Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

19 Sept 2007 Issue #36

Coronado Boys Water Polo successfully launched their regular season Saturday, with a 9-8 road victory at perennial Southern California powerhouse Newport Harbor High School. For their part, the Sailors commenced their 2007 campaign with a 9-8 victory over Foothill and an 11-4 triumph over Long Beach Wilson.

When you emerge from the pool after playing any of the four programs mentioned in the first paragraph, you know you have been in a battle.

“With this being our first game, I didn’t know what to expect,” said CHS Head Coach Randy Burgess. “I liked the way we came out and played very hard. In their third and fourth quarters, when Newport fought back, we stayed with them. We played a very good team and we had a nice team effort.”

Then Burgess, who is in his 25^th season at the helm of the Islander boys program and knows the challenges ahead added, “I’m happy with the way we played in the first game of the season, but we’ve got to get better, because everybody else is going to get better.”

Leading the scoring parade for Coronado was senior Jacob Smith with four goals. As importantly, he created three of the Islanders five man-up scoring opportunities by drawing exclusions from Newport. Islander Norbi Karoly scored three goals, while Sean Cook added two. Senior goalie Kyle Pokorny was credited with the victory and 11 saves on the evening.

Pokorny played a major role in the win, according to his coach. “Kyle did a great job. Newport is a very good team and Kyle had some nice individual efforts in goal. He blocked a couple of one-on-one shots they had against him.”

Burgess noted the contributions of several of his other players to the season-opening win. “Adam Ratcliffe played very well on both ends of the pool and Tommy Schofer started the first varsity game of his career. Alex Johnson did a nice job in the center position while Jake Hunzecker, Sam Working and Andrew Ireland all made strong contributions.”

Coronado led 3-1 at the end of the first quarter and 5-2 at halftime, before Newport outscored the Islanders 6-4 in the second half. “I thought they played very well,” Burgess said of the Sailors. “It was a good game for the fans to watch.”

The Islanders spring right back into action this week, as they host their own 32-team tournament, entitled the “America’s Finest City, Kap Seven Invitational.” Play begins Friday and is spread over four locations, including Coronado Municipal, La Jolla’s Coggan Family Pool, Rancho Bernardo and Miramar College. Coronado begins play Friday at 1 pm when they host Western H.S. of Anaheim. If they are victorious, they will play in the 6 pm game at the Coronado Pool.

The tournament field is comprised of 15 teams from the San Diego Section, and an additional 16 teams from California, but from out of the section. For the first time, the defending Oregon state champion Newberg High School will participate.

“There are some very good teams in the tournament,” Burgess said. “Among the favorites will be Mater Dei of Orange County. Agoura H.S. of Thousand Oaks is going to be the No. 1 seed. There will be great competition and five additional games for us over the course of the weekend.”For more information on the tournament pools and schedule for the America’s Finest City, Kap Seven Invitational, go to nadoaquatics.com.

Islander Football Falls to El Capitan

After a season-opening victory in Hawaii, the Islanders opted for a scheduled bye week before returning to action last week at El Capitan. Despite being rested but ready, Coronado fell victim to the Vaquero passing attack, orchestrated and executed by six-foot, three-inch junior quarterback Tanner Rust, who threw for 386 yards and six touchdowns. Making judgments regarding a prep athlete and how they will perform on the next level is difficult, but if pressed I would prognosticate that Rust will play on Saturday afternoons and do so at a high level.

“We couldn’t mount a pass rush, despite the efforts of our front four,” said Head Coach Bud Mayfield. “I was disappointed with the defense. We had a lot of (summer) passing league games and it didn’t translate and we were in the finals of a couple of tournaments. I did see a lot of standing around and watching.”

Games where passing dominates, and there were a combined total of 54 passes thrown by the two teams, last longer than normal because the game clock stops on an incomplete pass. “The thing about a passing game is it is a long game,” Mayfield added. “We had some kids play probably (the equivalent of) five quarters Friday night. They were chasing people in the pass rush and that’s pretty tough. Our kids did well, considering they had to do that.”

The defense wasn’t without its moments. Late in the first half Jon Little and Tim Leary batted down consecutive Vaquero pass attempts. Defensive lineman Charlie Moore recovered an El Capitan fumble deep in Coronado territory in the third quarter, when Coronado trailed by a scant eight points. “Charlie Moore will be our best defensive lineman,” Mayfield opined. “He has some strategies and techniques to master. Jon Little made a grand effort. He was coming hard every down. This is his first year on the varsity and for a lot of kids it was their first big game.”

The preponderance of good tidings came on the offensive side of the ball, where the senior running back tandem of Ricardo Oberwager and Kyle Brown were the focal points of the Islander offense. Oberwager rushed for 115 yards on 11 carries and scored twice. Brown added 81 yards on 14 attempts and two touchdowns. Oberwager broke off a 56-yard TD run and Brown supplied his own 52-yard jaunt from scrimmage.

