Water Polo marches to the beat of its own drummer when it comes to scheduling matters, both for the Boys team in the fall and the Girls squad in the winter.

The Islander Girls Water Polo Team completed its regular season last week, the first of the five Coronado High Schools winter sports teams to do so, and they finished in style. Wednesday afternoon the Islanders downed Scripps Ranch 13-3 to complete their Western League schedule. Their overall won-loss record now stands at 18-9.

Emily Bigham lead Coronado with three goals, followed by Kelly Phelps and Katie Estrada with two tallies each. A total of six Islanders had one goal each including Lizzie Hansen, Elizabeth Hopkins, Natalia Lopez, Hannah Sebenaler, Carly Hoshko, and Sabrina Anonas. Hopkins added three assists and Sebenaler was credited with two.

In a nod toward the future, Head Coach Dave Throop also noted that three of the nine goal scorers in the Scripps Ranch game were freshmen, a group that includes Sebenaler, Hoshko and Anonas.

But the biggest stat of the game belonged to Coronado’s senior goalie Megan Braun who had 14 saves in goal. Throop also credits Braun with jumpstarting the Islander offense with her long and accurate outlet passes. "Megan obviously fuels our transition game and in the games where we use our transition game, we do pretty well. We played a lot of girls against Scripps Ranch and they played well."

With their second place finish in the Western League, behind The Bishop’s School, Coronado expects to get the No. 2 seed in the CIF Division II Playoffs. A total of 16 teams qualify for the Division II postseason, which means that if Throop’s seeding prediction holds true, the Islanders will face the No. 15 seed in the first round of the playoffs, likely to be held Thursday evening at La Jolla High School. The coaches’ seeding meeting to determine the final playoff brackets will be held Monday evening.

Unlike other CIF winter sports playoff arrangements, there are no first round byes in girls water polo, which often makes for some interesting first round scores. If form holds, look for another Coronado vs. Bishop’s finale.

The Boys Soccer Team had their consecutive shutout streak stopped at six games, but more importantly they defeated Hoover 2-1 at home last week to earn at least a share of the Harbor League title. The victory pushed their overall record to 14-3, 8-0 in Harbor League play.

"We are leading the league by two games with two games to go," explained Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu. "All we need is a tie in one of our last two games to win the league." It is thought to be the first league title for a Boys Soccer Team representing Coronado High School since the early 1990’s. "We’ve gotten close and finished in second a couple of times," added Hiatt-Aleu. "And we finished third a couple of times. But this is the first time we will win the league."

A game originally scheduled for Thursday against Division III powerhouse St. Augustine was postponed due to rain.

Senior Stuart Gallant and sophomore Christian Bond accounted for the goals for Coronado. All three goals, including Hoover’s lone tally, came in the first half of play. Basically Coronado played keep away from the Cardinals in the second half, the smart way to earn a victory according to Hiatt-Aleu. "We made it ugly. Once we got the two-goal lead, we pretty much shut down the shop. We’re not going to attack until you tie the score or go ahead. We have learned how to play tactically really well. Once we have the lead, we don’t take unnecessary risks."

This week the Islanders play a Harbor League game at Madison Tuesday at 3 pm; then they host St. Augustine in the make-up of the postponed game Thursday at 5 pm; and complete the regular season when they host Crawford Friday at 5 pm.

Then comes the all-important coaches’ seeding meeting, which will be held Saturday morning, where every coach makes a 90-second pitch stating where he thinks his team should be seeded. In CIF Division III, 12 of the 24 teams that compete at that level will make the playoffs.

When asked where he thought the Islanders would be seeded, Hiatt-Aleu replied,"it depends on the results of the St. Augustine game. If we win, we should get a Top 4 seed. If we lose, we’ll probably be seeded six or seven. But it would be nice to get a first round bye and a home game in the second round. It will be tough because there are a lot of teams with good records, but not as good as ours. We have a couple of really strong wins. Wherever we get seeded, that’s fine. We’ll be happy to win the Harbor League when it happens. Pretty much everything has gone our way in league this year."

The Girls Soccer Team knew they had to win the balance of the games on their schedule to win the Western League, and they got off to a good start Monday of last week as they defeated Christian 1-0 on a goal by junior midfielder Marissa Nagler.

That victory set up Wednesday’s big home contest against USDHS, which was for all practical purposes, for the league title. The two teams had tied in their first meeting of the season.

The Islanders withstood an initial flurry from USDHS as the Dons had the better of the play in the first several minutes of the game. Then the Islanders started to dominate the play at the midfield. Coronado scored first on a goal by senior midfielder Ashley Walsh, set up by a nice assist from senior Ashley Copp, 11 minutes and 42 seconds into the game. USDHS counterattacked and less than a minute later the Dons scored the equalizing goal.

In the second half, Coronado’s best scoring opportunity came on a solo rush by Copp, who picked her way through the USDHS defense and fired a right-footed shot that hit the crossbar and fell straight down to the Dons goalkeeper. Shortly afterward, the Dons won the game at the 13:22 mark on a counter-attack and a brief but costly Islander defensive lapse.

"I thought we played exceptionally well," said Head Coach Miles Ramirez. "They have some good players, but they’re not better than us. They’re ranked No. 2 in the county. We kept it close. We can work hard and regain our focus. If we get through the first two games in the playoffs, we’ll play them in the CIF Finals. I think we’ll be there."

This week the Islanders host Point Loma Monday at 5 pm and then complete their regular season Wednesday at Scripps Ranch at 3 pm. Armed with a 20-3-2 record heading in to this week’s play, Ramirez expects to emerge with the No. 2 seed in Division III behind USDHS. A total of 12 schools from the 22 that compete in the CIF San Diego Section Division III qualify for the playoffs. "There are some good teams, but I don’t see anyone close to us. I love playoff time and so do the kids. I’m ready for the playoffs." Ramirez added that he expects Valhalla, Mission Hills and Steele Canyon to be seeded behind Coronado, in some order, in Numbers 3-5.

