Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation

16 May 2007 Issue #19

What a difference a week makes, at least to the CHS Baseball Team. When last we visited in this space a week ago, the Islander bats had collectively gone into hibernation and Coronado lost their two Western League contests.

This week the Islanders played three games, winning two and lit up the opposition for a total of 31 hits, nine of which went for extra bases. With the re-discovered offense came victories over La Jolla and Cathedral Catholic, sandwiched around a road loss to Cathedral. The two victories ran Coronado’s record to 20-8 for the season and 6-6 in the Western League. One regular season game remains, a contest Tuesday at San Diego High School. Then it’s on to the CIF Division IV playoffs.

“We finally started swinging the bat a little bit,” said Head Coach Sam Ceci of his club’s 10-7 victory Monday over La Jolla in eight innings. “Timmy Leary was 3-5 with a triple, two runs scored and two RBIs. Benson Lorden was 2-2 with two RBIs and a stolen base. Danny Cepin went 2-2, scored a run and stole a base. Tucker Johnson and Alex Rowan both had two hits. Rowan is coming on a little bit with the bat, which is nice.”

Ceci was forced to employ five pitchers in the contest, including Johnson, Kyle Pokorny, Bryan Crabb, Josh Fink and the eventual winning pitcher Lorden.

Tuesday found the Islanders on the road at Cathedral Catholic, which was summarized by Ceci saying, “There weren’t too many highlights. We had opportunities to win, but we didn’t.” The final score was 4-3 in favor of the Dons. Keith Englehart and Johnson posted two-hit games for Coronado.

Two days later, the Islanders hosted Cathedral and Coronado emerged with a 7-4 victory. “This was a ‘must have’ after losing the first game to Cathedral,” Ceci said. “We hit the ball pretty well and we were in control most of the way. The hitting stars included Leary, who went 2-3, including a double off the top of the outfield fence and Englehart. Keith hit the ball farther than Timmy and got a triple, which was nice. Jake McMahon was 2-3 with a double.”

Leary was also the Islander pitching star, going 5.1 innings, in what Ceci described as “A very effective outing.” Leary yielded only two earned runs during his stint on the mound. Steve Conrad finished the sixth inning and Fink pitched a scoreless seventh frame.

The Islanders have completed Western League play and have to watch the other six teams jockey for position. Currently there are four teams tied for first place with a 6-4 record. Ceci predicts that University City will be the eventual league champ, as they face Clairemont, one of the circuit’s weaker teams for their two games this week.

But the larger question to be answered is the CIF Division IV Playoffs, which finds Coronado as defending champion. The Islanders have a particularly strong claim for the No. 1 seed, as they have a 4-1 record against Division I teams in 2007; are 9-1 against Division II teams; and 7-6 against Division III. Their record includes quality wins against potential playoff opponents Westview, University City, Brawley, Point Loma, San Pasqual, Carlsbad, Oceanside, Mission Bay, Clairemont, La Jolla and Cathedral Catholic.

Coronado’s primary opposition for the No. 1 seed in Division IV is Francis Parker, a program which has four players who have earned scholarships from NCAA Division I institutions.

Regarding the Division IV seedings Ceci said, “We beat everybody who has beaten Francis Parker.” Ideally, the two teams are placed in opposite ends of the double-elimination bracket and won’t meet until the Division IV title game.

The 2007 campaign marks the third in a row and fourth time in the past five years the Islanders have won 20 or more games in a season.

Boys Lacrosse Wins Twice and Maintains Hold On No. 2 County Ranking

A pair of victories over Patrick Henry by the score of 15-3 and another strong showing against La Jolla (11-3), ran the CHS Boys Lacrosse Team’s record to 13-4 this season. The year has unfolded in an unusual fashion, as Coronado lost their first three games of the season, ran off four victories in succession, lost to De Matha High School and now has won nine games in succession.

The first half of the Patrick Henry victory found eight different Islanders scoring the team’s 11 goals. Coronado didn’t allow Patrick Henry to clear the ball from their end of the field and when they did, the Islander defense was all over the Patriots attack. The Islander coaching staff made liberal use of their bench in the second half.

As potent as the Islander defense was, the most aggressive element in the surrounding environs were the massive and abundant gnats that made their collective appearance after sunset in the College Park area.

Goals by Geoff Worley, Cory Couture, and Bobby Braun helped lead Coronado to their victory over La Jolla Friday evening. Worley, who did not play in the Patrick Henry game, had some beautiful assists against the Vikings. Goalie Jake Benzian has been a defensive force between the pipes lately.

There is talent spread among all four classes on this team, with some of the new standouts on the team including underclassmen Sean O’Brien, Eddie Vita and Kevin Seifert. O’Brien, who was a middle school lacrosse star, is now playing with more confidence and starting to realize his full potential.

