Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

28 Nov 2007 Issue #46

Coronado High School Head Cross Country Coach George Green provides the good news from the California State Cross Country Meet held over the weekend. “The 2007 Cross Country season finally came to an end last Saturday at Woodward Park in Fresno, with Coronado's Ben Enowitz achieving an honor that has eluded all male Islander harriers for two decades.

Since the inception of the State Meet in 1987, Coronado has managed to place three girls on the All-State Team (Top 10 finishers at state), but no boys. Cross Country Specialist Trevor Clarke came closest in 1994 with an 11^th place finish over the fabled 5,000-meter Woodward Park course with a time of 16:23 and had two other finishes in the Top 25. Ben Frasier finished 31^st in 1988, and Cheyne Jones, who holds the Coronado mile record, finished 35^th in 1996. Two-time CIF San Diego Section Division IV champ Jake Ruzevick's best finish was 50^th in 2002.

With over 200 Division IV starters, all of whom qualified at their respective CIF finals throughout California, a Top 10 finish is a tough nut to crack. Ben passed the mile mark in ninth place in a little under 5 minutes and fell as far back as 12^th place in the middle of the race. All his tough training came through in the last mile as he moved back up to ninth and out-kicked a runner at the end to place eighth with a time of 16:11, the fastest ever by an Islander at the event. David Grimes was our second finisher in 84^th with a time of 17:20 followed by Andrew Centeno (18:11), Kevin Siefert (18:21), and Ben Green (18:38).

In the girls race, on the same course, the top Coronado finisher was freshman Annie Lovering who placed 79^th out of over 200 starters in 20:57 followed by Adie Davies in 22:40.”

La Jolla Ends Islander Football Playoff Drive 31-7

Friday night the No. 2 seeded La Jolla Vikings, playing on their home field, ended the CIF Division IV playoff aspirations of the No. 7 seeded Coronado Islanders by the score of 31-7. The game, which was played in what serves as a San Diego winter evening, 60 degrees at kickoff with a steady wind, saw the Vikings score on a 12-play, 5 minute and 22 second drive to open the game and they never looked back.

The big problem for Coronado was their four turnovers in the game, which led directly to two Viking touchdowns and a field goal. The fourth turnover was an intercepted pass with 55 seconds remaining in the game.

Quarterback Mason Mills played gallantly for the Islanders, especially considering Coronado trailed the whole game. Everyone in the stadium knew Mills and the Islanders had to throw the ball to get back into the playoff game and the Vikings defense reacted accordingly. Despite constant defensive pressure, Mills completed 15 of 29 pass attempts for 215 yards. On the receiving end of seven of those completed passes was tight end Blake Malkemus, who accounted for 94 receiving yards.

Co-Captains Kyle Brown and Ricardo Oberwager each contributed during the evening. Brown rushed six times for a total of 100 yards, including gallops of 35, 37 and 22 yards. Oberwager scored on a four-yard run to account for the Islanders lone touchdown in the contest, with 6:25 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Oberwager added a 48-yard kick-off return to his offensive portfolio, while Brown had a 45-yard return of his own. Both senior running backs also played virtually the entire balance of the game on defense as well.

Islander Head Coach Bud Mayfield summarized the game by saying, “You can’t turn the ball over four times and break the snap count three times and hope to beat the No. 2 team in the division. We made more mistakes in that game than we made during the entire rest of the season. Mason Mills played well for us and he’s a gamer. La Jolla played hard. They’re good and their head coach (Dave Ponsford) is a friend of mine.”

The Islanders completed their 2007 season with a record of 6-4, 3-1 in the Central League.

CHS Boys Soccer Takes To The Pitch This Week

The sub-headline on this portion of ‘Nado Natterings’ should have read something along the line of “Coronado Boys Soccer Seeks to Defend CIF Division III Crown,” except that the Islanders, at least thus far, find themselves in CIF Division IV for 2007-08. But stay tuned, that may change.

Coming off of a 24-3-2 season and the aforementioned CIF title in 2006-07, there won’t be any tears shed for the Islanders this season. Entering tournament play this week, Coronado has laid claim to the overall No. 6 spot in the “San Diego Union-Tribune” pre-season writer’s poll. There are returning starters sprinkled throughout the lineup, according to Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu.

