Three Coronado High School fall sports teams won their league championships this week, paced by The Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams. Head Track Coach George Green provides the details of the meet that clinched the titles.

"Both the Girls and Boys Cross Country Teams easily bested Christian last Tuesday to remain unbeaten and claim the Harbor League championships for both. It was all Islanders up front as Ashley Walsh won the race over the 3-mile course in 21:48, followed by Hope Alexander, Karolin Ivarsson, and Katie Gomrick in second through fourth places. Sarah Player and Anneke Nelson weren’t far behind in the sixth and seventh spots. Coronado won by the score of 15-50.

The Boys claimed the Top 3 spots in their race with Jake Ruzevick winning in 16:11, followed by Brad Munns (17:25), and Ben Enowitz (17:48). Josh Fink (18:43), Michael Davies (19:01), Drew Lewis (19:23), Reid McLean (20:04) and Jose Tijerina (20:11) locked the race up by finishing in places 6-10. Tim Bowman finished in 12^th place, Olivier Schmied in 13^th and Alton Smith in 15^th. The team score was 19-42.

The Harbor League individual championships were run Monday, Nov. 8 and the CIF Finals will be held Nov. 20."

The third CHS squad to win their league title was The Girls Volleyball Team, which posted three match victories last week. By defeating Mission Bay 25-4, 22-25, 25-8, and 25-10 and then knocking off Morse 19-25, 25-4, 25-5, 25-21, Coronado concluded their Eastern League season with only one loss and shared the conference title with Our Lady Of Peace. The two clubs split their two conference matches and the league title. Coronado finished the regular season with an outstanding record, going 24-5 overall.

The final two Eastern League contests were wrapped around a non-league home match against Grossmont League champion Grossmont High School, which Coronado won handily 25-8, 25-19, and 25-23. Junior middle blocker Jacy Norton led the way with 15 kills, while senior Co-Captain Jamie Klages added 10 more.

Head Coach Phil Trotter scheduled the Grossmont game to sharpen his team for the CIF Division IV playoffs, where they will be seeded fourth. "We’re trying to start a tradition of having a ‘Pack the Gym’ night each year," Trotter said. "We beat a good Grossmont team and we played our best game of the year. The crowd really helped us. It picked up our spirits and we played inspired volleyball."

While summarizing his team’s three victories last week, Trotter outlined the accomplishments of several of his players. "Jacy Norton is really starting to put it together, and so is Megan Mushovic. Our back row of Emily Howe and Ashley Copp has been very solid. We’re having fun and playing well. That’s a key for the girls. If we’re having fun, we seem to play a lot better. This is the last go around for the seniors (Deidre Kelly, Copp, Klages and Howe), so I’m really enjoying that. They are great to have on the team."

Coronado drew the fourth seed in the CIF Division IV Playoffs, arguably the toughest division in the county for girls’ volleyball. They are seeded behind No. 1 Francis Parker, No. 2 Christian and No. 3 Bishop’s.

Trotter discussed the playoff seeding process, which isn’t an exact science. "The team has had a phenomenal year and we’re starting to make a name for ourselves in the county. We were hoping for the third seed and it was between us and Bishop’s. They have a little more tradition in their program than we do."

The good news is that with a No. 4 seed, Coronado will host No. 5 Horizon Christian for a playoff game Friday evening at 7:30 pm. The bad news is if they advance, they will likely face No. 1 seed Francis Parker in the second round, one of the strongest teams in the section. If the seeding positions hold, that game will be played at Francis Parker Tuesday, Nov. 16 at 7 pm.

This week Trotter plans to take Monday off from practice and join the team on a trip to St. Vincent DePaul to help feed the homeless. Tuesday through Thursday the team will practice and then host Horizon Friday evening, a team they defeated in three straight games earlier in the season. "They will be much improved," Trotter said of Horizon Christian. "If we play like we did Wednesday, we should come out and do real well. We definitely have the offense to play with anybody."