Tuesday evening, the Islanders host No. 4 ranked Santa Fe Christian, a team trying to break into the elite ranks which this year includes No. 1 Torrey Pines, Coronado and No. 3 La Costa Canyon. Game time is 7 pm.

CHS Girls Lacrosse Loses to La Jolla, But Salvages Conference Co-Champ Title

The CHS Girls Lacrosse Team began their week by dismantling Patrick Henry 16-6 and then waited until Friday for their road game at La Jolla. The latter contest would decide the fate of the City Conference title between No. 3 ranked Coronado and No. 4 La Jolla. The Islanders won round one between the two teams at home by the score of 10-8 a month before.

Unfortunately Coronado emerged on the short end of a 13-9 result and had to share the conference crown with the Vikings. Never one to mince words, CHS Head Coach Jessica Battle said, “We did not play well at all as a team. Our defense fell apart. Goalie Alyssa Littin played will, but the defense didn’t play well in front of her. La Jolla wanted the game more than we did.”

In the larger picture, Coronado holds a 15-3 record at the conclusion of the regular season and is still ranked No. 3 in San Diego County by Laxpower.com. The CIF playoff seedings, which will be posted Friday, will determine when and where the Top 4 teams in the county, Poway, La Costa Canyon, Coronado and La Jolla will face each other.

Another complicating factor is that the four junior stars of the team have decided to compete in the Women’s Division National Tournament May 25-27 in Bethlehem, PA.

Melissa Humphrey, Bria Phillips, Greer Goebels and Lytton have all been invited to participate in the event, which has been played since 1933. Battle competed in the event as a high school player, on the collegiate level and in post-collegiate competition.

“Basically they put the CIF finals on Memorial Day weekend,” said Battle. “We brought the conflict to their attention last May and we made another proposal in January. The San Diego Women’s Lacrosse Association, made an offer to move the tournament to another weekend, pay for all of the costs associated with the tournament and give 100 per cent of the profit to the CIF, but we were rejected.

“It’s the biggest recruiting tournament each year and an incredible experience,” Battle said of the national tournament. “I wanted them to stay, but after playing in it, I couldn’t deprive them of that. All of them could go or all of them should stay. Collectively as a group they decided to go. It’s important for the girls to be seen.”

All four of the players involved are juniors, which is the prime time for them to be recruited by the major college lacrosse powers.

“I knew going into this season that we could get to the CIF Finals,” said Battle. “We have an incredible team and it is one of the best teams I have had in years. But the good news is that we only have one graduating senior and we will have the rest of the girls back again next year. Plus, we have some great girls coming up next year from middle school.”

CIF Championships Next Hurdle for CHS Track Team

CHS Head Track and Field Coach George Green reports on his team’s progress last week. “Last week marked the end of the season for the majority of the Islander team.

Tuesday and Wednesday at Hoover, we held the Central League prelims in most events, as well as the finals in the triple jump, the discus throw, the 3200 meter run, and the high jump. The remaining finals were held at Cathedral Catholic Friday.

The league finals serve a twofold purpose. First, they determine the league champions in all events and secondly, they advance athletes to the CIF preliminaries.

Tuesday Sallie Privett won the 3,200-meter run by over 50 seconds in 12:07.6 and Sarah Player won the high jump with a mark of 5-2 to become the first two Central League champs of the season. At the City Conference finals Friday, Privett added the 1600 meter and 800 meter Central League crowns to her growing collection.

Not to be outdone, Player also won the 100 meter hurdles, the 300 meter hurdles and placed second in the 100 meter dash in a close finish to Christian’s Mandy Ross, who was last season’s CIF champion in the 100, 200 and 400 meter sprints. For her efforts, Player was named the Central League Female Track Athlete of the Year. Sarah has had a great season so far and holds the school records for the 100, 200, 100 hurdles, and the 300 meter hurdles. Her 300 hurdle time of 45.43 ranks her as the top seed among all San Diego Section athletes going into the CIF prelims this Saturday at Mt. Carmel High.

At the CIF Prelims, Privett will drop the 800 meter run, moving teammate Adie Davies, who placed third, into one of the two qualifying slots. Adie also placed third in both the 3200 and 1600 meter runs in the finals.

Sprinter/jumper Kyle Brown is nursing a sore foot, so he limited his jumping attempts to as few as possible to qualify for the CIF Prelims via standards (a standard is a minimum distance or time that will qualify an athlete for the CIF prelims). He jumped 42-5 in the triple jump for third place and 21-6 in the long jump, good enough for second place. He was also second in the 100 meter dash in a close race with Hoover’s Gary Lee, with a time of 11.18.

