Coronado High School’s Varsity Football Team is experiencing a roller coaster season. A tough and unexpected 27-6 loss at El Centro Southwest was followed by a 30-0 win over Kearny. Two weeks ago the Islanders’ victory over 45-24 Clairemont was one of the most dominating Coronado gridiron victories Your Natterer has witnessed against a worthy opponent.

Last Friday all indicators seemed to point to a Coronado victory. The Islanders were at home after three weeks on the road. They were playing against a Crawford Colt team that had won once in six previous outings this season and were winless in two Central League starts. However, Crawford unleashed a loaded weapon, in the person of starting senior tailback Aaron Simpson, who scored four touchdowns and paced the Colts to a 34-21 victory.

"We were ready to play," said Head Coach Bud Mayfield of the pivotal conference clash with Crawford. "It seemed like the football gods didn’t want us to have this one. I thought our effort was incredible. We could have been discouraged and quit, but we didn’t do that at all. We did a lot of really, really good things. We had a good week of practice and we didn’t overlook them. Clearly Crawford had their best game of the year."

Friday night’s game didn’t start well from a Coronado perspective, as Simpson scored on a 26-yard touchdown jaunt on Crawford’s sixth play from scrimmage. Simpson followed that effort up by running for a two-point conversion from Simpson. Less than two and a half minutes into the game, the Islanders trailed 8-0.

The Islanders resulting possession was highlighted by a 64-yard run from scrimmage by Curtis Perkins, but the Crawford defense tightened, stopping Coronado on downs on the Colt four yard line. Four plays later Perkins intercepted a Colt pass and the Islanders were back in business. Quarterback Stephen Conrad found Ricardo Oberwager in the Colt end zone, and connected on a 22-yard touchdown toss. The Geovanni Saldana extra point conversion brought the score to 8-7.

As the Islander faithful breathed a sigh of relief, on the exhale Simpson took the ensuing kickoff and scored on a 72-yard run. The balance of the second half was all Crawford as Simpson scored on a 16-yard run and later on a 47-yard scamper.

At the outset of the quarter, Islander signal caller Conrad sustained a bruised sternum and was replaced by sophomore Mason Mills. Trailing at halftime 28-7, things looked bleak for Coronado.

But the Islanders proved to be resilient, taking the opening second half kickoff and scoring 11 plays later on a two-yard run from Oberwager, to make the score 28-13. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Mills found Keith Englehart on a 25-yard touchdown pass, and a Mills to Ray San Giovanni pass on the extra point conversion was good. The score was now 28-21 and the Islanders were back in it.

The Colt back inadvertently touched his knee to the ground on the kickoff which followed and the Islanders had Crawford pinned back on their three yard line. A Simpson one-yard gain was followed by a Colt incomplete pass. Then Islander Ben Thorne tackled the Colt quarterback in the end zone, which should have been ruled a safety. All six officials in the game missed the call.

On the sidelines, Photographer Bill Van den Akker, shooting the game with a digital camera, captured a sequence of three photos which confirmed that the Colt back was tackled well within his own end zone. No plausible interpretation of ‘forward progress’ could even get him close to returning to the line of scrimmage.

On the plus side, the Islanders continued to make their own breaks. This time San Giovanni blocked a Colt punt and the Islanders were back in business on the Colt two yard line. However an Islander fumble into the end zone, and the Crawford recovery, awarded the Colts possession of the ball on the 20-yard line.

The Islanders defense held and Crawford went three and out. But a critical Islander turnover shortly thereafter allowed the Colts to put together a 14-play, 70-yard touchdown drive that ran nearly six minutes off the game clock.

Mills handled himself well, completing 11 of 19 passes for 147 yards and two touchdowns, earning praise from Mayfield for his effort. "Mills did a great job. I wasn’t surprised at all. He is one of the best practice players we’ve ever had here. He was prepared because he practiced so hard. He did a great job." Oberwager finished with 49 yards on 16 attempts. Perkins rushed 81 yards on seven attempts.

The game marked the end of an 11-year run where there has been a Pontes heir in the game for the Islander football program. Senior Co-Captain JJ Pontes broke his ankle in two places late in the contest and will be out for 4-6 weeks. Matt Pontes, followed by Gene Pontes and now JJ have been mainstays of the football program for more than a decade. JJ played tight end, defensive end, and was the team’s long snapper on punts and placements. Hopefully JJ will recover in time to compete in his other two sports of basketball and lacrosse.

The loss to Crawford and last week’s other league results now places Madison atop the Central League with a 3-0 record; followed by Coronado and University City at 2-1; Clairemont and Crawford with 1-2 records and Kearny is at 0-3.