Quarterback Mason Mills spent much of his evening in Greater Lakeside in ‘evade’ mode, attempting to stay away from the Vaquero defensive line. Mills was able to complete 8-19 passes, with one touchdown and he also threw for two 2-point conversions. One of the Islander highlights of the evening was an athletic one-handed catch by Curtis Perkins on one of the two-point conversion attempts. Mills and tight end Blake Malkemus linked up on a 26-yard touchdown for Coronado’s final score.

The 2007 Islanders are young, with only six seniors seeing a great deal of playing time. Mayfield discussed the team overall. “Our younger guys have to come up to speed pretty quickly. On the line, the kids had their hands full all night, but it’s going to be that way. The kids are going to have to learn to handle that pressure defense. We did score 36 points and we had some long runs and some really nice plays. It’s early yet. El Capitan got some scores they shouldn’t have. It was a close and better game than the score would indicate. Before too long all of these guys are going to click.”

In the future Mayfield plans to use Brown and Oberwager as pass receivers out of the backfield. In addition, more balls are likely to go to tight end Malkemus in the future. Mayfield prefers to throw to the tight ends and backs, in much the same way the Chargers employing tight end Antonio Gates and star tailback LaDainian Tomlinson. In addition, Brown and Oberwager combine to form a dangerous return duo for kickoffs.

Next week the Islanders host Mission Bay for their first home game of the young season. Mayfield handicapped the Bucs, who are having a good season despite losing to Bonita Vista 30-14 last week. “They have a lot of talent, as always. They have size and they are a Division IV opponent. We have to find out where we stack up and they will help us see where we are. They lost unexpectedly the other night. They lost to a team with a good rushing game. With two guys like Kyle and Ricky, the running game will be our forte.” Kickoff for Friday night’s home game featuring Coronado and Mission Bay will be 7:30 pm.

Girls Golf Scores Improve Dramatically As Team Goes 3-0

Last week we reported that the CHS Girls Golf Team posted a 303-330 victory over Crawford (low score wins) in their first match of the season. Well this week, the Islander Linksters won twice and significantly lowered their scores in consecutive matches.

To start the week, Coronado traveled to the South Torrey Pines Course, the site of the 2008 U.S. Open to play Mira Mesa and came away with a 268-300 win. CHS Co-Head Coach Randy Coutts who got to play nine holes while trailing the teams around the course, talked about the new layout at Torre Pines South. “It’s obviously a very tough high school course, especially around the greens and the sand traps. The greens are great and the whole setup is beautiful. They are taking down the rough and putting in a Bermuda/Rye mix. They have already knocked down the rough, so that was an advantage. The traps are there and they have the U.S. Open type of green.”

The difficulty of different golf courses is hard to compare, but Coronado did improve by 35 shots from their first match of the season.

Thursday the Islanders were at home on their Coronado Municipal Course, where they edged past Our Lady of Peace 259-268, improving by another nine swings in the process. “We’re going in the right direction,” said Coutts. “We’re a pretty young team, with only one senior playing in Allie Icenhower. We have really good athletes from other sports who are learning to play the game. An example is Andrea Davis, who is a goalie on the soccer team. She lowered her score four or five strokes from earlier in the week. She is very capable of taking more strokes off her score.”

“Jackie Davis had a breakthrough round against OLP,” Coutts continued. “She was our medalist. She is a very consistent player who really works and is doing well.”
Coutts assessed the progress of sophomore Bridgett Nielson. “She has tremendous ability and a perfect swing. She is just like Andrea. It’s going to be amazing to see where she is at the end of the season. She doesn’t have a lot of experience putting or with her short game, but she has a full swing.”

This week Coronado plays San Diego High School and the second half of the Islander roster will get a chance to compete in interscholastic competition.  Next week Coronado faces the team to beat in the City Conference, Cathedral Catholic.

Strong Results For CHS Cross Country This Weekend

Over 2,000 runners from nearly 80 schools and four states participated in the Mt. Carmel Cross Country Invitational at Morley Field last Saturday, over the same course used by the Footlocker National Championships and the CIF San Diego Section Finals. 

Races were divided by grade-level and school size (large and small) with overall results combined via computer. It's still pretty early in the season but it was a great chance for us to see how we compare with the key teams we'll face in October when the dual meet season gets underway.

In the small school Frosh girls race we placed all three of our entries up-front with Annie Lovering leading the way in 10^th place out of 133 finishers over the 2.7-mile girl’s course with a time of 17:57. She was followed by Cassie Callahan and Sadie Gimber running together in 21st and 22nd place both in around 18:45. The only other race our young girls team entered was the Sophomore event over the same course with Sallie Privett placing second in 16:57, followed by Adie Davies (11th in 17:58), Selina Schmeck (20:01) and CoCo O'Brien (20:25). The compiled team results produced out of all races put the Islanders in first place out of all Division IV schools and well in front of our nearest league and CIF rivals (Christian and Bishop’s) by 75 and 37 points respectively.