Ben Enowitz advanced to the CIF Finals in the 3200 meter run, with a second place finish and set a personal best time in the 1600 with a time of 4:38.97. Danielle Eckert and freshman Briana Giorgione both advanced to the CIF Prelims with a 1-2 finish in the pole vault. Danielle’s 11 feet, 3 inch vault broke her own school record by three inches.

Also advancing to the CIF Prelims were Neisha Scales in the 100 with a time of 13.07 and Kenny Twomey in the 300 hurdles with a time of 43.48. Freshman Danielle Gillberg just missed the cutoff in the 100 hurdles, but is the first alternate in the event.

Making it to the Central League Finals, but not the CIF Prelims were David Grimes in the 800; Twomey in the 100 hurdles; Alton Smith in the 100 hurdles; Stefanie Pietkiewicz in the 100 and 200 meter dashes, Bridgid Twomey in the 400; and Madison Rutherford in the 300 hurdles. Tracey Cummings didn’t make it to the CIF in the throws, but he had a nice discus mark of 125 feet, 1 inch.

CHS Swim Teams Finish Third in City Conference Tournament

Last week the City Conference Swim Meet was held and both the Boys and Girls Swim Teams finished in third place in their competitions. Those were results that pleased Head Coach Dave Throop. “As a group we exceeded our expectations. Both teams finished third and La Jolla won both. Across the board, I was really pleased.”

Swimming competition uses the concept of ‘tapering,’ which basically means you work hard heading into a major meet and then take it easy a day or two ahead of time to give your body time to rest and recover. The team has worked so that their ‘taper’ will come into play for the CIF Prelims and Finals this week. Throop expects the team’s CIF results to be better than the City Conference meet.

Throop discussed some of the team’s individual efforts. “The surprise of the meet as a group was the Boys 500 yard swimmers. Andy Clapper dropped about 35 seconds from his best time, down to 5:29. Eric Clapper got up there and raced and dropped 20 seconds. Jake Hunzeker had about a 30 second drop to 5:28. Sam Working swam a 5:58 in a dual meet and finished in 5:27. They averaged 27 or 28 second drops among the four of them.

Adam Ratcliffe swam well in all four events he was in, including the 100 fly, the 200 free and two relays. He’s not supposed to swim fast until next week. Jacob Smith did a great job in the 200 free and the 400 free relay and a nice job in the 100 free. Andrew Ireland has a lot of talent and swam a very nice 200 free, a 100 free and did a nice job in both freestyle events as well.”

The Girls Team competed well also, according to Throop. “Molly Patrick had some sizeable drops in the 100 free and the 100 back. She also swam in the medley relay and the 4 x 100 free relay. We’re still tooling around with the lineup. We’re going to have David Foy swim only in the 100 fly and then all three relays. We took Jacob Smith out of the individual 50 free and he will still swim the 100 free and all three relays. Those changes should gain us 12 to 15 points for the team as the relays are scored with double points.”

The CIF Prelims are Wednesday at Rancho Bernardo, with a 3 pm starting time. The CIF Finals will start at 9 am Saturday, also at RB.

Boys Soccer Awards

Apparently opting to savor the fruits of their labor, the CHS Boys Soccer Team decided to hold their post season banquet nearly 9 weeks after they won their CIF Division III title. As you might guess, it was an upbeat event, held at the Coronado Community Center.

The JV Awards were: Most Improved – Bobby Braun; Most Inspirational – Stuart Blair; Defensive MVP – Jackson Cusick; Offensive MVP and Team MVP – Olivier Schmied.

Varsity Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu announced the Varsity Awards, which included: Islander Sports Foundation Award for Integrity, Sportsmanship and Friendship – Patrick Ahern; Coach’s Award – Christian Bond; Most Improved – Nolan Woodhouse; Most Inspirational – Jake Vita; Defensive MVP – Charlie Wood; CIF Sportsmanship Award – Matt Ganyard; Team MVP – Nick Hamilton.

The team, which finished 25-3-2, won their holiday tournament, the Central League and the CIF title. Hamilton in addition to being team MVP was also MVP of the Central League, MVP of CIF Division III and MVP of the Union-Tribune All County Team. Hiatt-Aleu, who just completed his seventh season at the helm of the Islander Boys Soccer program, made the point that Hamilton is the most decorated soccer player to have played at Coronado High School.

CHS Tennis Loses to San Dieguito in CIF Team Play

CHS Boys Tennis Head Coach Robbin Adair provides a report on his team’s fortunes in the CIF Team Playoffs. “Unfortunately we got beat by San Dieguito in Round One yesterday. We lost to them 12-6 before and in doubles we won only three sets, while losing four by scores of either 4-6 or 5-7. Our goal was to turn those close ones around. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do it and lost 5-13.

