In the world of sports there are several tell-tale signs that a team is really good. Consider the positive indicators shown by the Coronado High School Girls Lacrosse Team this year.

First, is their won-loss record, currently a lofty 18-1, with the one loss coming in an all-day tournament played on a shorter than normal field. Second, they won their two games last week against schools with a much larger enrollment. For California Interscholastic Federation purposes, school enrollment is determined by the number of students in grades 10-12. Coronado is currently 728 students strong. Last week the Islanders beat Serra (enrollment 1,376) by the score of 12-3 and then dominated Scripps Ranch (1,676 students) 14-1.

Third, the team must have senior leadership. Midfielder Julia Schelkun; who runs the team’s offense and scores goals in bunches herself; defender Alex Vido; and goalie Liz Thaete supply that valuable commodity to the team. Fourth, the team must have depth. Consider the fact that four starters weren’t available for the Scripps Ranch game and Coronado still prevailed by 13 goals.

Fifth, the team must have young talent to blend with the seniors and possess the ability to score on offense. Freshmen Hannah Sebenaler and Greer Goebels are capable of scoring for anywhere on the field, as is sophomore Amanda Purvis. Junior veterans Lindsey Negrete and Marissa Nagler have each carried the team’s offensive load on several occasions.

Sixth, defense is a must. Junior Angela Naple is earning national recognition for her defensive efforts and her twin sister Lindsay Naple is a defensive presence as well.

Seventh, when the coach contacts other good teams in the area to schedule a game, she doesn’t a return phone call. That happened this season as Coronado tried to schedule San Diego County powers La Costa Canyon and Torrey Pines for regular season tilts, to no avail. The first time Coronado will see those perennial North County powers will be in the CIF playoffs.

Finally, the coaching has to be at a high level. CHS Head Coach Jessica Battle is being honored next month as the CIF Girls Lacrosse Coach of the Year. That pretty well covers that point.

Another crucial element is the ability to win big games. After a game against Patrick Henry Tuesday, Coronado plays a crucial game at La Jolla Friday evening at 6 pm. The Islanders defeated their conference rival in their first meeting of the season and this contest is vitally important for CIF playoff seeding purposes. Then Coronado hosts Poway Saturday afternoon at 1 pm. Two tough, back-to-back games will present a good test for the Islanders.

"We’re the top team in the league," said Battle of her squad. "Every other team, including La Costa Canyon has at least one loss. All of the players are fantastic."

Two feet separated the CHS Sailing Team from participating in the Baker Nationals in Jensen Beach, FL when the qualifying races for that event were held over the weekend. According to Coach Kate Sheahan, the Baker format is a team racing affair, where three boats from one school sail against three boats from a competing institution. Unlike most sailing regattas, there are only six boats on the water competing at one time.

Competing for Coronado were freshmen driver Pike Harris and crew Ryan Sullivan in the No. 1 boat; team Co-Captain and driver Kelly Kephart with Lauren Paquin as crew in the No. 2 boat; and driver Kati Eckert and crew Mickail Murawski in the No. 3 boat.

According to Sheahan, the team arrived at the Baker qualifier, which was sailed out of the San Diego Yacht Club, in a rather unorthodox fashion. "Ten days ago we started training and we had five or six practices which lasted 4 hours each. They really got themselves up to speed."

There were 60 high school teams eligible to compete in the regional qualifier, but only eight schools chose to enter the competition. The object was to get out of the Saturday qualifying round in one of the top four positions, so that you could compete in the finals on Sunday. Coronado finished in the fourth slot and earned another busy day of sailing.

The bad news is that only the top three teams qualify for the Baker Nationals in Florida and two of the other teams competing over the weekend, Point Loma and Newport Harbor are ranked 1-2 in the nation. The fourth team competing was Corona del Mar.

Coronado didn’t back down and defeated Point Loma in one of the races. But the day, and Coronado’s chances to qualify for the Baker Nationals, came down to a final race with Corona del Mar. The third Coronado boat crossed the finish line two feet behind that of the third Corona del Mar vessel.

"They did so much better than we expected," said Sheahan. "It was special to have Pike and Ryan sailing because they are so young. The team almost went to Nationals, which is really, really exciting."

The previous weekend, Coronado competed in the Pacific Coast Gold Championships held at the Encinal Yacht Club, in addition to sailing in the Pacific Coast Silver Championships, held at the Navy Yacht Club at the same time. The sailing lineups fielded by Coronado were dramatically different than those that sailed in the Baker qualifying event. In the Gold event, Pike Harris/Kati Eckert sailed in the ‘A’ boat, while Tyler Kelleher/Mickail Murawski sailed the ‘B’ boat. Toward the end of the event, Eckert drove the ‘A’ boat to two fifth place finishes. Coronado finished in 12^th place out of 20 teams.

