Last week CHS Head Boys Basketball Coach Sandy Dillon had his team firing on all cylinders as the Islanders defeated the Otay Ranch Mustangs Tuesday by the score of 46-30 and followed that with a victory in the team’s Harbor League season opener, upending the Clairemont Chieftains 56-40.

On paper the Islanders are a collection of athletes that shouldn’t fit together, especially not to the extent of posting a 12-2 record halfway through the season. Their best outside shooter is 5-foot, something Ryan Guard and their best passer is their undersized senior center Jonathon Smith.

Coming into the season the team was a collection of fine athletes, who played basketball on the side. Senior Co-Captain Reid McLean is the defending CIF Division II 300-meter hurdles champion and one of the best young decathletes in the nation. Forward Adam Munns high jumped 6-feet, 6-inches last year and his twin brother Brad Munns has been a stalwart on the CHS Cross Country Team for four years and is a fine middle distance runner for the CHS Track Team. Junior backup guard Blake Spitzer is a standout contributor on the school’s baseball team.

Dillon has taken this mixture of athletes and their skills and created a competitive basketball team, with an emphasis on the word ‘team.’ Against Otay Ranch, Smith had a breakout game with 18 points, nine rebounds and five steals. Senior Alex Fairman, a transfer from Hawaii this year, added six points, 10 rebounds, three assists, five steals and two blocked shots. Said Dillon of Fairman, "he plays all five positions sometime during the 32 minutes. He’s the one kid I have that can do that." Guard added six points and Brad Munns contributed four points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals.

The Islanders really put it all together Friday evening against Clairemont, dominating their league rival throughout the game. The Islanders had three players in double figures in scoring, led by Guard’s 14 points, McLean with 13 and sophomore Chas Marks with 12. They hit their outside shots, they drove the lane to create scoring opportunities, and they fed off of the enthusiasm of the large Friday night crowd.

But most importantly, they played great team defense, allowing the Chiefs to score only 18 points in the first half. The team started the second half by receiving an outstanding defensive effort from Brad Munns, and outscored Clairemont 21-9 in the third quarter to take control of the game. Statistically the Islanders were hot from the field, hitting 51 percent of their shots (23-45), while holding the Chiefs to 35 percent from the floor.

The individual play of the game was turned in by Guard, who faked a drive 20 feet from the basket, causing his defender to fall down, and then casually hit a long-range jumper over the Chieftain, to an accompanying roar from the student section. The basketball term is "breaking his ankles" and the crowd loved the play.

Dillon entered the game with a minor case of laryngitis and had to relay his coaching instructions primarily through Assistant Coaches Reed Zeller and J.D. Laaperi. "Friday night was a fun game," said a recovering Dillon later in the week. "It’s fun to watch the kids play as well as they did, after having to struggle to play well earlier in the year. We had a couple of kids play as well as I’ve ever seen them play. Chas Marks played very, very well, as did Ryan Guard. We got some good minutes off the bench from Drew Zeller. At halftime, I told the Munns brothers that one of you have to do something (in the second half). Adam went out and changed a lot of shots and they both contributed late in the ball game."

This week the Islanders host Imperial Wednesday night as the make up for the game that was postponed two weeks ago due to the inclement weather. The JV plays at 5 pm and the varsity takes the floor at 6:30pm. Friday evening the Harbor League schedule resumes as the Islanders travel to Crawford to play the Colts at 7:30 pm.

Head Coach Toler Goodwin’s CHS Girls Basketball Team defeated Clairemont 38-37 in their Harbor League season opener, in the first half of the Girls/Boys doubleheader at Coronado Friday evening. Senior co-Captain Ashley Depfer had to sit the contest out with an ankle sprain, so Coach Goodwin stayed in the family and tabbed freshman Tiffany Depfer for her first varsity start, a move that would pay dividends at the end of the evening.

The game began slowly for the Islanders, as they trailed 11-5 at the end of the first quarter, but they rallied to close the gap to 17-16 by halftime. Clairemont is lead by Shantall Braden, who scored 18 of the Chieftain’s 37 points. Braden opened the game with two baskets in the first minute of play, but Coronado’s Farrell Pompa picked up the defensive pressure at that point. "Farrell learned how to play her after that," said Goodwin. "She has those long arms and she started using that advantage a little bit." Proof that Pompa picked up the defensive pace was the fact that she finished the game with four points, 16 rebounds and two blocked shots.

Islander senior center Amanda Marks added three points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots; junior Jessica Davis-Ricci was the Islander’s leading scorer with 13 points and she added nine rebounds and two blocked shots; sophomore Brooke Becky added nine points and seven rebounds and two blocks.

