Every so often in the world of sports, there is honor earned in defeat. That concept would apply to Coronado High School’s Varsity Football 20-7 home loss to Crawford Friday evening. Coronado struck first on a 5-yard touchdown run by tailback Kelcey Fisher, followed by a Fisher extra point conversion.

Crawford answered with a scoring drive of their own, but senior lineman Jed Considine blocked the extra point attempt, allowing the Islanders to hold a 7-6 lead at halftime. The Colts scored twice in the third quarter to run the score to 20-6.

Head Coach Bud Mayfield, in his 17^th season at the helm of the Islander football program, knows his team played hard in defeat. "All you can ask for is a maximum effort and we (the coaching staff) got it. It was a very physical game, but we never backed down one inch. We stood up and gave it our best shot. It was a tough loss for the team, but we did a lot of things very well."

The loss drops Coronado to 3-4 overall and 0-2 in the Harbor League, but the good news is that the toughest part of the schedule is behind the Islanders, especially after facing No. 6 ranked USDHS and Harbor League leader Crawford in two of the last three games. The Colts have posted a record of 18-1 in the last 18 months and are now 7-0 overall and 2-0 in the Harbor League.

Despite the loss, Mayfield likes what he sees from his club. "We’re starting to peak a little, which may not be obvious to the fans, because we’re playing all these good teams. The playing field is a little more level the rest of the way. We have the opportunity to finish very well and still make the playoffs. Morale is good and we’re not injured. Those two things are very important. We have Jack Scott back and Ryan Cummins is back at full speed."

On the strength of his 11 tackles on defense, Considine was named by the coaching staff as the ‘Player of the Game,’ earning the coveted black shirt recognition this week. "This is his best game against a tough team," added Mayfield. "Due to the level of play as a team, there were no other black shirts awarded. We had a large number of guys with four or five tackles each."

Friday afternoon the Islanders travel to Kearney High School to face the Komets for a 3 pm game. The Komets are winless this season and are coming off of a 28-0 loss to University City. "They are huge," Mayfield said of Friday’s opponent. "They are somewhat slow and they have difficulty scoring. This game will be their first home game played on their campus in years."

Thursday will feature a unique football doubleheader, as the Islander JV team, coming off of a 41-6 victory over Crawford, will host Kearny at 3 pm. At 5:30 pm, the Islander freshman team will host Clairemont, for their first home game under the lights of Niedermeyer Field. The Coronado JV record is 4-3 and the freshmen are 4-1.

The Coronado vs. Crawford game will be televised on Time-Warner Cable Channel 19 Saturday, Oct. 30 at 10 am. A re-broadcast will be shown Tuesday, Nov. 2 at 7:30 pm. The announcing team of Your Natterer and Bruce Shepherd calls the action.

"The theme was slow starts," Head Coach Randy Burgess said of last week’s play, where the Boys Water Polo Team defeated University City 10-9 Wednesday and then lost to Long Beach Wilson 17-8 Saturday.

In the game played Wednesday against the Centurions, the Islanders fell behind 3-0 and trailed the entire duration of the second half, until the last 2 minutes of the game. Burgess summarized the game by saying, "we scored the last two (goals) to win 10-9. We didn’t play a great game, but we played well enough to win. We didn’t fold and we didn’t panic. We were 10-32 shooting from the field. Devin Farrell and Jacob Smith each scored three goals, and Devin added two assists. Probably the single highlight of the game was Devin’s effort playing with a painful shoulder. He’s the kind of kid you want as a team captain."

Jesse Farquhar scored twice in the game, with Preston Lujan and Eric Clapper each adding a goal. Goalie Dylan Carr was credited with nine saves.

According to Burgess, Coronado got off to a similar slow start on the road against Long Beach Wilson. The problem there is that Wilson is probably the best prep water polo team in the nation and slow starts aren’t recommended in that case. "We played poorly in the first quarter, but were much improved in the second quarter. We had to adjust to Long Beach Wilson, who played a really tough, in-your-face defense. The kids did make some good adjustments. There is no better team we’re going to face this year than Long Beach Wilson."

The Islander scoring against Wilson included Sean Castillo, Lujan and Farquhar with two goals each, and Smith and Juan Carlos de la Fuente with one goal a piece.

