are going to help. It will be a season of learning and adjusting."Burgess has eight players in a group competing for six spots in the starting lineup. The two ‘young kids’ Burgess referred to are sophomore Eric Clapper and freshman Jacob Smith. "They’re both going to contribute quite a bit," said Burgess. "The minutes will be spread out fairly equitably among our top eight or nine players." Look for senior Dylan Carr to start in goal with junior Patrick Queisser to receive a lot of time in the cage.

The injury bug bit Coronado last week, as senior Drew Ratcliffe sustained a bad contusion on his knee, which resulted in a lot of swelling. Burgess expects Ratcliffe to be able to return soon. "He’ll be one of our key players."

The Islander Girls Tennis Team lost their two matches last week by the scores of 14-4 to Granite Hills and 12-6 against Santa Fe Christian. Despite the losses Head Coach Robbin Adair was pleased with some of the individual play from the Islanders. "Nicole Aponte played No. 2 singles vs. Granite Hills. She beat their No. 2 and their No. 3 and played their No. 1 tough. She played well the whole day. We called Amanda Purvis up from the JV and she played very well. I played her again Thursday and she was very steady. She keeps the ball in play and she’s unflappable."Adair had to juggle his starting lineup and Maggie Lewis, who usually plays No. 2 doubles played well. "She played with heart," said Adair. "She got after the ball."

This week the Islanders host The Bishop’s School Thursday in a home match at the Glorietta Bay Tennis Center at 3 pm.