The Islanders struggled at the free throw line, converting on only 11 of their 26 attempts. However, with the score tied at 37-all and 10 seconds remaining in the game, Tiffany Depfer strolled confidently to the line and hit the second of her two charity tosses to provide the game-winning point. With time running out, Clairemont had put up three shots at the basket before Marks grabbed the defensive rebound that sealed the game for the Islanders.

Depfer the Younger may have won the game with her free throw, but she started the game in an unusual fashion, being knocked into the wall at the end of the court on a lay-up attempt, 10 seconds into the game. "Tiffany did a respectable job and she made us faster. I wasn’t sure how long her first start was going to last after that," Goodwin said.

"I thought Amanda and Farrell did a great job on the glass, securing possessions for us, and limiting the other team’s chances. Jessica kept us in it offensively early and defensively she did a good job on Braden in the fourth quarter. Brooke kept her composure. This was the first time that a team has specifically set out to take her out of the game. She was a little frustrated in the first half, but she knew she would have the opportunity to help in the second half. If she stays off the ball (not having to play point guard position and bring the ball up the floor), she has to learn to be productive from that spot, including learning how to use screens. We need to get the ball back to her after she distributes the ball."

Depfer the Elder will likely return to practice the middle of this week from her ankle injury and should be available for the team’s lone game of the week at Crawford Friday evening at 6 pm. The Islanders are currently 7-10 overall, 1-0 in Harbor League play.

Last week it was noted in this space that Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu and the Boys Soccer Team hadn’t had a game lost to the weather yet this season. Well, that streak ended Tuesday as their game against Crawford was postponed.

The team continued their winning ways (6-3 overall, 1-0 Harbor League) with a 2-1 victory over Clairemont Thursday afternoon. Sophomore Taylor Patino and senior Stuart Gallant scored the Coronado goals.

"It’s good for us to start off the league 1-0, considering that we only have two seniors who start in Stuart and Dallas Chase," said Hiatt-Aleu. "We have a hard time finishing our games because we are so young. We were ahead of Clairemont 2-0, then they scored a goal and in the last 10 minutes of the game, we struggled to hold on. We lost games earlier in the year to Santana and Hilltop when we were ahead 1-0 in both games. Young teams find it hard to concentrate and to not have defensive lapses. Our best game this season was a 1-0 win over La Jolla when we played well for all 80 minutes."

Hiatt-Aleu also commended midfielder Gallant, center-mid Chase and right defenseman Patrick Ahern for their fine play in the victory over Clairemont.

This week the Boys Soccer Team continues their Harbor League schedule with two road games this week. They play at Christian Tuesday and then travel to Hoover Thursday. Both games are scheduled for 3 pm.

The Islander Girls Soccer Team hosted sixth-ranked University City last week, defeated the Centurions 2-0 and then played at fourth-ranked USDHS and came away with a 0-0 tie. The two results improved Coronado’s record to a sparkling 15-0-2.

The week marked a couple of firsts for the Coronado High School program, according to Head Coach Miles Ramirez. It is thought to be the first time the Islanders have faced two county-ranked teams in the same week and the first time in Coronado’s soccer history that they have taken a point out of a game played on perennial prep soccer power USDHS’s field. The timing of the latter event was fortuitous because USDHS plans to move their campus to North County next year and re-name the school.

Coronado was ranked eighth in the San Diego Union-Tribune’s poll heading into the week and figures to improve on that position when the new poll is released.

The goals against University City were scored by Sasha Vido and Ashley Copp. Vido scored first, bringing the ball down at the top of the box after a couple of Centurion ball handling mistakes and converted the scoring opportunity. Copp capped off the scoring on a 30-yard free kick that caught the U.C. defenders by surprise.

"Our girls came out strong and never allowed University City to get their rhythm," said Ramirez. We pretty much dominated the game. They had four shots on goal and we had 17 shots. That’s the last time we have to visit USDHS and speaking for the team, we were happy to walk away with a point, but the girls thought we could have played a lot better. USDHS played their best game all season long, where we probably played one of our worst. Jamie Klages put on a clinic against USDHS. She did phenomenally well in goal. She is one of the few kids I know who can step up to that kind of pressure. She loves that type of game."

To add some extra incentive, as if facing USDHS on the road wasn’t enough, Klages who will attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln next year, had her Cornhusker goalkeeping Coach Marty Everding in attendance. It’s always good to show your college coach that you are worth the time and attention.

"Jamie would agree that the defense in front of her is tremendous," added Ramirez. "Our defense is destroying the opponent’s attack before they get to our half of the field. They (defenders Kindall Caldwell, Alex Vido, Maureen Mulvey and Ashley Copp) have done that the whole season. "Another good defensive effort was turned in by Coronado freshman Leah Hatheway, who marked Pepperdine-bound Michelle Russell for 90 percent of the USDHS game and held her without a goal.