This week the Islanders face USDHS at Allied Gardens Wednesday, then travel to play Soquel High School in Santa Cruz Thursday evening. The latter game is an annual warm-up of sorts, as the Islanders then compete Friday and Saturday in the California State Invitational in San Jose.

They will face Menlo Park of Palo Alto in the first round, a team coached by Islander alumnus and four-time All-American Jack Bowen (CHS ‘91). The two teams have already faced each other this season in the finals of Coronado’s ‘America’s Finest City’ Tournament, won by Coronado 7-5. The NorCal Tournament annually serves as the unofficial California championship in prep water polo and features the best teams in the state.

The Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams posted impressive victories this week and CHS Head Track Coach George Green provides the details. "Both teams placed their top three runners in front of Madison’s first runner, to lock up their respective dual meets, competed in a downpour last Tuesday over Morley Field’s 3-mile City Conference cross country course.

Immediately after the race it stopped raining and it was sunny for the rest of the day. Because of the slippery footing, the times were slower than normal. Jake Ruzevick (17:45), Brad Munns (18:33) and Ben Enowitz (19:10) led the boys to a 17-40 victory, followed by Josh Fink (sixth in 19:44), Michael Davies (eighth in 19:44), Drew Lewis (10^th in 20:33), Alton Smith (11^th in 20:39) and Tim Bowman (13^th in 21:35).

Ashley Walsh (22:59), Karolin Ivarsson (23:34) and Hope Alexander (23:38) locked up the girls race, followed by Sarah Player (sixth place), Katie Gomrick (eighth) and Anneke Nelson (12^th), to win by the score of 20-35.

Friday, the Boys Team ran in the Division IV varsity race in the Mt. SAC Invitational at Walnut, California. This is the largest and most prestigious high school cross country race in the country, with over 12,000 finishers this year. Ruzevick placed second, clocking a time of 16:26 over the hilly 3-mile course, followed by Enowitz (eighth in 17:19), Brad Munns (18^th in 17:52), Michael Davies (66^th in 19:41), Josh Fink (88^th in 20:08), Jose Tijerina (93^rd in 20:14) and Drew Lewis (113^th in 21:15). The team finished in seventh place, one behind San Diego Section rival Bishop’s, which finished in sixth.

Using dual meet scoring, Coronado would have defeated Bishop’s by four points. This sets up a very close contest among Coronado, Bishop’s, and La Jolla Country Day at the CIF finals Nov. 20^th, with only the Top 2 teams advancing to the state meet."

On the CMS Cross Country front, Sallie Privett and her younger sister Mollie Privett competed in the Arturo Barrios Invitational event Sunday, held at the Chula Vista Marina. Sallie, who is 13 years old, was the first female finisher in the 5K event, regardless of age, covering the course in 19:06. Mollie, who just turned 10, won the 12 and under girls event in 21:37. Whether it’s the shoes, the genes or the coaching, that’s a pair of great results.

Faced with only one game last week, the CHS Girls Volleyball Team defeated Serra 25-21, 25-19, 25-18, which allowed the Islanders to retain a piece of the Eastern League lead they share with Our Lady of Peace. First place is a good place to be, especially as there are only four league matches remaining on the regular season.

Head Coach Phil Trotter expects the return of his other injured senior Captain Jamie Klages this week. Last week, senior Co-captain Deidre Kelly returned to action. "I’m looking forward to them coming back for their playing skills, and for their leadership, which we will need down the stretch."

The competition for the CIF Division IV playoff seeding is starting to take shape. Coronado should get a seed among the Top 4 teams in the division, with Francis Parker, Christian and Bishop’s being the favorites along with the Islanders for the top slots. Finishing strong and winning the Eastern League title would aid Trotter’s case in the coaches’ seeding meeting. Regardless, Coronado should host at least a first round game in the playoffs.