In the boys senior race Ben Enowitz had a huge drop in his personal best time over the 2.95-mile boys course, placing second with a time of 16:06. The only other senior was Jordon Vance who ran 22:07. In the junior race David Grimes placed 33rd in 17:41 followed by Sean O'Brien (18:28) and Andrew Centeno (19:20). In the sophomore race Kevin Seifert ran 19:12 followed by Gabe Salvatierra in 20:37. The compiled results put Coronado on top of all Division IV schools with a score of 78 followed closely by Christian with 79 and Bishop's with 87. Once again it appears the boys league and CIF championships will be close contests.

CHS Girls Volleyball Knocks off Morse; Has Strong Tournament Result

Last week saw the Islander Girls Volleyball Team play a three-part schedule of sorts. Part I included a straight set 25-14, 25-20 and 25-18 Eastern League road triumph over Morse High School.

“There weren’t any huge highlights,” said Head Coach Christina Lahr. “It was a little hot and a little loud in their gym, but we overcame those situations pretty well. The match showed me our team has lots of room to improve. There were things I noticed during the game that we are definitely going to have to work on to be competitive with teams like Patrick Henry and OLP.”

Christy Mebust had 15 digs for Coronado, playing the somewhat unusual combination of libero (defensive specialist) in the first game and outside hitter in the second and third games. Kelsey Fitzgerald was credited with 15 assists. The power combo of Maddie Boomer (10 kills) and Korey Fitzgerald (an additional 11 kills) helped pace the offense. “They were definitely competing with each other,” Lahr explained. “Korey played outside hitter the first game, played middle blocker the second game and opposite in the third game. She played every position. I am beginning to rely on her ability to do that, without even realizing it.”

Friday the Islanders were at San Dieguito to play in the Fall Classic and found themselves in a four-team pool which included the host team, Rancho Buena Vista and El Camino. “It was a challenge, and I was unable to be there Friday, but Jessica Marsden ran the team. We lost in two games to San Dieguito and in three each to RBV and El Camino. It was a long afternoon of volleyball, but they did very well.”

Stage III occurred Saturday as the Islanders ventured off to Westview to participate in the Bronze Division of the tourney. First off, they defeated Central Union in two games, defeated Helix in two games and lost to San Marcos in three games. Shuttled off to the loser’s bracket in the double elimination tournament, Coronado faced Helix for the second time and beat the Highlanders again in two games. Then it was San Marcos across the net again and the Knights prevailed, this time in two games.

“After 11 games of volleyball, my girls were just done,” Lahr said. “They were exhausted. We lost Krista Baszak to a finger injury. We moved Melissa Humphrey to libero and then to setter later in the day. She did very well. I was very impressed with the team’s ability to transition and bounce back.”

“Christy Mebust had a great day,” continued Lahr. “Boomer started out a little rocky Saturday morning because she suffered a mild concussion Friday night. But she bounced back and became an integral part of the team the rest of the day. The increase in her maturity level from last year to this year has been incredible. We got to bring home a plaque, so it was a good day.”

Coronado took second in the Bronze Division. “It was a good, solid first tournament of the season,” Lahr added. The team now stands at 5-5 on the season.

This week Coronado plays at Mission Bay Tuesday and at Our Lady of Peace Thursday, with both games starting at 3:30 pm. Monday, Coronado travels to Serra for another 3 pm start.

Volleyball Fundraiser at LaSalsa Restaurant in Coronado

Wednesday, Sept. 26 from 4-9 pm, the CHS Girls Volleyball program is holding a fundraising event in conjunction with La Salsa Restaurant in Coronado, located at 1360 Orange Avenue. If you either dine in or take your food out of the restaurant, 20 percent of all proceeds for the evening will be donated to the CHS Girls Volleyball program. Gift certificates are also available. Flyers can be obtained from Merrie Mebust, the president of the CHS Girls Volleyball Booster Club.

CHS Sailing Team Tryouts

Tryouts for the CHS Sailing Team will be held Tuesday, Sept 18 and Thursday, Sept. 20 at the Coronado Yacht Club from 3 to 5:30 pm both days, according to Head Coach Jon Rogers. Students from 9^th through 12^th grades are invited to attend the tryouts and no prior sailing experience is necessary.

The team that finished in seventh place in the Pacific Coast Region last year, returns virtually intact. Returning varsity skippers include seniors Pike Harris and Ryan Sullivan along with sophomores Alex Wood and Philip Lozier. Returning crew include Cragan Smith, newcomer Brian Smith, Nick Gomez-Hall and double-sport athletes Hayley Eyer and Karisa Chapa.

Newcomers include Hans Henken and Tom Ben-Kiki, who are skilled additions to the squad. They should help push the team into the Top 5 in the region and qualify for the High School Sailing Nationals to be held in May in Annapolis, Maryland.

If you are interested in joining this talented group of young sailors, please contact Susie Harris at 435-4731.