The CHS Girls Basketball Team lost to Hoover at home Tuesday evening by the score of 52-45, in a contest that was really closer than the score would indicate. The Islanders trailed 12-10 at the end of the first quarter, 26-24 at halftime, and 39-38 at the end of the third quarter. The Cardinals ran off the first five points of the fourth quarter, but with 35 seconds remaining in regulation, the Islanders had closed the gap to one point on a jumper by Amanda Marks.

Forced to foul to get the ball back, the Islanders sent Hoover to the free throw line for three one-and-one opportunities over the next 17 seconds, and the Cardinals hit six consecutive free throws to win the game. In the current state of basketball, at all levels including the pros, converting six consecutive pressure free throws is a rarity.

The following night, Coronado hosted the Crawford Colts and ran them off the floor with a 40-19 victory. All of the Harbor League teams played on back-to-back nights, another rarity in prep basketball, and according to Head Coach Toler Goodwin, it hurt the Colts. "They didn’t have their legs after going back-to-back. We were able to push the ball and get a couple of early baskets in the second half." Coronado outscored Crawford 12-4 in the third frame on their way to the well-earned victory.

The common element to both games was the outstanding play of Brooke Becky. Against Hoover the sophomore guard scored 13 points, snared 10 rebounds, and contributed four assists and four steals. Against Crawford the following night, Becky had 12 points, seven rebounds, two steals and four assists.

As you might imagine, Goodwin noticed her fine play. "Brooke’s game against Hoover was her best game top to bottom, offensively and defensively, all year. She had a really good all-around game. Her court awareness was as good as it has ever been."

Against Crawford, virtually everyone wearing a white Coronado home uniform played well. Senior center Anna Moore had five rebounds and a steal in extended playing time, and neutralized her Crawford counterpart in the post. "We need her to come in there and counteract some of the big bodies in the league," said Goodwin. "She allowed us to block their bigger bodies and allowed our guards to get up and down the floor."

Goodwin spoke highly of his substitute players who contributed to the victory. "It was nice to see them have some success on the floor. They come to practice every day and work extremely hard. It was nice to see them go out there and play well and do some good things and have some productive minutes."

Most of Crawford’s scoring comes from their post players, and Coronado often double-teamed the Colts interior players. "Our guards did a good job helping, sliding over and stealing a lot of passes into the post," said Goodwin. "We fronted or three-quarter fronted their posts and then we received good backside help from Brooke and Farrell Pompa."

Other contributors against Crawford included Tiffany Depfer (seven points, six rebounds); Jessica Davis-Ricci (10 points, four rebounds), Pompa (three points, eight rebounds); and Marks (six points, three rebounds).

This week the Islanders complete their season against the top two teams in the Harbor League, hosting Madison Tuesday at 3 pm and then traveling to Christian Friday for a 6 pm contest.

All of that is a prelude to the all-important seeding meeting Saturday morning. Goodwin is confident that the Islanders will make the Division IV playoffs. "We’ve had tight games throughout the season. We’re getting better. Individually and collectively, we’re playing so much better. We’re starting to get an understanding of what we can do and the rhythm of the game."

The Boys Basketball Team had their work cut out for them last week, as they faced the two most talented teams in the Harbor League. They lost at Hoover Tuesday by the score of 71-51 and then lost a home tilt to Crawford 68-54.

Knowing he had another game the following evening, Islander Head Coach Sandy Dillon pulled his starters with 6 minutes remaining in the Hoover game. Hoover’s starters remained on the floor until almost the final horn sounded.

The rest concept almost backfired as according to Dillon, "Wednesday night we came out brain dead. I called a timeout 2 minutes and 45 seconds into the game after we had made three or four mistakes on defense. I looked in their eyes and there was nothing there. At halftime, we were down 43-19 and I told them that I was done hollering and I wasn’t going to scream. I told them you’re mentally tired, and there is no reason why you shouldn’t be. They had played hard and played well for several games without backing off."

After shuffling lineups in the early going of the second half, the Islanders cut the Colts lead to eight points, before Crawford stretched the lead back to 14 at the game’s end.

Dillon praised several of his players for their efforts. "Chas Marks continues to play well, as does Alex Fairman. Jonathan Smith played very well against Hoover."

Going into the games of last week, Coronado had the top-ranked defense in San Diego County, allowing 40.8 points per game. Based on last week’s scores, that average will climb a bit to 43.3 points allowed per game, but they should remain in the top three in the region in team defense.

With a 14-8 record, Coronado figures to be among the 12 teams in Division IV that qualify for postseason play. "The seventh seed would be my guess," said Dillon. "I think we may play Mountain Empire or Army-Navy. We might fall to the eight seed. Marian Catholic is about the same as us. I think Horizon, Francis Parker and Bishop’s will be the Top 3 seeds."

CHS Head Track Coach George Green checks in with a little pre-season track report. "Last week Jake Ruzevick got a taste of collegiate indoor track at the Boston University St. Valentine Invitational. Running unattached (no team affiliation), he clocked 8:58.29 for the 3,000-meter run. This time translates to about 9:36 for 3,200 meters, which is about 7 seconds off of the CHS 3,200-meter record, a distance roughly 20 meters short of 2 miles. Needless to say that’s an excellent time for a pre-season race, on the boards and indoors, no less."

For those of you a little down in the dumps about the rain, keep in mind that spring is around the corner. A true sign of the season, The CHS Baseball Team’s first game is a little over two weeks away. Tuesday, March 1, the Islanders host Central High School at 3 pm. I’m sure it will be nice and warm for the season opener.