Coronado Youth Soccer kicks off its fall season with an Opening Day celebration Sunday August 28 from noon to 4 pm at Tidelands Park. The ceremonial first ball will be kicked by Coronado Mayor Tom Smisek.

"There will be booths, lots of food, and inflatables for the kids," said CYS President Tom Ahern. "We’ll have exhibition games, including the parents against the coaches, and our Under 17 Boys Premier team against the coaches. This is our opportunity to showcase the league and to showcase the kids."

Regardless of the level of interest you or your child may have in soccer, Coronado Youth Soccer has a team or level of play that will appeal to you. Nearly 800 kids are involved in the league on one of three levels: Premier, Select and Recreation.

The Premier level consists of two teams, the Boys Under 16 team and the Boys Under 17 team. Between these two teams, you could find a total of seven of the starters for the Coronado High School varsity boys’ soccer team, plus an additional four varsity team members. From June 2004 to May 2005, the Boys U17 team played a total of 92 games before it was knocked out of the National Cup by the ISC Strikers from Irvine, the No. 2 team in the state of California.

This coming season, the Boys U17 team will compete in a new Super Elite Division, which will the best 10 teams in the county in the combined U17 through U19 age categories. The teams that compete at this level have been selected by the coaches in the county soccer community, and will include Coronado.

The next level is Select, a competitive level for both boys and girls, which includes a total of 17 teams, and 270 players. The age ranges for this group are U8 to U17. The coaches at both the Premier and Select levels are paid professionals. Manny Neves, a former soccer star at Point Loma Nazarene and professional player is the director of coaching.

Other members of the coaching staff include: Vidal Fernandez, who was the first All-American soccer player from SDSU and a player with the New York Cosmos and teammate of Brazilian soccer legend Pele; Kris Larson, the Chula Vista H.S. head coach and the head coach of the Boys U17 Super Elite squad; CHS Boys Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu, who coaches the U14 Boys and Girls teams; incoming CHS Girls Varsity Head Coach Jennifer Tomaschke, who coached the U16 Girls this year; Jerry Ruiz, who coaches with Hiatt-Aleu at CHS; and Kiko Medina, who will be the CHS Girls JV coach this coming season.

(An editorial aside, in the Parents vs. Coaches exhibition game this Sunday, bet heavily on the coaches. The Natterings Big Board favors the Coaches by five goals.)

Despite the level of coaching expertise and the number of games played, according to Ahern, the Select division is among the most affordable in San Diego County. Also, a limited number of player scholarships are available.

The big numbers in the CYS are in the recreation divisions, which feature 500 kids playing on 40 teams. The ages range from the Mites Under 8’s playing five-on-five utilizing small goals (this group is truly fun to watch) up to U17 teams. "These kids play a fall and a spring season," Ahern said. "The older kids go ‘off Island’ to play other recreation teams, while the younger teams have enough teams that they play in a league among themselves."

Fully 100 percent of the recreation players are from Coronado, while 65 percent of the select players are Coronado residents. On the Premier U17 Boys team roster are varsity players representing several area high schools including Coronado, Mission Bay, Valhalla, Point Loma, Helix and Cathedral Catholic (formerly USDHS).

Coaches at this level are all volunteers, but they know what they’re doing, according to Ahern. "To be a coach on a recreation team, you have to go through a class, so the coaches know the game. It’s a weekend session, and includes about 12 hours of instruction. One of the neat things we do with the recreation coaches in the spring, they come down and work with the paid professional coaches for training sessions."

Prospective coaches are also subject to fingerprinting and background checks to insure the children’s safety. The CYS pays for these procedures.

The Board of Directors for CYS is all-volunteer. Ahern is the president; the head of the Select Division is Craig Turley; the leader of the Recreation Division is Tom Coumes; Alan Hermann is the club’s secretary as well as in charge of fields and logistics; Cassandra Stroud is a board member and in charge of the grand opening festivities; while John Ovrom serves as treasurer. Other board members include Carrie Chubb; Kyle Montague, Pen Caldwell, Bob Logan, and Sergio Flores. Several of the directors perform double duty as directors of Coronado Little League. "We have a lot of people who wear many hats and give a lot back to the city," said Ahern.