Head Girls Golf Coach Kari Weidner received some good news last week, as her team earned a wild card berth into the CIF Championships that will be held Tuesday and Wednesday at Warner Springs. The Islander players who have qualified include: Lorena Ascolani, Monica Ascolani, Lexi Donovan, JoJo Robyn, Alexci Sanchez, and Isabelle Sanchez.

In the City Conference championships, which were held last week, Monica Ascolani shot an 86-96 in the two-day tournament played at Balboa on the first day and Riverwalk on the second day. Lorena Ascolani also qualified to play both days and as a result, the sisters were both named to the All-Western League Second Team.

Coronado finished with a regular season record of 9-4, including a third place finish in the tough Western League.

Scott Harris brings us up to date with the happenings surrounding The CHS Sailing Team. "The team traveled to Monterrey for the first regatta of the interscholastic sailing season Oct. 16-17. Saturday was a Southern California summer-like day with a light wind. Saturday night, the first winter storm of the year came through, providing blustery wind conditions Sunday, with winds up to 20 knots. Many of the competitors capsized, although none were from Coronado. The area is known for being both shark and jelly fish-infested and the water was 55 degrees.

Katie Eckert and Lauren Paquin sailed in the Gold A fleet competition, with Pike Harris and Ryan Sullivan sailing in Gold B for a combined team effort that earned them sixth place overall. Kelly Kephart and Heather Miller sailed in the Silver A competition, with Tyler Kelleher and Mickail Murawski in Silver B. Their combined scores placed them in sixth place in their competition as well.

The sailing team practices Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. They travel to four more regattas between now and the spring, including Newport Harbor, Long Beach, Stanford and Santa Barbara. The Top 5 teams at the end of the year travel to the National Championships.

There are five SoCal developmental sailing events, with the next one being held at the Coronado Yacht Club November 13. If you are interested in getting involved with the CHS sailing team, please contact Scott Harris at sharris@san.rr.com or call 435-4731.

Armed with a 17-9 overall record, earned against some of the toughest competition in the state, CHS Boys Water Polo Head Coach Randy Burgess anticipates a No. 2 seed behind The Bishop’s School in the CIF Division II playoffs. The Islanders lost twice in an eight-day period (Sept. 28 and Oct. 6) to the Knights in Western League play by the scores of 6-5 and 8-7. If the likely seeding form holds, it should be another great Coronado vs. Bishop’s finale.

This past week the Islanders played one game, which was against Foothill of Tustin, the team that recently finished in fourth place in the prestigious NorCal Tournament. Coronado lost by the score of 11-9, a result that didn’t upset Burgess. "We played well Friday night and one of the big positives was that was that we had eight players score our 11 goals. The negative is that we had another poor showing on our power play, where we were 3-12. We’ve had a lack of power play success throughout the season. We’re not making the right reads, although our passing game is very much improved."

"Sean Castillo stepped up his role and played the way he is capable of playing," said Burgess of his junior forward’s effort against Foothill. "Eric Clapper had a key matchup against their center forward, one of the premier center forwards around. John Landon had a great game and a beautiful assist late in the game. Dylan Carr had a good game in goal. I don’t think he was satisfied with it, but there were over 20 exclusions called (by the officials) in the game. It was just the way the game was called that particular night." The likely playoff schedule looks like Coronado playing the No. 15 seed Wednesday at 3 pm at La Jolla High School. The next game would be Saturday with the time to be announced. Tuesday, Nov. 16, will be the semi-final game and Burgess expects to see La Jolla, Mount Carmel or possibly University City in that contest. The Division II final will be played Saturday, Nov. 20.

"I’m very excited and confident headed into these playoffs," Burgess said. "The guys are resting and they’re starting to taper. I’m confident we’ll have a good showing."

Despite a Herculean effort by junior tailback/defensive back/punter/place kicker Kelcey Fisher Friday night, Coronado fell to University City 28-21 in front of the Homecoming 2004 crowd. Fisher rushed 25 times for a total of 201 yards and scored a touchdown on a 15-yard scamper in the third quarter.