In the Silver Event, the team of Kelly Kephart/Heather Miller was in the ‘A’ boat, while in the ‘B’ boat, Jessie Kephart and Ryan Sullivan alternated as the driver, with Lauryn Francis as the crew. As an entry, the two boats finished 13^th out of 19 competitors in the Silver Championships. Sullivan, who normally serves as crew for Pike Harris in sailing competitions throughout the year, won one of the Silver ‘B’ fleet races as a driver.

That concludes the CHS Sailing season for the year, with many members of this year’s squad returning to compete next year.

Head Coach George Green brings us up to date on the CHS Track and Field front. "Both the Boys and Girls Track Team lost to Hoover last Thursday, but Islander high jumpers Jamie Klages and Adam Munns were flying high.

Munns’ winning jump of 6-feet, 7-inches was only an inch off of the school record and Klages’ jump of 5-feet 9-inches, although not her personal best, was still the best mark in San Diego County. Freshman Michael Davies set a personal best mark in the 1,600-meters by over 10 seconds with a time of 5:06.6, placing second to fellow Islander freshman Ben Enowitz and his winning time of 5:01.1.

Two days later at the USCD Triton Invitational, Klages placed second in the high jump with a leap of 5-feet, 9.25 inches and Munns placed sixth with a 6-foot, 5-inch effort. Neither Islander athlete was defeated by another high school jumper, as this was a college meet that also accepted open athletes. CIF rules prohibit high school athletes from representing their team in non-CIF events.

Also competing unattached was Coronado Middle School seventh grade phenom Sallie Privett. Sallie led the first two laps of her heat in the 1,500-meter run, and was in second place and closing, just a few feet from the finish line, when she tripped over the inner railing of the track and went down. She got up and limped over the finish line in fourth place, with a time of 5:02. Had she not tripped, she was on a pace to complete the race in 4:54, which would have been her personal best for the distance. She’s fine now, and came away with a few scrapes and a great story to tell about her first college meet."

Competition in the 2005 Western League in baseball is tough, which is a bit of an understatement. Consider last week’s Islander schedule. They defeated La Jolla 11-2 Tuesday, and then had Mission Bay on the ropes Thursday before losing 12-6 in extra innings. Saturday the Islanders hosted Clairemont and faced a trio of very live Chieftain arms and Coronado lost 8-3.

The constant in the three games were at least one good Islander pitching performance in each contest. Junior Kevin Couture was effective and efficient, striking out seven Vikings on 46 pitches over three innings. Thursday, freshman Kyle Pokorny pitched into the seventh inning against the Dons from USDHS before earning a ‘no decision.’ Saturday Senior Josh Okerman pitched 3.2 innings of effective middle relief, before tiring in the fifth inning.

In a tight conference race, the close games that get away hurt. If Coronado could have held the late-game lead against Mission Bay and prevailed over Clairemont, they would be in the thick of the Western League championship race. Instead they are now in the lower division of the Western League, along with La Jolla. But a lot of baseball remains to be played this season. "We’re capable of playing with them," said Head Coach Sam Ceci of the other Western League teams. "We have the talent, but we’re just not getting it done."

In addition to the pitching efforts listed above, the bright spot of the week was a 15-hit attack against La Jolla. "That’s unheard of for us," said Ceci. "We scored a lot of runs and Kevin was overpowering early. He also went 3-5 at the plate. Jimmy Gersonde was 2-3 and Josh Okerman was 2-5 with an inside-the-park home run. Blake Spitzer had a couple of hits." Pitchers Michael Denson and Mike Hollinger each pitched two innings to close out the victory over the Vikings.

Against Clairemont, Freshman Alex Rowan proved that playing at the varsity level is no big deal, pounding out two hits in his first two varsity plate appearances. "He has a nice approach at the plate," said Ceci. Danny Cepin, who in addition to pitching, also played third base, left field and second base in the game; had two hits in four at bats. The left-handed hitting Cepin increased his team-leading batting average to .426 for the season. Cleanup hitter David West went 2-3 with a walk and bumped his batting average 17 points to .357.

This week the Islanders host Christian in a non-league game Tuesday at 3:30 pm and then host Point Loma Thursday at 3:30, which is a change in the schedule. Due to construction problems at Point Loma, the game has been moved to Coronado.

Friday evening the CHS Boys Lacrosse Team hosted their counterparts from La Costa Canyon in an important match for both squads. La Costa Canyon is ranked 31^st nationally in lacrosse, while Coronado is ranked 153. Friday night, the teams were much closer than that, as the 5-4 final score in favor of the Mavericks proved.

The first quarter was scoreless, and La Costa’s goal at the 9:03 mark of the second quarter was answered in less than a minute by Kelcey Fisher’s scoring effort from 10 meters out. La Costa Canyon took a 2-1 lead into the half and scored a goal after three minutes had elapsed in the second half to go up 3-1.

Nearly 5 minutes into the second half, senior Attack Coltan Story scored the first of his back-to-back goals. The second tally followed less than a minute later, allowing Coronado to tie the score 3-3. Another Maverick goal was countered by a nice solo scoring effort on a slashing drive by Geoff Worley. La Costa Canyon scored the eventual game winning goal with 29 seconds remaining in the third quarter. The final quarter was scoreless.