“Jeffery Bucklew is back in goal and defensively we have Charlie Wood, Austen Speer and Connor Marcone back. Nolan Woodhouse, who played midfield last year, will be playing defense for us this season. Christian Herrera and Peter Kittiyasawadi are back as is Clay Butner who played last year. We also have Arturo Valle and he can play midfield.”

(Note: One of my goals for this season is to be able to spell ‘Kittiyasawadi’ without looking it up every time Hiatt-Aleu mentions the talented junior’s name.)

Hiatt-Aleu will utilize a variety of systems this year for his team. “We will play either a 4-4-2 (counting from the defensive backfield forward), or a 3-5-2 depending on who we are playing. If we are tied or behind and need a score, we may use a 3-4-3. In our scrimmages we used all three systems. Against Southwest in our scrimmage, we played 24 kids and the starters played for less than a half. I needed to see what everybody could do.”

As has been the tradition at Coronado, the Islanders host their own tournament in late November and early December. The defending champion of the 24-team event is, perhaps you already guessed this, the Coronado Islanders. Retaining their crown will be difficult as the tournament field is loaded with talent. “The tournament starts Monday,” said Hiatt-Aleu, who also serves as event director. “We play Mount Carmel Tuesday at 5 pm and then we play Thursday vs. Bonita Vista at 5 pm. Saturday we play El Centro Southwest at 5 pm. Our bracket is stacked with Fallbrook, Rancho Bernardo, Mt. Carmel, Carlsbad, Sweetwater and Chula Vista, who is supposed to be really good this year. Poway is the preseason No. 1 team and they are in our bracket.”

Most of the same familiar suspects will line up against the Islanders in the Central League, with one addition, according to Hiatt-Aleu. “I expect Crawford to be good along with Hoover. Clairemont is always tough. Lincoln is back in the Central League this year and they were always good when they were in before. Coronado is in the group that should contend. It will be interesting.”

The focus moves to Division IV this season, where Coronado is likely to play, but there may be some shifting in that lineup. Coronado is the second largest school in the proposed Division IV lineup. Schools may opt to play up a division if they petition the CIF, but cannot play below their assignment by enrollment. “There may be some movement before the season starts,” said Hiatt-Aleu. “It’s not up to us. Division III is usually the strongest division from top to bottom. But Division IV has La Jolla Country Day, Francis Parker, and the Preuss Academy who are all good. Mater Dei (formerly Marian Catholic) has won the division two out of the last four years.”

Bottom line, the Islanders are strong again this season and the going is tough in the tournament. “Mt. Carmel and Bonita are big schools and we’ll find out early what we have,” Hiatt-Aleu concluded.

Islander Girls Soccer Starts Competition This Week

We’ll do a preview of the CHS Girls Soccer Team next week, but so you can follow them in their early season schedule, the Islanders play Thursday at El Capitan in a non-league game at 5:30 pm. They then begin play in the Barons Tournament Saturday with a game against Mission Hills at Hilltop High School at 11:30 am. Next Wednesday they play Our Lady of Peace at Bonita Vista High School at 3:15 pm.

There will be more details on a very talented CHS Girls Soccer squad next week in ‘Nado Natterings.’

Girls Basketball Opens Season 2-2

Playing two games each on Friday and Saturday, the CHS Girls Basketball Team gave as good as they got, opening their season with a mark of 2-2. In their first game, the Islanders defeated San Dieguito 53-33 and in game two they fell to OLP 57-40. In game three, played on Saturday, the Islanders fell to the Spartans of Chula Vista 40-34. Coronado rebounded in the finale Saturday night to defeat Valley Center 46-28.

As luck would have it, Your Natterer was on hand for the two Coronado victories, so let’s focus on those games. Post player Emily Bell had 14 points and five rebounds for the Islanders in the San Dieguito game, followed closely by Bria Phillips who contributed 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. Arrielle Luna, another of the post playing trio that includes Bell and Angela Strohbeck, added nine points and nine rebounds. Strohbeck chipped in with eight points and five rebounds.

Coronado held an 11-2 lead at the conclusion of the first quarter and the Islanders handily won each of the four quarters.

