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Nado Natterings |
A weekly column by David Axelson |
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Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive
Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation
23 April 2008 Issue No. 16
Without a great deal of
fanfare, the CHS Boys Golf Team last week won the Central League title by
defeating Crawford twice, and on back-to-back days. Last year the Colts edged
the Islanders in the City Conference Tournament in what amounted to a
tie-breaker after the schools split their two regular season matches. This
season, course availability problems for the Crawford home portion of the
schedule dictated the unusual two-day, back-to-back format.
Monday the Islanders and Head
Coach Dean Cummings made their way to the Country Club of Rancho Bernardo,
which from a geographic perspective would seem to be an unusual site for a
Crawford home match.
Tuesday the teams trundled off
to the Coronado Municipal Golf Course, where the Islanders laid a 191-207
victory on Crawford. Hakes again medaled with a 35. “All of our scores were
pretty solid,” said Cummings. “We threw out a round of 45 as our high score.”
Just to make sure the
Islanders had enough golf under their collective belt, Wednesday they played
Thus concludes the regular
season, but this is where the fun starts for the CHS Golf Team. Wednesday and
Thursday this week the City Conference Tournament will be held at Balboa and
seven Islanders will participate. In addition to Hakes, Pompa and Emerson, Alex
Valle, Matt Buss, Robert Phelps and Joe McMahon will represent
Coronado in the event. The Top 32 golfers from all of the City Conference
schools will then advance to the Match Play event, which will be played next
week at Cotton Wood (the first two days) and then Singing Hills (the last three
days). In match play, if you win, you keep playing.
“Hakes will be a contender
again this year,” said Cummings of his senior shot maker. “He made the finals
of the conference match play event last year.”
By winning the Central League,
where they went undefeated this season,
CHS Boys
Volleyball Posts Perfect Week
A perfect 3-0 week doesn’t
happen all that often in any of the Coronado High School sports and last week
the Islander Boys Volleyball Team was able to turn the trick. They
started with a five set win over
Then it was off to
Thursday it was a return to
the home court for
Last week’s three victories by
CHS Track
Squad Runs Into Tough
CHS Head Track and Field Coach
George Green checks in with his weekly update. (Column Advisory, bad pun
ahead. Keep in mind that the
The latest estimate of their
student body count puts them at over 2,500. With no lacrosse team to dilute
their talent pool and with the transfer of many of the best sprinters in the
City Conference to their ranks,
That said, they are a great
bunch of kids and I know their head coach, Adam Henderson, from youth
track. One of Adam's daughters is Monique Henderson who won a gold medal
at the Olympics as an alternate on the
As good as
In the boys' meet Brown won
the long jump with a leap of 22 feet, 1 inch, the triple jump in 42-3 and he
finished in a virtual tie for first in the 100-meter dash with
In the distance events Andy
Centeno has been knocking on the "sub-5 minute mile" door for the
last couple of meets, so the plan was for Ben Enowitz to pace him to
this milestone mark. The concept worked great and Andy now has a time of 4:53.6
to add to his resume. Michael Davis was third in 5:01.7. Ben and David
Grimes hooked up in the 800 meters with Grimes going out fast and Enowitz
closing fast at the finish. Both set a personal best time with Grimes running
2:03.3 and Enowitz 2:03.8.
In the girls' meet, the
exception to the Hornet's lack of distance runners is Elizabeth Apgar,
who leads the county in the 800-meter run and is one of
Neisha Scales broke
into the Hornet's sprint group with third place finishes in both the 100 and
200 meter dashes. We have a pretty good core of young hurdlers but they aren't
yet up to
Callahan also scored in two
other events with seconds in both the long jump and triple jump. In the latter
event, Brigid Twomey picked up the third place point. Natalie
Brooks has been nursing a sore quad, so lately she's taken up throwing.
It's starting to pay-off with second place in the discus throw and third place
in the shot put.
This Saturday we'll take 10
athletes to the Frosh/Soph meet hosted by El Capitan. This is an invitational
event that takes only the top entrants from all of the San Diego County
schools. Our lone boy qualifier is Will Bartsch who will compete in the
freshman high jump and pole vault. For the girls, freshman Annie Lovering will
run the freshman 800 and 1600 meter runs. Ali Colora and Mancillas got
in the freshman 100 meters, with Colora also in the long jump. Danielson is one
of the top seeds in the freshman 300 meter hurdles and Callahan made the cut in
the freshman high jump, long jump and triple jump.
In the sophomore events
Privett is the top seed in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Davis is in both
the 1600 and 800 meter runs. Gillberg and Giorgione made the cut in the 300
hurdles and pole vault respectively.
Swim Team
Competes Against University City
The Islander Boys and Girls
Swim Teams competed against University City Wednesday at the Brian Bent
Memorial Aquatics Complex and Head Coach Dave Throop provided some of
the
highlights. “In the Girls’
events, Heather Ireland swam a season best 2:01.77 in the 200 free,
while Maddie Murphy swam 1:07.82 in the 100 fly. Ashley Young
swam the 500 free, turning in a personal best time of 5:29.78, while Selina
Schmeck swam a 1:18.17 for the 100 breaststroke. Michelle Carroll swam
a personal best time of 59.18 on her leg of the 400 free relay.