The giving also includes providing various soccer teams in the city with balls and nets, when needed. Several directors also coach teams within the CYS. For the past couple of years, Flores in addition to his CYS duties has also coached a Coronado Middle School team.

Stop by the CYS grand opening this weekend and thank a board member or a coach for their time and effort. "We have a lot of nice people working to help kids," said Ahern.

Last week we attempted to summarize the successes and results of the three Coronado Aquatics Club girls’ water polo teams that competed recently in the Junior Olympics in San Jose. Inevitably we missed a couple of names and Your Natterer apologizes to those omitted from last week’s column.

Participating in the U18 team was Callie Martin, who according to Coach Dave Throop had the game-winning goal in one of the contests. Playing driver, she contributed to the success of the squad. Also not mentioned last week was U14 driver Kelly Ronimus, who played great defense during the tournament.

In addition, two members of the Coronado U16 girls team that finished seventh out of 48 teams in the J.O.’s earned All-American Honorable Mention status. Alex Adamson and Carly Hoshko were designated as being among the Top 18 performers out of 600 athletes playing in their division.

According to Throop, the Coronado Aquatics Club program will start Tuesday, September 6, 2005 for all ages, boys and girls, in both swimming and water polo. The practices will be held afternoons after school, Monday through Friday. The age groups range from 10 and under through high school.

For more information, please contact Coach Dave Throop at 619-851-9734 or visit www.nadoaquatics.com.

We mentioned a couple of times in this space recently that local doctors were going to provide athletic physical exams for CHS and CMS athletes last week. More than 180 athletes turned up to receive their physicals, up from about 100 last year. The physicans donated the fees for the physical exams to the CHS athletic department to help stock the training room with supplies for the year.

Physicians donating their time included: Steve Schelkun, Lydia Grympa, Robert Oakley, Donald Dill, John Pedrotty, Stan Salinda; Asha Devereaux, Patricia Kettlehake and Roger Oen.

Thanks to these physicians who donated several hours of their time and performed this valuable service for the community.

Last week Your Natterer was off to the races at Del Mar with father Joe Axelson, where as you know, the turf meets the surf.

The venerable track, founded by crooner Bing Crosby, actor Pat O’Brien and several other Hollywood types in 1937, is always fun to attend. Bolstered by an on-site lunch and a copy of "The Daily Racing Form," yours truly wagered $12 during the eight-race card and won $13. Yes, I can say I’m a winner, but just barely.

The field in several of the races only contained five or six horses, but that didn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of the bettors sitting in our immediate area. During the Del Mar meeting, which runs from July 20 to September 7, an estimated 733,000 people will ‘go racing’ and wager more than $100 million.

If you haven’t been to Del Mar recently; it had been roughly 5 years since my last visit; take the scenic drive up I-5 and visit the track. It’s a good afternoon of entertainment and watching these beautiful animals at full flight coming down the stretch, is worth the price of admission.

I watched most of the first half of the San Diego Chargers vs. St. Louis Rams exhibition game (I know pre-season is the preferred term, but until the games count in the standings, it’s an exhibition) Sunday, won by the Chargers 36-21 and on balance I’m not sure what to think about the contest.

The good news, LaDainian Tomlinson caught two passes for eight yards and rushed once for a beautiful 55-yard touchdown; Drew Brees looked sharp completing 13 of 23 pass attempts for 118 yards; and place kicker Nate Kaeding came out of his mini-slump to convert on field goal attempts of 35 and 40 yards and was perfect on four extra point attempts.

The bad news may be that the Rams have fallen so far from the lofty perch they recently held atop the NFL that the victory needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Let’s just say that for the 2005 NFL season, I would rather be coaching the Chargers personnel than the Rams roster.

But the big news may be the sellout crowd that arrived ready to cheer for the Chargers. The franchise took a huge leap of financial faith last year when they gave up their sellouts, guaranteed by the city of San Diego, and modified one of the great sweetheart leases in professional sports. The gamble seems to be paying off, at least in part because the team is fun to watch and they are coming off of a 12-4 season. Here’s hoping their proverbial financial roll of the dice continues to reap dividends, on the field and off.