Indicative of their position as the defending CIF Division III Soccer Champions, the Coronado High School Girls Soccer Team kicked off their regular season with two victories last week. The first was a 1-0 win over a tough Grossmont squad, followed closely by a 7-1 victory over Santana.

Head Coach Miles Ramirez opted to open the 2004-05 schedule against a formidable foe in Grossmont. "There were two evenly matched teams. We scored in the 80^th minute (prep soccer is played in two 40-minute halves) and that is a very good result for us. We started off the season with a tougher opponent that we have in the past. I think Grossmont will probably be a pretty highly seeded team in the playoffs."

The lone score in that game was generated by senior Erin Buss on an assist from sophomore Kelly Walsh.

Islander goals came fast and often against Santana, with Ramirez estimating that the game was shortened by 12 minutes due to the lopsided score. Callie Caldwell scored twice, her sister Kindall Caldwell scored once, and solo goals were also scored by Ashley Copp, Sasha Vido, Erin Buss, and Kelly Walsh.

Goal scoring is obviously an important element of the game, but as Ramirez noted, "defense wins championships. Maureen Mulvey is playing sweeper for us and she is doing an excellent job of keeping things organized. Right now she is the glue of the team and is doing an excellent job of keeping things organized. The opposing teams aren’t getting any chances. They can’t penetrate and get through our defense."

Freshman forward Leah Hatheway also earned praise from Ramirez for her play. "She’s starting at forward and creating problems for the opposition. She’s a very skilled and creative player. We’re going to have a good year this year."

This week the Islanders have an early-week game at Clairemont, and then play Wednesday at 3:15 pm at Francis Parker. Saturday Coronado resumes play in the Limited Division of the Baron’s Tournament, (the Santana contest was the first round game of that tourney) competing at 8 am in the quarter-finals. If the team continues to win, they will play into the semi-finals and finals, with three consecutive wins needed Saturday to win the event.

Banquet season is upon us, with several of the Fall Sports teams holding their post-season awards dinners over the past several days.

The Varsity Boys Water Polo Awards as announced by Head Coach Randy Burgess were: Team Captain – Devin Farrell, Most Valuable Player – Sean Castillo, Most Valuable Offensive Player – Jess Farquhar, Most Valuable Defensive Player – Eric Clapper, Coach’s Award – Preston Lujan, Most Improved Player – Jacob Smith, the Golden Tassel Award for Academic and Athletic Excellence – Drew Ratcliffe, and the Islander Sports Foundation Award – Dylan Carr.

The JV Boys Water Polo Awards, as announced by Coach Ian Silverman were: Team Captain – Jackson Crow-Mickle, Most Valuable Player – Phillip Bowen, and Most Improved Player – Prince Sefa-Boakye.

Novice Boys Water Polo winners were: Team Captain – Sean Cook, Most Valuable Player Kyle Porkorny, Coach’s Award – C.J. Kerr, and Most Improved Player Jake Hunzeker.

Head Coach Kari Weidner presented the Girls Golf Team awards to: Team MVP – Alexcie Sanchez, Most Improved – Ali Icenhower, Coach’s Choice Award – Sara Stillman, Captains Awards – Monica Ascolani and Stillman. A total of 12 athletes received varsity awards for Girls Golf this season. Sanchez also posted the low scoring average on the Islander squad this season.

Head Girls Tennis Coach Robbin Adair made his awards as follows: Co-Most Valuable Players and Team Captains – Elizabeth Hopkins and Justine Gordon, Most Improved Players – Lorena Hernandez and Amanda Purvis.

Boys and Girls Cross Country Head Coach Mel Bechtel announced his teams’ awards last week as follows: Boys Team Captain – Jake Ruzevick; Girls Team Captains – Ashley Walsh and Karolin Ivarsson; Boys Most Improved – Josh Fink; Girls Most Improved – Katie Gomrick and Anneke Nelson; Boys MVP – Jake Ruzevick; Girls MVP – Ashley Walsh. Seniors who helped their respective teams win Harbor League titles this season were also recognized, including Walsh, Ruzevick, Brad Munns, Reid McLean, and Drew Lewis.