Lots of incredibly close losses marked this match. In singles, Krishna Samperio took all three sets by scores of 7-5, 6-2 and 6-2. Andrew Stump lost 1-6 and 2-6 before winning one on a default. At third singles, Brenton Mashburn lost 2-6, 1-6, and 0-6. In doubles Daniel Grazian and Frankie Harrison could manage only one win and posted scores of 4-6, 6-3 and 5-7. Chris Mitchell and Evan Wheeler were swept 4-6, 3-6, and 1-6. Patrick Holman and Jordan Vance also were swept in three really tight sets 6-7 (6), 5-7, and 4-6. We finished the season as the No. 10 team in Division III.

Monday we start our Western League Individual Tournament to be played at La Jolla High School and at the La Jolla Recreation Center. Krishna is seeded No. 5 in singles and our other singles entries are Mashburn, Max Mero and Jeff Miller. In doubles Grazian/Harrison, Mitchell/Wheeler, Holman/Vance are all competing in the tournament. They will be joined by Robbie Cattell/Mitch Moran and Collin Bowman/Andrew Stump.

Three CHS Golfers Qualify for CIF Play

Three CHS linksters qualified for CIF Individual play to be held this Tuesday at Warner Springs. The contingent is led by Dillon Hakes, having just finished in second place in the City Conference individual play event. Joining Hakes will be Connor Pompa and Mike Emerson.

According to Head Coach Dean Cummings, the team failed to qualify by a total average of just two shots per match. “The CIF said in an E-mail that it was the most competitive year in a long time,” said Cummings.

Coronado Varsity Softball Loses Two Games by a Total of Three Runs

CHS Head Softball Coach Marti Bonelli provides the details of her club’s week, which included two tough losses. The first was a 3-2 set back to Mission Bay and the second was a 7-5 loss to La Jolla.

“We suffered a couple of close losses, but we are a much better team due to the experiences. We had a hard-fought contest at Mission Bay. The game was scoreless until the Islanders broke through for the first run when junior centerfielder Christy Mebust reached first courtesy of a one out error. Our pitcher Alexis Wright followed with a perfectly executed bunt for a single. Mebust wound up on third after a throwing error on the play. Sophomore first baseman Sandra Cepin followed with a line shot to right field to score Mebust. A fine play by the Bucs second baseman on a Nora Kaminski grounder heading to centerfield closed out the frame.

Defensively in the fifth inning, shortstop Briana Feist and Kaminski turned a double play when Feist caught a lined shot and doubled off a Mission Bay runner at third with a quick flip to Kaminski.

The Islanders took the lead in the top of the sixth thanks to the top of the Islander batting order. Junior Rosie Harris started the inning with a rope to center. Mebust worked the count for a walk and a wild pitch advanced the runners to second and third. Wright executed a perfect squeeze bunt to score Harris.

Disaster struck Coronado in the bottom of the seventh, when four errors allowed Mission Bay to win the game 3-2. It was a fine pitching performance by Wright and it was a shame to see it go for naught in the bottom of the seventh. Although we would have liked to have won the game, it was an effort that ended just a bit short. We fought very hard and learned a very valuable lesson about how to finish a game. It was a huge step forward from the last game we played against Mission Bay. A young team such as this doesn’t always achieve success on the scoreboard, but the girls are very positive and upbeat about their progress.

The La Jolla game closed out the regular season in the Western League as we hosted the Vikings. Coronado had a three run rally in the bottom of the second. Kaminski opened with a single to center and was followed by a walk to centerfielder Brandi Bible. Second baseman Kelly McCray laid down a sacrifice bunt to move both runners into scoring position. Freshman leftfielder Jessica Adair rapped a single to right to score Kaminski. Feist then took an 0-1 fastball to centerfield for a solid single to score Bible.

Harris continued the hit parade by lacing a single to left to load the bases. Mebust jumped on the first pitch and scorched a ball towards left, but was retired on a nice catch by the Viking shortstop. Adair then scored on a miscue by the Viking defense. We held the lead until the fourth inning.

A porous Islander defense led to four unearned runs for La Jolla and they took the lead 5-4.

The Islanders fought back for a score in the fifth, when Bible singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. McCray advanced Bible to third and Adair drove her home with a single to center. A couple of hits and some alert base running gave La Jolla their final two runs in the sixth and Coronado couldn’t answer. The final score was 7-5.

This was a game we should have easily won. We try to focus on each and every pitch, but sometimes we lose it for just a few minutes and that is all it takes. With young, inexperienced players, it happens. As a team we accomplished our No. 1 goal, which was to improve with each contest. We are now going to focus on our next goal and that is to go deep into the CIF Playoffs. We are in Division IV and we must petition to enter the playoffs. I think the girls will respond with some good fast pitch softball, and show everyone how good we can be.”