Going into the final regular season game at Madison Friday evening, Fisher has amassed 897 yards rushing on 147 attempts (6.1 yards per carry, 99.7 yards per game) and has an excellent chance to gain 1,000 yards for the season, a fact not lost on Head Coach Bud Mayfield. "He does it without a lot of long runs. He does it in chunks of 20 and 25 yards. They are all hard runs. It will be a hard-earned 1,000 yards if it comes." For his efforts, Fisher retains his Black Shirt designation as Islander Player of the Week.

Coronado entered the game with three senior two-way starters suspended for the game due to disciplinary reasons, which made for some interesting personnel decisions for the coaching staff.

Junior Mike Baker-Denson had a nice evening going, including a 9-yard touchdown run, before a concussion ended his game prematurely. He was replaced by sophomore Eddie Gomez. "He dresses (for the varsity game) just in case of an injury, which of course is what happened," said Mayfield. "We had a fullback (Gomez) with no helmet decals out there. Doug Scott (another sophomore) filled in well (at middle linebacker). The silver lining is that the younger kids are getting to play."

Another change Mayfield employed was playing junior quarterback David Loving at middle linebacker. Normally Mayfield doesn’t have his junior signal callers play both ways, but he made an exception for Loving Friday night. "He was hungry all year to get in and play. When he finally got in, he was happier than he could be."

Even though Coronado lost, (4-5 overall, 1-3 Harbor League) Mayfield was pleased with his team’s effort. "The kids played very hard. University City is a much better team than their record (1-7 entering the game), obviously. In the other three games we have lost by a touchdown or less, we gave up a play or two that made the difference. We are very close to being good, but we can’t get over the hump. We’ve got to finish (the regular season) with Madison. We could be 4-6 and with that record, it would be tough to get into the Top 4."

The top half of the eight-team Division IV playoff field will host a playoff game. Although 90 percent of Coronado’s games are played against Division II and III opponents, hosting a home playoff game with an under .500 record is not likely.

In addition, the Madison vs. Coronado game has become a strong rivalry between the two Harbor League programs. Mayfield provided a preview of the contest. "They are very much like us in terms of they way they run the ball. They are the same size (physically), they have a good running back and they don’t make too many mistakes. On paper it should be an even game. If they win, they will be Harbor League tri-champions, so they have tremendous incentive."

Wednesday, the Islander freshman football team plays at Madison at 2:30 pm, while the Madison JV team plays at Coronado at 3 pm. The JV enters their game with a 5-3 record, while the freshmen are 7-1, with neither team having lost in Harbor League play.

The CIF tennis playoff format makes sense, sort of, if you can think outside of the box. In the case of Coronado, the Western League regular season is followed by the CIF Team Playoffs, which are then followed by the Western League individual playoffs and then the CIF Individual Playoffs. Confusing? You bet.

Anyway, the Islanders are midway through that process, having lost to La Jolla Country Day in the first round of the CIF Division III team championship. They play early this week in the Western League individuals, where the Islanders will field five doubles teams and five singles players.

Coronado’s No. 1 doubles team of Elizabeth Hopkins and Justine Gordon are the No. 6 seed in this week’s Western League playoffs. They need to post a good result to get invited to next week’s CIF singles and doubles individual tournament. The Western League is particularly tough this season, with league member La Jolla winning the Division II team title and USDHS winning the Division III championship. OLP, another Western League team, finished in third place in Division III.

With USDHS moving their campus to the North County next year and expecting to attract a larger enrollment, there may be realignment among the City Conference teams. Head Coach Robbin Adair would like to see Coronado play in the Eastern League next year with Patrick Henry and Morse, among others. "We had a 6-12 record this season and we had a pretty good year," said Adair. "We beat some good teams. Everybody we played was tough. Most of the teams we played out of the Western League were champions of their own conference."