Head Track Coach George Green also passes along the following information regarding the cross country season. "The Foot Locker Championships will be held this Saturday at Morley Field. This is a true national cross country championship, with the Top 10 runners (10 boys and 10 girls) from each of four regions (Northeast, South, Midwest and West) participating. San Diego qualified two boys; A.J. Acosta from El Camino and Riley Booker from University City. The Top 40 nationally-ranked boys and girls arrive at the Hotel Del Coronado Thursday. The girls race begins at 9:15 am and the boys race will start at 10 am."

"Young, raw, and a work in progress," is how Head Coach Sandy Dillon described his Boys Basketball Team that will hit the hardwood this season. That may or may not be the bad news, but the positive side includes, "these kids really like to play and are very coachable. They listen, they don’t have any attitude and they don’t have a whole lot of experience at the varsity level. They go up and down the court real well. We’re trying to overcome one shortcoming every day or two days. We’ll continue to find something to get a little bit better on."

This year’s squad is basically the same team that went 22-2 at the Junior Varsity level last season under Coach Robbin Adair, with the addition of a couple of players. The only returning player with any appreciable varsity minutes under his belt is senior Reid McLean.

Even though it is only early December, the injury bug has already hit the team. Senior 6-foot, 3-inch import from Hawaii Alex Fairman has a minor back injury that kept him from playing in Coronado’s 61-31 opening night victory over Preuss Academy Friday evening. "He understands the game and can play several positions," Dillon said. "He plays wherever we need him. He’s one of our two or three best players."

Junior Kevin Couture sustained an injury to his right thumb in the Islanders scrimmage against Mar Vista High School a week ago and his status is up in the air. Also, sophomore Matt Oakley, who Dillon considers to be one of the squad’s best shooters, re-injured a meniscus ligament in his knee, an injury first sustained during the 2004 baseball season.

Another transfer, junior Casey Zapatka, who arrived in Coronado from New Mexico, scored nine points in the first game. "He hit his first shot and played really well," Dillon said. Sophomore Chas Marks made his varsity debut with eight points. Junior Bryan Reed, who arrived with his own sign-wielding cheering section, scored 10 points, while Ryan Guard added eight more. Other contributors this year will include twins Adam Munns and Brad Munns, Tim Machado, Blake Spitzer, Jonathan Smith, Hunter Chance and Drew Zeller.

Dillon will employ a frenetic substitution style, starting five players and bring in five more at the four-minute mark of the first quarter. "It’s going to be very interesting. Some nights we’ll win, sand we’ll get run out some nights. So far we’ve played pretty hard and we’ve had a fair amount of kids in the game. The good news for the future is that 43 of our 61 points scored last week, were scored by underclassmen."

This week the Islanders play in the annual Small Schools Tournament and face Army-Navy at 5 pm at the Bishop’s School. They will play either Lutheran or Sage Hill, depending on the game results Thursday evening.

Coach Dave Throop plans to dive (no pun intended) right into the season this year, as the Girls Water Polo Team will open with (ok, the pun was intended) Western League rival Scripps Ranch at Miramar College Thursday at 3 pm , followed closely by another league tilt against La Jolla at La Jolla Friday at 3 pm. To complete the week, the Islanders will host Newport Harbor Saturday at 4 pm, also at La Jolla High School.

Although the early schedule is tough, Throop has a lot of talent to draw from, including senior Elizabeth Hopkins and senior goalie Megan Braun. Another senior who will contribute is Brooke Clark. "We’re looking for a lot from Elizabeth," said Throop of the driver/defender who recently signed a National Letter of Intent to play water polo at the University of Maryland next year. Braun, who has a summer of junior national team play under her belt, will provide a steadying influence in goal.

Also returning is junior driver Sandra Fernandez, who was named Most Valuable Player of the Girls 18 and Under Division of a national-level tournament played in Hawaii last summer. Among those who figure to see a lot of playing time are sophomores Lizzie Hansen, Katie Estrada and Molly Patrick.

