Nado Natterings

by David Axelson, Chief Executive Officer

The Islander Sports Foundation

 

4 Sept 2006 Issue #36

 

Coronado High School’s Varsity Football Team took to the road Friday evening and found themselves in Santee, home of West Hills High School. Playing a school with more than twice the enrollment of their own, Coronado acquitted themselves well, coming out on the short end of the 26-6 final score.

 

The game-deciding play came in the fourth quarter, with the Islanders trailing 12-6. The Wolf Pack had advanced the ball to the Coronado 25-yard line, but the Islanders defense had stiffened. It was fourth down and five yards to go for a first down, with 5:39 remaining in the game. West Hills scored a touchdown on the play, followed by a two-point conversion. For all practical purposes, the game was over.

 

The Islanders lone score came in the second quarter, and was initiated when senior linebacker Eddie Gomez recovered a West Hills fumble at the Wolf Pack 30-yard line. Five consecutive running plays by tailback Ricardo Oberwager, all for plus yardage, was followed by a short run by quarterback Stephen Conrad and then an eight-yard touchdown scamper by Ray San Giovanni.

 

This game could easily have gone the other way, as on their first possession of the game, the Islanders got to the West Hills eight-yard line, but Coronado committed a costly turnover.

 

Aside from the touchdown described above, the next most exciting play of the evening was a 75-yard scamper on a counter option by Conrad, which was called back due to a holding penalty. “The films showed it could have gone either way,” said Head Coach Bud Mayfield of the call. “The penalty was called right in front of their bench and their coaching staff. That was a nice effort on our part and an indication of what we are expecting (from our team). We’re looking for that kind of effort from Conrad on the option. He took his first snap from center Friday night at the varsity level. He’ll get better.”

 

San Giovanni, who started the game at both fullback and linebacker, played just the latter position later in the contest. “Ray played well,” said Mayfield of the junior.  “We relieved him at fullback (later in the game) and he’s going to be the centerpiece of the defense. Charlie Moore played very well. He played defensive end, which is a new position for him and on the offensive line. They were the standouts for the first game.”

 

According to Mayfield, several other players deserved mention for their play. “We had a nice effort from Keith Englehart punting. He was pressed into service at the last minute. Lineman Scott Shepherd played very steady on both sides of the ball. He made some plays and executed well. He’s a solid kid we can count on. Scott stood out.”

Summarizing the game with West Hills, Mayfield saw some things he liked from his team and some that he wasn’t so fond of. “We don’t expect to have a lot of offensive firepower in the opening game. We were our mistake-free selves, steady and physically rugged. Those are a lot of the things you look for early in the season. We gave them too many opportunities at the end and didn’t execute when we needed to. We’re not satisfied, but we have a lot of things to be optimistic about. I felt that way about this team from the beginning.

 

We were very, very close, often one block away from big plays. Oberwager will break those runs eventually. He’ll hit the hole sooner and more cleanly as we start to gel. The defense will carry us while the offense polishes up. We’ll be fine.”

 

Oberwager gained 73 yards rushing in 25 attempts from the line of scrimmage.

 

This week the varsity has a bye in their game schedule and travels to Serra for a game Friday, Sept. 15. Previewing the game, Mayfield didn’t know exactly what to expect. “They have one of the great tailbacks in the section. They’re scary because you can’t predict what they are going to do. We’ll try to keep our poise amidst the chaos. They have talent and they have speed, but they don’t play together as a team like we do.”

 

Girls Volleyball Program on the Upswing

Head Coach Christina Lahr has taken over at the helm of the CHS Girls Volleyball program, which for the first time features enough talent to field teams at the varsity, junior varsity and frosh/soph levels. Coronado thus becomes the last school competing in the Eastern League to add a freshman team to their program.

 

Two scrimmages last week allowed Lahr to see her varsity players under game conditions. “We’re a young team this year,” said Lahr. “We have seven returners to the team and we have some young blood. I’m really excited about the team. We have some spread-out talent, so I’m looking forward to playing a lot of different people in different positions.”

 

Three of the six starting slots are designated for starting setter Karli Massie and outsides Christy Mebust and Emmy Pickett. Also returning to the squad are Lisa Bernardy, Kelsey Fitzgerald, Heidi Hoffmockel and Katie Legidakes. Four new additions to the team include junior Alexis Wright, sophomore Madison Boomer, and freshmen Danielle Gillberg and Kori Fitzgerald, Kelsey’s sister.

 

The Islanders break into regular season action Wednesday when they host Grossmont in a non-league game. For this contest, the junior varsity and freshmen will both play at 4:30 pm and the Varsity at 5:30. Normally, the varsity will play the first game at 3:30 pm. In somewhat of a scheduling quirk, when the varsity hits Eastern League play, Tuesdays will be away games and Thursdays will feature home games.

 

Eastern League opponents will be Patrick Henry, Our Lady of Peace, San Diego, Morse and Mission Bay. “Serra is always a solid team,” said Lahr of one of her conference rivals. “What varies from year to year is their experience. I have high hopes for my team.”

