Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

22 Aug 2007 Issue #32

A check of the calendar indicates that fall is closing in quickly. So too are the first signs of life from the Coronado High School sports teams for the 2007-08 school year.

The Islander Football Team finds itself in Hell Week for five days of triple practice sessions at NAS North Island in preparation for their coming season. Coronado will hold their pre-season scrimmage Saturday, August 25 at 7 pm at San Diego High School. The freshmen teams from the two schools will play at 1 pm, while the JV teams will tangle at 3 pm.
Head Coach Bud Mayfield returns for his 20^th season at the helm of the Islander program, which makes him the dean of San Diego County football coaches in terms of service with one school. The previous title holder was recently-retired Ed Burke of the Torrey Pines Falcons.
The summer was a busy one for the team, as they participated in nearly 20 passing league games. A passing league game features the receivers, quarterbacks and running backs from teams competing in what is essentially a low-contact version of a flag football contest. The games allow teams to get their timing and terminology down in advance of the season.
“We came within 15 seconds of winning the Southwestern Junior College Passing Tournament championship game against Eastlake,” said Mayfield. “And we were in the semi-finals against Valley Center in the USD Passing League Tournament.”
The 2007 edition of the Islanders will feature the senior tailback tandem of Ricardo Oberwager and Kyle Brown, both of whom had multiple 200-yard rushing efforts in 2006. “We have been working with them in the same backfield all summer,” Mayfield said. “We did that in every passing league game we played.”
When asked which of his tailbacks would be ‘thunder’ and which would be designated as ‘lightening,’ which is a sports columnist’s shorthand for a talented backfield, Mayfield laughed. “They’re both lightening, there is no thunder. They are double lightening and they can both catch the ball. Kyle has developed into a receiver and we use the tailback as a receiver frequently, which expands the threat.”
Success for the backfield is almost always accompanied by talent in the trenches. “The line will have to come together, but we do have some returning experience,” Mayfield elaborated. “Tim Leary is now 6-6 and weighs 250 pounds. Greg Reed and Charlie Moore are back and all three of them were starters last year. Blake Malkemus from the basketball team is going to be a terrific tight end. Ray San Giovanni, Curtis Perkins and John Mikesell are all returning linebackers. It all looks good on paper.”
As though Hell Week, followed immediately by the team’s pre-season tune-up weren’t enough, the Islanders play their first regular season game Friday, August 31 against Kapa’a High School on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. The travel party of 30 players and 17 adults will begin packing after catching their collective breath over the weekend.
“We had more adults who wanted to go than players,” said Mayfield of the excursion. “Most people think Kauai is the most beautiful of the islands. We’re also going to spend time on Oahu and go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and the Battleship Missouri as well. We’ll split time between the two islands and so some historical and educational things. They’ll be snorkeling and swimming on some beautiful beaches.”
The next two regular season games following the Hawaii trip include a Sept. 14 game at El Capitan, followed by the Sept. 21 home opener vs. Mission Bay. Mayfield concluded his quick look at the season ahead by saying and perhaps understating, “I think we’ll come together and be pretty good.”

Boys Water Polo Summers in Split, Croatia
One way to improve your prospects for the coming season is to travel to the epicenter of the water polo world, which would include Split, Croatia. So Head Coach Randy Burgess, Asst. Coach Dave Throop, Dr. Mark Clapper and 14 athletes trundled off to Europe to see the sights and work in some water polo on the side. Or perhaps that last sentence should be reversed.
Since the July 31 to August 10 trip included a CIF ‘dead period’ where coaches and athletes can’t be in contact with each other in the field of play, Coronado relied on Coach Dvornik of Club Jadran in Split to work with the team. “He did clinical work with the kids as well as some conditioning and skill work,” said Burgess. “After several days Dave and I worked with them.”
A typical day included breakfast at 7 am, with weight room or dry land conditioning at 9 am. “They were in the Adriatic Sea by 9:30 am,” Burgess said. “And they were in the water (pool) from 10 am to 1 pm. We broke for lunch and came back from 4:30 to 7 pm with a combination of conditioning and scrimmaging. We ended the day at 9 pm. We got to know each other real well. It was a good bonding trip for the kids.”
Split, which is the second largest city in Croatia and the largest on the Adriatic coast, is still recovering from the ravages of the Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian Wars from 15 years ago. “The war took a toll on the economics of the coastal region,” Burgess said. “They have a beautiful coast and they are trying to push tourism. They have beautiful cathedrals and a beautiful fort we went through. Their history dates from 600 to 800 AD. The kids had a chance to wander through and tour the area.”
The travel party included seniors Sean Cook, Andy Clapper, Jake Hunzeker, Kyle Pokorny, Jacob Smith and Sam Working. Juniors on the trip were Justin Parsons, Jackson Hummeldorf and Adam Ratcliffe. Sophomore representatives included Rex Butler, Andrew Ireland, Alex Johnson and Tommy Schofer. Also traveling to Croatia was Josh Grall from Righetti High School in San Luis Obispo, who has a family tie to Coronado.
“The kids received unsolicited praise from the flight crews and hotel management, that they were really well behaved as a group,” Burgess added. “That’s an important thing for a coach to hear. I was extremely pleased that Dr. Clapper remained bored during the entire trip. We didn’t have any injuries or sickness. We would have needed him if he had not been there.”
Departing from the main travel contingent at the end of the trip was Smith, who stayed at the team hotel before flying to Zagreb to play with the United States Youth Team.
According to Burgess, once the players started scrimmaging against the area youth teams, the competition picked up. “The style of play we ran into was a very rough. Not a mean or bad style and the kids adjusted well. They learned a lot and it was a very successful trip. They learned from the different coaching style (via Club Jadran and Coach Dvornik), the opponents and the referees.”
The Islanders play a pre-season game this Saturday, as they participate in the Second Annual Coach Dick Draz Classic, which will be held at the Coggan Family Pool at La Jolla High School. Coronado will play Rancho Buena Vista at 2:40 pm.
A total of eight games will be played in the Draz Classic, including the Bishop’s School playing Granite Hills at 1:30 pm in the contest immediately preceding the Coronado vs. RBV game. General admission tickets to the game cost $6, with the proceeds designated to assist in running CIF championship events.
“I’m looking forward to a good year,” Burgess said of his team. “This will be a transition week for us to get back into the swing of things. We have a lot of scoring options this season and a little more experience (entering the season) than last year. The summer program is the time for kids to learn. Everyone starts Monday and it looks like they’ll be in shape.”