The Islander’s game at Madison Friday night (7:30 pm kickoff) will go a long way toward determining the Central League title. "This is the biggest game of the year," said Mayfield of the contest against the Warhawks. "They are our toughest opponent and then there are the repercussions for the league title."

Coronado concludes their regular season at home Thursday, Nov. 9 with Homecoming. University City is the opponent for the game, also slated for a 7:30 pm kickoff.

Just in time for a hoped-for CIF Division IV Playoff invitation, the Coronado Girls Volleyball Team has put together a three-match winning streak. Their 25-22, 25-23, 20-25, 18-25, 16-14 victory over Patrick Henry two weeks ago, clearly provided the Islanders some momentum heading into last week’s play.

Coronado started the week with a 25-15, 27-29, 19-25, 25-22 and 15-12 road win at Morse. Senior setter Karli Massie was credited with 37 assists in the contest.

"It took the course of the third game to realize we didn’t want to lose to this team," said Head Coach Christina Lahr of her squad. "We knew that if we wanted to keep our playoff hopes alive, then we had to play well and get wins against Morse and Mission Bay."

Coronado completed the week’s sweep with their 22-25, 25-16, 25-18, and 25-13 victory over Mission Bay Thursday. The match was the last home contest for Coronado’s graduating senior quartet of Massie, Heidi Hofmockel, Katie Legidakes and Lisa Bernardy, who all earned starts from Coach Lahr. "It was a very weird vibe," said Lahr of the contest. "It wasn’t a bad game; it was just kind of strange. We made a decision after the first game, the seniors especially, that we wanted to win our last game at home. They all stepped up and played like they have in the past. We knew we shouldn’t have lost the match the last time we played at Mission Bay."

Bernardy was credited with 17 digs in the Mission Bay match; Massie had 28 assists and junior Christy Mebust provided 16 kills. "It was nice to see high numbers like that," said Lahr of the game stats. "Lisa had a very solid match. She did really well. Both Lisa and Katie played solid defensive games."

Lahr also wished to credit the work of junior team manager Brittany Penn, who doubles as team statistician and cheerleader. "She has been with us for the whole season," Lahr said. "She has done a great job of keeping the girls fired up."

Coronado has one regular season match remaining, their second Eastern League tilt against Our Lady of Peace. Also the Islanders find themselves as one of 18 CIF Division IV teams vying for 12 playoff slots. Lahr handicapped her squad’s playoff prospects. "With wins against Patrick Henry, Holtville and Marian Catholic, we should make it. We played Horizon and took them to three games in a three-game tournament format. Those are all things that will benefit us. We should have a pretty good shot."

CIF playoff seeding will be done in a different manner this year, as the San Diego section tries yet another prognostication system to provide post season equality. Teams will turn in their regular season records in to the CIF and each league will have a representative who will provide input to the CIF office. CIF San Diego Section Commissioner Dennis Ackerman, will in turn make the final call on the seedings.

This method replaces the notorious group coaches meetings where politics and long-established alliances often prevailed. Basketball also tried computer-based power rankings for a couple of years, which also created controversy. Here’s hoping the third playoff method is the charm.

Sign-ups for the Coronado Middle School winter sports season will be held Wednesday, November 8 at 6:30 pm. The event will be held at Granzier Hall at CMS.

Winter sports offerings include boys basketball, boys and girls soccer, girls softball, and co-ed golf. The sign-up fee is $90 per child, per sport.

The middle school sports program is administered by the Islander Sports Foundation. Although there is a fee associated with participation in the athletic program, ISF/CMS Sports has never denied a child the ability to compete at the middle school level. Scholarships are granted to families who request them. It is also the goal of ISF/CMS Sports to have a sport for all kids, for every season. In addition, ISF/CMS Sports strives to include as many youngsters in our athletic programs as possible.

Although technically not part of the administration of the school district, ISF/CMS Sports require that each student-athlete must be eligible both academically and with their citizenship grades to participate in games against other schools. Student-athletes must also adhere to the school’s Pelican Way code of conduct.

In addition, students must have a current physical exam, administered by a doctor, to be eligible to participate in sports sponsored by ISF/CMS. All pertinent ISF/CMS athletic forms (there are a total of four forms, some containing more than one page) may be downloaded from www.IslanderSportsFoundation.com.

Cross Country Head Coach George Green checks in with a report on his squad’s week of competition. "Last year the CHS Boys Cross Country Team won the Central League championship by defeating rival Clairemont by a single point. In invitational meets both teams have entered this year, Clairemont has come out on top, but not by much.

Both teams ran in the Saints Small School Invitational. If the event was scored as a dual meet, Clairemont would have won by four points. The situation wasn’t as bleak as it seemed, however, because in all of the meets we had in common, at least one of the Islander runners had a bad race.