 

Girls Golf Squad Looks to Have Strong Season

CHS Head Girls Golf Coach Hanna Cohan is one of those relentlessly positive people you come across on occasion. Give her lemons and she’ll make lemonade, in vast quantities.

 

But she’s positively giddy about this year’s Girls Golf squad, at least in part because during qualifying for the Top 6 slots for their first match Wednesday against Crawford at Balboa, the team as a whole was 14 strokes under their best score of last season.

 

To make the good even better, of the three of the players who qualified, one is a sophomore and two are freshmen. The freshmen are Giovanna Ascolani and Jackie Davis, while the sophomore is Mackenzie Coutts. The Top 6 is rounded out be seniors Lexi Donovan, Alexcie Sanchez and Brooke Bower.

 

Also competing on the squad and figuring to see a lot of playing time are Lauren Bell, Lauren Cropper, Ali Icenhower, Arrielle Luna, Chelsea Newson, and Maggie Strabala.

 

“The scores they shot totaled 230, which was 14 strokes better than our best score from last year,” said Cohan.  “Only one team would have beaten us last year with that score and they’re just getting warmed up. That was very cool.”

 

Cohan noted that Bower shot a round of 39, which was her personal best. “She was walking on air, she was so excited. The team has almost doubled in size to 12 players this year, which is very exciting. I’m thrilled watching the girls grow and taking off like they own it.”

 

CHS Cross Country Squad Off to Strong Start

CHS Head Cross Country Coach George Green checks in with a report on the first event of the new season, the Wolf Pack Invitational at West Hills High School. “Sallie Privett has been running away from middle school competition since fifth grade. In her high school debut last Friday evening in Santee, it was no different.

 

Privett won the girl’s freshman race going away by 33 seconds over her nearest rival, Megan Morgan from Torrey Pines. Her time of 9:11 over the hilly 1.6-mile course translates to a pace of just under 5:45 per mile and was among the top times of the day. It was also the biggest winning margin of all of the races run Friday.

 

Teammate Adrianna Davies also finished very strong in the same race with a time of 10:22 for fifth place out of the 98 finishers in their event. Sheila Braun’s 30^th place finish in the Senior Girls’ race gives Coronado a nice 1-2-3 punch on the girl’s side this year.

 

The Boys team should be strong as well. Ben Enowitz was fifth out of 117 finishers in the Boys Junior Race with a time of 11:56 over the 2.1-mile course. He was followed by Turner Stanley, Cory Couture, Jordan Vance, and Jose Tijerina.

 

David Grimes placed 19^th out of 122 finishers in the Boys Sophomore race with a time of 12:44, followed by Ben Green. Other boys competing in the races were freshman Tim Sebring and senior Alton Smith. Junior Michael Davies, another one of the Islander’s top runners, sat this one out due to a sore quad.”

 

Boys Water Polo Team Scrimmages with Regular Season Coming Sept. 16

Friday the CHS Boys Varsity Water Polo Team scrimmaged against Carlsbad High School at the Coronado Municipal Pool. Head Coach Randy Burgess characterized Carlsbad as “One of the Top 5 teams in California. They play very well as a team and are real well-coached.”

The next big scrimmage will be Saturday, Sept. 9 when Coronado hosts Servite and Esperanza High Schools from Anaheim. The three-way affair will begin at 8 am and run for three hours and is open to the public.

 

“We played Servite in the 16 and Unders in Hawaii,” said Burgess. “And they beat us. The scrimmage will be good for us.” All of this leads to the first varsity regular season game Sept. 16 at Newport Harbor. Tip-off is 7 pm for the varsity game.

 

“We’ve had some good practices and some that were sub-par,” Burgess said of his club. “We’re solidifying what we have, seeing who fits in where. Our biggest weakness is experience. We don’t have playing experience behind us, but after 27 or 28 games we will.”

 

Burgess named senior Eric Clapper as the captain of this year’s team. Juniors Kyle Pokorny and Jacob Smith were named Co-captains. For more information on the CHS water polo squad, go to www.nadoaquatics.com.

 

Quick Girls Tennis Update

Head Coach Robbin Adair brings us up to date on the CHS Girls Tennis Team. “We scrimmaged Mira Mesa and got beat 12-6. They have two new freshmen, who are very good. Allie Gordon and Jen Carney each lost two sets, but Spencer Berman was able to beat their No. 1 player. Hannah Schneider won three sets, playing with Carney, Berman and Loren Metzger. Simmi Deo and Cori Morse won a set as did Metzger and Grace Lancaster.

We play San Dieguito Academy at Coronado to open the regular season Tuesday, Sept. 12.”

 

Reserve the Date

The 10^th Anniversary luau for Adrian Taufaasau will be held Sept. 30^th from 2-5 pm at Village Elementary School. The cost is $10 per person. The proceeds go to the Adrian Taufaasau Memorial Scholarship Fund. Additional donations will be accepted.