This week the Islanders face San Diego High School on the road Tuesday and then host Patrick Henry Thursday. "We’ll have to play well to win those matches and hold on to first place," Trotter said. "San Diego is playing well right now. "

What was originally a busy week last week, turned into a fairly quiet one as the CHS Girls Tennis Team was only able to play one match due to the rain. Thursday the Islanders lost to University City 13-5. The No. 1 doubles team of Justine Gordon and Elizabeth Hopkins won two of their three sets, while the No. 2 team of Allie Gordon and Nicole Aponte and the No. 3 squad of Lorena Hernandez and Alicia Ruiz won a set each. Coronado’s No. 1 singles player Czarina Puffelis also won one set.

Rain last week means a frantic schedule this week as Coronado plays USDHS and Scripps Ranch in early-week contests and then has another make-up match with El Capitan Wednesday. Head Coach Robbin Adair will participate in the CIF Division III Team Playoff seeding meeting Thursday. He expects to receive a seed in the 6-8 range for the Islanders.

The headline isn’t just a reference to the fact that the Major League Baseball playoffs and World Series games are lasting 4 hours each on average, but also the fact that prep baseball doesn’t ever really end either.

Last week a work crew consisting of players, parents and coaches, weeded and did some much-needed clean-up work on the CHS baseball field, located behind Strand Elementary School. Kudos go to Ralph West, the head of the Baseball Booster Club, who brought the group do their collective knees with a series of pithy E-mail reminders that the work needed to be done. Nobody does pithy quite like Ralph.

Volunteers and participants included: Alex Rowan, Josh Fink, Pat McMahon, Donnie Gersonde, Valerie Gersonde, Kevin Couture, David West, Jimmy Gersonde, Brandon Wheeler, Bobby Bonner, Steve Karamoto, Matt Oakley, Blake Spitzer, David Sand, Rick Fink, Tucker Johnson, Mike Hollinger, Jim Pokorny, Bruce Johnson, Steve Conrad, Jr., Larry Sand, Bruce Woodruff, Steve Conrad, Fred Hollinger, Will Woodruff, Pam Hollinger, Coach Brad Couture and Head Coach Sam Ceci.

All of those folks working on a Saturday morning raises the following question. How many weeds were there on Strand Field, anyway? Congratulations to all who helped share the work and assisted the CHS Baseball program.

Paced by a round of 38 turned in by medalist Alexcie Sanchez, the CHS Girls Golf Team defeated Point Loma handily 232-309 last week. Three other Islanders turned in rounds in the 40’s, including JoJo Robyn with a 45, plus Monica Ascolani and Isabelle Sanchez who both shot 47’s.

This week there is an early-week match against USDHS, which ranks second in the Western League, followed by the last regular season match of the year, with Mira Mesa serving as the opponent.

Head Coach Kari Weidner hopes that the Islanders will be given wild-card playoff consideration for the CIF Team Playoffs. A recent Union-Tribune poll placed the Islanders at 10^th in San Diego County.

Good news aplenty from Coronado Youth Football this week, as all four teams won their games. CYF Coach Ken Maskevich provides the report.

"The Pee Wees earned a 30-12 win over the Eastlake Panthers. Kodie Englehart and Chris Banks finished the game with two touchdowns each. They were aided by the blocking of Jack Mikesell, Angel Temblador, A.J. Vido, Dan Bess and T.J. Bruyere. Bryce Mills rumbled for several fist downs. Great defensive plays were turned in by Bobby Braun and Brandon Lay, in addition to a pass interception by Kyle Mendenhall.

The Junior Pee Wees defeated the Kearney Bulldogs 19-14. The defense, behind the play of Kyle Teachout, Jake Nicholson, Likaki Palmer, Mitchell Thompson and Nate Wilson, turned in a big play with a last-minute fumble recovery. The offensive line of Rafe McMillan, Kurt Beske, Reis Stanley, Sheldon McCallum, Joe Rogers and Stephen Jackson blocked for two rushing touchdowns by Austin Denson. They also assisted in an 18-yard passing touchdown from Caleb McNeill to Robby Bell.

The Mitey Mites now have their first win of the season, after their 26-0 victory over Otay Ranch. Linemen Jack Perkins, James Wamesly, and Jared LaVarra, led the way and opened many holes for running backs George Bailey, Kevin Fahey and Danny Cameron. The Defense allowed only two first downs and was led by Jack Alldredge, Jacob Snyder and Johnny McCaull.

To complete the week’s sweep, the Junior Midgets defeated Mira Mesa 43-6."