Each team has three pretty good runners up front, but Clairemont’s top guy, Bernardo Bahena was last year’s Central League champion and is even faster this year. Clairemont’s weakness is a big gap after their third runner. Coronado has a gap as well, although not as large as that of the Chieftains’.

Clairemont’s strategy was for Bahena to hang back to help place their second and third runners between our top two and hope their fourth and fifth runners could defeat our fourth and fifth runners. That’s how the race played out.

For the first two miles, Behena paced his teammates, with the Islanders top three runners Ben Enowitz, Michael Davies and David Grimes matching them stride for stride in a tight six-runner pack. After passing the two-mile point in a little under 11 minutes, the pace began to tell and Bahena had to abandon his pack to stay in front of the Coronado trio. Bahena won in 16:39 over the Morley Field three-mile course. Enowitz, Grimes, and Davies were all close behind with times of 16:47, 16:57 and 16:58.

The Islander ‘backup singers’ didn’t disappoint either. Jose Tijerina finished seventh with a time of 18:45, followed by Cotter Stacy (eighth in 18:53), Ben Green (ninth in 18:56), and Turner Stanley (11^th in 19:07) to round out the varsity finishers. Freshman Kevin Siefert was close behind (12^th in 19:09) and will run on the varsity team at the CIF Finals because Green will be out of town that day.

The final score was 24-34 in favor of the Islanders. I think the unexpectedly large margin of victory can be attributed to the intimidating body paint worn by the Islander crew. Green was especially formidable, but he was disappointed when it was pointed out that CIF rules require that he wear his singlet while racing.

Although it won’t be official until next week when we run against Madison (1-2) and Crawford (0-3), this meet determined the Boys Central League championship, like déjà vu all over again.

Since the outcome of the girls match-up was pretty much in the bag, Coronado frosh Sallie Privett used this race as a fast-tempo training run. She crossed the finish line in 18:17 over the same 3-mile course run by the boys, and was only six seconds off the girls course record. Adrianna Davies was second in 20:38, followed by Coco O’Brien (fourth in 21:47), Sheila Braun (sixth), Helen Luppi (ninth), Lindsay Pettee (10^th), Sarah Player (12^th) and Brigid Twomey (13^th).

The final score was 22-34 and, like the boys, the girls record is now 2-0 with Crawford (0-3) and Madison (2-1) remaining on the schedule. This meet will be conducted as a double-dual meet next Thursday and is the final hurdle toward a league title for Coronado. Although Coronado has the best front runners, Madison has better depth. Because Madison lost to Christian by only six points, and Coronado won over Christian by only one point, the Warhawks can’t be taken lightly. Crawford won’t be an issue, as Madison placed their top six runners in front of Crawford’s first in their dual meet."

Last week the CHS Girls Golf Team played three matches, losing to La Jolla and San Pasqual, before returning to the ‘win’ column against Scripps Ranch. Giovanna Ascolani earned medalist honors by shooting a fine round of 39 at Coronado Municipal, touching out fellow Islanders Alexcie Sanchez by one shot.

Coronado Head Coach Hanna Cohan will have a lot of company in the team van on the way to the City Conference match Monday at Balboa Park. "The cool thing is that eight girls are going to the match, which is the most of any team in the league. That tells me we have a lot of depth. There are a total of 40 girls in the tournament"

Representing Coronado will be Sanchez, Ascolani, Arrielle Luna, Brooke Bower, Chelsea Newson, Jackie Davis, Lexi Donovan and Mackenzie Coutts.

The City Conference results will help determine who qualifies for CIF Team and Individual play, which will be held the following week.

Head Coach Robbin Adair checks in with his report on the CHS Girls Tennis Team. "Unfortunately, we did not make the CIF Team Playoffs. There were 12 teams in Division III and we were seeded No. 13. A couple of small teams from the North County, San Marcos and Valley Center, beat University City, so they went in ahead of us. Also, Christian won the Central League and had to be guaranteed a slot. We have a few days off before we start the Western League Individual Tournament a week from Monday, at noon, at Morley Field.

Monday we lost to the San Diego Jewish Academy 11-7. Spencer Berman and Jen Carney each swept their three matches, and Hannah Schneider won one of her singles sets. The doubles teams of Natalie Brooks/Simmi Deo, Grace Lancaster/Ashley Mendham, and Cori Morse/Andrea Wheeler were all swept, although there were several close sets. We had four sets a 6-4 and three at 7-5, but we couldn’t win any of them.

Tuesday we traveled to OLP and they shut us out. Berman, Carney and Allie Gordon were swept in singles and our doubles teams of Deo/Morse, Hannah Glasoe/Loren Metzger were winless."