CHS Cross Country Star Privett in Mid-Season Form
The competitive season never really ends for runners. CHS sophomore Sallie Privett proved over the weekend that she is ready for the fall prep cross country season, with a strong finish in the America’s Finest City 5K race. Privett finished 29^th overall in a field of 1,170 finishers. She was the overall fourth place female finisher and she won the 17-and-under division as well.

Add Cross Country
 If you are interested in joining Privett and her Coronado Cross Country teammates this season, please contact Head Coach George Green at 435-3633 or visit the team’s website at www.IslanderTrack.com. According to Green, the Boys and Girls Cross Country Teams are “training several times a week now.”

CMS Sports Sign-ups Slated for Sept. 11, 2007
Tuesday, Sept.11, sign-ups for the fall sports at Coronado Middle School will be held at Granzier Hall at the school. Starting time for registration is at 6:30 pm.
The fall sports offerings include girls’ volleyball, girls’ lacrosse and co-ed cross country. The fees are $110 per child, per sport played. All relevant registration forms can be found at www.IslanderSportsFoundation.com.

Padres Prove ‘The More Things Change, The More They Remain the Same”
As I perused last Sunday’s sports section of “The San Diego Union-Tribune,” I read with interest the apparent commencement of negotiations between Padres star hurler Jake Peavy and team ownership. Keep in mind that Peavy has a signed contract which takes him through the 2009 season and currently earns $4.75 million.
Directly impacting the timing of Peavy’s conjecture that the Padres can’t afford to re-sign him and that he will most likely be plying his trade in another uniform in 2010, was the signing of a contract extension last week by the Chicago Cubs and their star pitcher Carlos Zambrano. The Cubs hurler inked a five-year $91.5 million contract, for an average of $18.5 million per season.  
Zambrano and Peavy have very similar statistics in their careers to date, with Zambrano the owner of a 78-51 record in his fifth full season with the Cubs, a 3.37 earned run average and 1,004 career strikeouts. Peavy is 70-50, with a 3.30 ERA and 1,025 strikeouts in his young career.
When my family first moved to Coronado, the local papers were all atwitter with the fact that Padres All-Star catcher Benito Santiago’s contract must be renewed. Santiago, the 1987 National League Rookie of the Year, kept the Padres feet to the contractual flame so to speak, by attempting to negotiate his new deal through the newspapers, seemingly every day and ad nauseum. Santiago, who adamantly refused to block the plate on close scoring plays at home because he didn’t have a long-term contract, wound up departing the Padres and signing with the Florida Marlins after the 1992 season.
Let’s hope Peavy, who has spent his entire career to date with the Padres, opts to not follow the Santiago example and instead remains in San Diego. As importantly Padres Owner John Moores and team President Sandy Alderson need to realize the huge impact that Peavy as an unquestioned No. 1 starter has on their club. Alderson is one of the pro game’s leading proponents of the ‘money ball’ concept, where a player’s statistics and their salary demands don’t often mesh. Simply stated, the club needs to keep Peavy happy. Not ecstatic, just happy.
In Monday morning’s U-T, several fans were quoted as saying the most important factor for the Padres was to reduce ticket prices. Many things may happen in the near future for the Padres, but lower ticket prices won’t be found among the options.