This week the Islanders host Serra at 3 pm Monday and then return to Western League action at home Wednesday night at 5 pm against Scripps Ranch.

The CHS water polo teams under program Head Coach Randy Burgess, have always pursued the philosophy of scheduling tough opponents as a means toward improving their play. This week the Islanders lost twice by the score of 9-3. The first game Wednesday was lost at the Bishop’s School, while the second was lost at Foothill Saturday afternoon.

The Bishop’s game marked the second time in 5 days that the Islanders had lost to the Knights, with the first setback coming by the score of 11-10 at the Santa Barbara Tournament. In the re-match Coronado had trouble establishing their offense against a very physical Bishop’s defense. Natalia Lopez scored the first goal for the Islanders at the 1:27 mark of the first quarter, to mark the only time the game was tied. Katie Estrada added a goal in the third quarter and then took a nice pass from Elizabeth Hopkins at the 3:21 mark of the fourth quarter and one-timed a shot past the Bishop’s goalie to complete the Coronado scoring.

The team’s first two-game losing streak of the season occurred with the loss to Foothill, the winner of the Santa Barbara Tournament which featured the best 16 teams in the state of California. It should come as no surprise that Coronado has played both Foothill and Newport Harbor this season, currently holders of the top two spots in girls prep water polo.

Sandra Fernandez, Emily Bigham and Hopkins accounted for the Coronado goals against Foothill. The Islanders held a 2-1 lead at the end of the first quarter and were tied 2-2 at halftime. "We made some mistakes and we were outscored 4-0 in the third," said Girls Water Polo Head Coach Dave Throop. "We made some simple mistakes that cost us goals. I thought Megan Braun played well with eight saves in the Foothill game. Both games were very similar with double digit turnovers (for Coronado). Foothill really took our centers out of the game. It was a good learning environment for us in that regard."

The Islanders are coming off of a stretch where they played six games in 4 days and 8 games in 9 days, including travel to Santa Barbara and a return trip to Orange County for the Foothill contest.

"The group is working hard, but they may have hit the rookie wall. Only two of our players started last year and only two others saw any real playing time. We have another seven games between Tuesday and Saturday and the following week is final exams."

This week the team travels to Patrick Henry Tuesday for a 3 pm game, travels to La Jolla for another 3 pm game Wednesday, followed by 4 pm game Thursday at La Jolla High School against Vista in the first round of the America’s Finest City Tournament, hosted by CHS. Coronado returns to the pool at 3 pm Friday against Western High School, with other games Saturday played depending on the outcome of pool play. The tournament is a fundraiser for the water polo program, so take in some games this week.

Due to recent weather challenges, the Boys Lacrosse Clinic series, open for third through eighth graders, was pushed back one week. The clinic is held Saturday mornings from 9 to 11 am at Niedermeyer Field on the CHS campus. Remaining dates for the clinics are Jan. 22 through Feb. 19. The cost is $90. For more information, please go to www.coronadolacrosse.com or call Dan Little at 619-888-4196… Head Track George Green is asking CHS track aficionados to go to www.Islandertrack.com, which contains the school record page for track and field. George is requesting assistance from former CHS track athletes to help complete the school’s records for the sport. "Although the records are accurate from when I first started as a volunteer coach around 1994, there’s a gap from 1989 to 1993, as well as many steps in the record progression prior to 1989. I’m sure there are former track athletes around who can help me fill in the blanks, and maybe even supply some photos. I can be contacted through the web page or at 435-3633… A CMS track report, also from Coach Green. "Sallie Privett and her sister Mollie Privett entered the Super One Mile race that was run last Saturday in conjunction with the Carlsbad Marathon. Sallie came within one second of winning. She was 15 yards behind the leader in the women’s race when American mile record holder Steve Scott, who was pacing the race, came up behind her and told her to put her hands down and go for it. She just missed catching the leader at the finish to claim second place overall. She did win the 13-17 age group, which is an accomplishment since she is only 13. Her 10-year-old sister Mollie finished fifth in the 12 and under age division, behind four 12-year-old runners, also from the Southern California Roadrunners… Finally, don’t forget the Coronado High School Sailing Team Dinner and Auction to be held Thursday, Jan. 27 from 5:30 to 8 pm at the Coronado Yacht Club. Tickets to the dinner are $15 each for adults and $5 each for children. The proceeds from the banquet benefit the CHS Sailing Team, which is not funded by the school district, and covers such costs as regatta entry fees, boat maintenance, sails, travel expenses and stipends for the coaches. For more information regarding the event, to purchase tickets, or to donate a prize for an auction or a raffle, please contact Karen Paquin at 435-0643.