In the fourth game, Strohbeck kicked it into gear, grabbing a total of 17 rebounds as she and the Triple Towers dominated their counterparts in the paint. The game also saw Coronado exhibit some fine passing and ball movement, which yielded easy shots for the Islanders.

“Angela Strohbeck played really well for us in the tournament,” said Islander Head Coach Toler Goodwin. “She was our most consistent player. She was pretty active on the glass all weekend and had a total of 42 rebounds in the four games.”

Ball movement normally begins with the team’s point guard and that was the case against Valley Center as Tiffany Depfer threw a number of beautiful outlet passes, while scoring enough (six points) to keep the defense honest. “She’s our floor general,” said Goodwin of the senior Co-captain. “She has to get the ball around and get us into things. She quarterbacks us defensively as well. In the Valley Center game it was important that we be consistent offensively. We had to have good possessions and she did a very good job at that.”

Melissa Humphrey has developed into the team defensive specialist, who can score when needed. Humphrey, who also plays volleyball and lacrosse, was taking a unique defensive approach to defense before the weekend, according to Goodwin. “What she was doing was lacrosse stick oriented. She was reaching across the backside shoulder like in lacrosse, instead of the inside hand in basketball. All three of our guards can put a lot of pressure on the ball and create random traps.”

Next week the Islanders play at 7 am at home against La Jolla. They will host the final round of the Coronado thanksgiving Tournament Saturday, when play begins at 12 noon. Coronado will play Ramona in the final, which is scheduled to begin at 5 pm.

“They are learning and they are all getting better,” said Goodwin of his team. “We’re making progress every day we go out there.”

Boys Basketball Tips Off in Hilltop Tournament Friday Night

Head Coach Ken Caesar was viewing game tape Sunday night when Your Natterer called to get some information on the Islander Boys Varsity Basketball Team for the column. Caesar, who has a great sense of humor, unless you’re talking about basketball, summarized his team’s scrimmage against Montgomery last week as, “not a real test of anything,” but the three-way scrimmage among Mar Vista, Chula Vista and Coronado was a little different. “We handled it a little bit, and then the pressure got to us.”

Caesar provided the personnel highlights for his 2007-08 team. “Matt Fowler is our captain and senior point guard. Krishna Samperio is a 6-foot, 6-inch forward/center and is a big part of what we do. Krishna takes criticism well and he’s starting to ask questions. He just needs to pick up his intensity. In the scrimmage, they all got a chance to see what it was like. The other teams just play harder.

Dallas Taylor is a senior guard/forward who has done some good things on videotape. He’ll catch and rip the ball through and knock it (jump shot) down. I’m going to get one of those football blocking bags and just pound them on the wing. Just beat on them, so they get used to the contact. I want him to catch, turn and shoot it.”

Justin Parsons (who also is a goalie in water polo and plays baseball) is a 6-5 junior from Valhalla and he will help us out. I want to get him and Krishna playing together. Justin is a shot blocker, is quick and can rebound. He’s big and athletic and by the middle of the season he will be effective.

Blake Malkemus from football will be one of our tough guys. Cole McLean is a senior guard/forward and is one of our better ‘catch and shoot’ guys. Cole is tough and strong. We need to get him catching and spotting up. He is a guy who should knock down shots. Lynden Ostrander will be our backup point guard. He will give us a spark off the bench. Josh Williams is a junior backup post player, who has a big body and is strong.”

The Hilltop Tournament, where Coronado will play their first regular season games this weekend, will be a challenge. Friday evening they will play tournament host Hilltop at 8:15 pm, followed by a game Saturday afternoon at 3:45 against Helix. Tuesday, Dec. 4, the Islanders will play Rancho Buena Vista at 4:45 pm.

Baseball Blue Darters

The CHS Baseball Team will be competing in the CIF Third Annual Baseball “K” Classic, scheduled for Saturday, February 23, 2008 at Central Union High School in El Centro. The Islanders will play the home team at 10:45 am that day. A total of six games will be played in the event. Tickets are $6 and go on sale February 1, 2008.

Also, Islander Joe Woerman, whose pitching career with the Seattle Mariners, we have been following, has been added to the Mariners’ 40-man roster, which is a significant move for a player with Major League aspirations. Congratulations to Joe and his family.