"We’re very young," said Throop of his team. "We have 21 girls in the training group, including three seniors and six members each of the junior, sophomore and freshman class. The freshman and sophomore group is very talented and they help keep everyone honest in practice, that’s for sure. We have 18 of our 21 girls who still qualify for play in 16 and under division in tournaments."

"It’s going to be a unique season," Throop continued. "We lost five seniors from the team last year (to graduation). They are great people and great girls. They welcomed the freshmen to the team last year. We’re going to be very competitive and in a lot of games, but we have girls who have not played at this level before. There is a big learning curve."

The Islander Girls Basketball Team held their two opponents last week to an average of 34.5 points per game, but unfortunately weren’t able to emerge with a win in either contest. The losses were 29-24 to Mission Hills and 40-32 to Our Lady of Peace. Both games were part of the Coronado Thanksgiving Shootout event.

"We’re putting out a lot of energy," said Head Coach Toler Goodwin. "Defensively we’ve played very, very well. But we just didn’t reward ourselves on the offensive end of the floor. We’re still struggling at the free throw line and we need to have a little bit better shot selection. The effort is there and we should start seeing results from that effort. The other night we gave up six bank shots (normally the sign of a lucky shot) with the shot clock expiring. I’ll take my chances if we can continue to hold people there. We’re just not scoring points. We’ve just got to win another game. We’re close, but we need to learn how to win. We need to get the feeling of winning a close game."

Junior guard Farrell Pompa played well in both games according to Goodwin. "In one game she had points and in the other game she played very well defensively. She had a couple of good games." The leading scorer for the week was sophomore guard Brooke Becky with 19 points; Pompa scored 15, including 13 against OLP; and Ashley Depfer added 10 points.

This week the squad plays Julian Tuesday at home, and next week the JV and Varsity host Otay Ranch, with the JV playing at 5 pm and the Varsity at 6:30 pm. This week, from Wednesday through Saturday Coronado will host a JV tournament.

Playing in their own tournament, the Coronado Islanders Boys Soccer Team is off to a 2-1 start under the direction of Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu. A 2-1 loss to Hilltop was followed by a 6-2 victory over Ramona and a 2-0 shutout of the Bishop’s School.

Stuart Gallant scored four times in the Ramona victory, and was joined in the scoring by Charlie Wood and Kelcey Fisher. Ryan Manazir and Gallant accounted for the two goals against Bishop’s, while the goalie tandem of Ryan Cummins and Hugo Vera shared credit for the shutout.

Gallant is the team’s most versatile player and according to Hiatt-Aleu, the senior plays all over the field. "He plays the middle, back, or on defense, depending on where we need him." Other returning players include center-mid Nick Hamilton, defender Travis Lindsay, and Fisher who plays midfielder and forward. Wood, who plays left back; midfielder and defender Austen Speer, and center-mid Manazir are all important contributors to the team that forged a 14-6 record last year.

The team competes in the Harbor League again this year, where they will face league favorites Hoover and Crawford, as well as Clairemont, Christian and Madison. Experience gained at the club level may separate Hoover and Crawford from the rest of the pack in the conference. "Their 15 players play soccer 12 months out of the year," said Hiatt-Aleu. "That’s all they do. Soccer is their sport, that’s it."

Coronado is again the smallest school in Division III, which this year includes power houses Valhalla, USDHS, Point Loma and St. Augustine. "Those four teams can beat anybody in any division," said Hiatt-Aleu.

Coronado is a really young team this year, with only a smattering of seniors. Hiatt Aleu-provided an overview of his club. "They’re a good group of kids. They’re hard-working and they have good attitudes, for the most part. The technical skills and tactical abilities aren’t there, but we’re not lacking in effort, so that’s not a problem."

At press time, the team’s game Monday vs. Santana was up in the air, due to the rain that fell in the area over the weekend. The Islanders are slated to host Mission Bay Thursday evening at 5 pm and will host Serra at Niedermeyer Field Saturday at 6 pm.