Goalie Kevin Chenoweth had a nice effort between the pipes, making saves on several point-blank shots. Senior defenseman Ryan Cummins hustled hard to retrieve a ball and maintain possession for the Islanders on a play with 5 minutes remaining in the game. The three-sport star dove to save the ball and wiped out the scoring table in the process. Unfazed, Cummins continued to play the balance of the game.

The hit of the night belonged to junior defender Kyle McArthur, a quasi-legal effort that drew a positive response both from the crowd and his teammates.

Coronado is now 11-3 on the season, having lost to Torrey Pines, Poway and La Costa Canyon. They have outscored their opponents 135-59, but in all probability will receive the No. 4 seed in the CIF playoffs.

A bye slot in the Western League schedule allowed Head Coach Ed Shanholtz to book a non-league opponent last Monday and he selected Escondido Charter School for that honor. What sounded like a respite from the Western League wars turned into a challenge as the White Tigers arrived at Green Field sporting a 12-3 won-loss record.

So Coach Shanholtz countered by throwing sophomore hurler Sara Noceto, who pitched a complete game one-hit shutout. "We scored both of our runs in the second inning," said Shanholtz. "Jessica Davis-Ricci and Sara Stillman both had RBI singles." Noceto scored the first run, after stealing second base. Davis-Ricci scored the second run, also after stealing second base.

Thursday the Islanders returned to Western League play and lost to Point Loma 5-2. Kristin Barker turned in a fine outing for the Islanders on the mound, and was 2-4 at the plate. Farrell Pompa had an RBI double in four trips to the dish.

Good pitching is fundamental for a team’s success in softball and Shanholtz likes what he is seeing from his mound corps. "The pitchers (Noceto and Barker) are doing really well. They are hitting their spots and getting key outs when they need to. It seems like one mistake messes up an inning for us. Against Point Loma, they scored four of their five runs in the third inning. We had our chances against them, but we didn’t get timely hitting. Our defense is improving. We cut our errors to four this week, down from 10 last week."

The Islanders travel to Clairemont Tuesday and host USDHS Thursday at 3:30 pm at Green Field. Previewing the game against the Chieftains Tuesday, Shanholtz added, "If we play our ‘A’ game, we can be competitive and maybe sneak away with a win."

After a three-week, spring break induced break in their schedule, the CHS Boys Volleyball Team returned to the court last week. Playing a strong Bishop’s team after the layoff, the Islanders lost 25-14, 25-16, and 25-20. Friday, Coronado opened Harbor League play with a 25-19, 25-13, 25-10 win at Crawford.

Due to a nagging injury to Jack Scott, who was not able to play this week, Head Coach Phil Trotter moved Anthony Ott to the middle-blocker position. Trotter also noted the fine play of two of his seniors. "Jonathan Smith is playing really well. This is the best he has played since he picked up the game last year. He’s a great athlete. He makes some magnificent kills, which helps us with our momentum. Jed Considine has played well as our setter. The rest of the team is starting to play a lot more solidly. It felt good to get a win."

"This is a big week, Trotter continued to say. "We have Madison and Clairemont, which is the meat of the league schedule. Clairemont beat Madison last week, so they should be the team to beat."

Head Coach Robbin Adair provides a Boys Tennis update. "We had two tough opponents this week, but I was pleased with how we competed. Tuesday we lost at Scripps Ranch 13-5. Earlier in the year they had beaten us 17-1 at home, but this time it was a much better match. Daniel Souza took two out of three sets as did the doubles team of Allan Hernandez and Dan Schneider. Matt Rowan earned our fifth point. Rounding out the team, we had Lewis Guess at No. 3 singles, Mike Holman and Chris Mitchell at No. 2 doubles, plus Javier Arozarena and Pedro de la Fuente at No. 3 doubles. Though they got swept, there were several really close matches.

Thursday USDHS, currently No. 2 in our division visited. We lost to them at their place 16-2, but this time it was 13-5. Among those 13 lost sets were six sets that were extremely close, with only one break deciding each. The lineups were just about identical to Tuesday, except that freshman Frankie Harrison played with Arozarena. Again our five points came from Dan Souza, who won two of three, and the doubles team of Hernandez/Schneider, who won two of three. Rowan again rounded out the scoring with a singles win.

This week we play at University City and then at La Jolla before finishing with St. Augustine at home. They playoffs begin in two weeks. Souza continues to lead us with an overall record of 16-10; Schneider is next at 27-15, followed by Mitchell at 24-21."

CHS Golf Coach Lee Price and his Boys Golf Team had an unusual week, having a match with Crawford cancelled, winning a match over San Diego High School with his ‘B’ Team and then earning a Harbor League victory over Madison Thursday by the score of 193-221. Taylor Hakes was the match medalist against the Warhawks.

The Islanders are closing in on the Harbor League title, going undefeated on their first swing through the conference schedule. The team has three matches scheduled for this week.