The Boys saw
some personal best times as well. Lex Aponte swam best
times in both of his individual entries for the meet, swimming a
2:00.03 in the 200 free, and turning in a time of 5:15.46 in the 500 free.
Not to be overshadowed, Michael Aguilar swam a personal best 2:12.54 in
the 200 individual medley and Tommy Schofer swam a 500 free time of
5:16.49. Andrew Ireland and Rex Butler swam season-best
times in the 100 Free, finishing in 49.23 and 49.25 respectively.
Due to the CHS Star testing, we have a bye in our meet schedule for this
coming week. We will use the time to refocus our race strategies and technical
aspects of each stroke, while continuing our rate and volume of training.The
group is extremely tired and fatigued from training, which is what we planned
for, as well as hoped for, at this time of the season. We are looking
forward toward turning the corner in our training and getting into the
championship part of the season in the coming weeks.”
Water Polo
Honors and Awards
CHS senior water polo (and
lacrosse) player Hannah Sebenaler continues to collect hardware for her
fine season, where she helped lead Coronado to the CIF Division II title. Sebenaler
was recognized by the “San Diego Union-Tribune” and the Breitbard Sports Hall
of Fame as the San Diego County Player of the Year for Girls Water Polo. These
awards include all players county-wide, irrespective of the CIF division in
which they compete. Joining Sebenaler on the First Team was Islander goalie Alex
Adamson.
Earning Second Team
recognition were Ashley Young, Alana Burgess and Sabrina Anonas.
Congratulations to all of the award-winning athletes.
Islander
Boys Lax Vanishes Two Foes…
The CHS Boys Lacrosse Team
eased into the week with a 12-2 dismantling of Patrick Henry at home Wednesday,
a contest that allowed Head Coach Alex Cade the rare opportunity to go
deep into his bench and play the entire roster. “A lot of the younger guys got
to get in,” Cade said. “We got to take a look at what the future holds, which
was good. We were scoring a lot of goals with the younger guys in there, which
is always a good sign.”
Some of the young guns who
impressed Cade were Kyle Runyon, Kevin Seifert and Eddie Vita. “A
bunch of the older guys had great games. Everyone scored, to tell you the
truth.”
Friday Coronado trucked up
(dated 60’s reference) to Orange County to face St. Margaret’s and Cade picks
up the narrative. “It was a battle, a tough game. Defensively we didn’t have
our finest game of the year and we ran into a hot goalie who had 18 saves. Our
guys battled and won 9-8 in the last seven seconds of the game. It takes a
special team to pull together in the last two minutes to win in those situations.
I was proud of them. The winning goal was scored by Kodie Englehart. The
score was tied at the end of every quarter. We were right on each other the
entire time.”
Goal scorers included Vita and
Cory Couture with two goals each and single tallies from Sean
O’Brien, Jack Christiansen and Olivier Schmied. Peter Zeller was
credited with 10 saves. “He had a nice game,” said Cade of his sophomore
goalie. “He made some really big saves in the last two minutes of the game,
which is the most important time. St. Margaret’s is one of the top teams in
Orange County. It’s good to gauge the different (geographic) areas against each
other.”
Comparatively speaking, the
coming week is a light one for the team, with only a game Wednesday at Scripps
Ranch on tap. “We have a good work week ahead of us,” Cade said.
The Islanders are now 9-2 on
the season and are in essentially a three-way atop the San Diego Section
rankings according to Laxpower.com. La Costa Canyon is ranked No. 1, with
Coronado and Poway ranked No. 2 and 3 respectively. The teams are separated by
less than one point in the power rankings of the website.
…And Girls
Lax Does The Same
The Boys and Girls Lacrosse
seasons are eerily similar so far this year. Both teams are ranked No. 2 in the
county and both are slotted directly behind La Costa Canyon. One slight
difference is that the girls are now 11-1 and the boys are 9-2.
The similar paths continued
last week as the Girls began their week by dismantling Patrick Henry, with the
Islanders dominating the Patriots 16-5. Friday Coronado kicked Cathedral
Catholic 18-4.
According to Head Coach Jessica
Battle, the Cathedral contest was special. “Friday’s game was beautiful. It
was the prettiest game we have played this season. It was a great game and
everyone played very, very well. Coco O’Brien had the best game I have
ever seen her have. I hope we can continue that level of play. We usually start
out slow and don’t kick it in until we need to. Friday we played hard from the
get go and that continued throughout the game. Every goal came from three or
four passes. You can’t ask for anything more as a coach. On defense they would
get the ball and we would immediately box them in. We were extremely aggressive
all over the field, which was great. Everyone played full-on for the full 50
minutes of the game.”
As indicated above, Battle was
pleased with Coronado’s defensive efforts. “Our defense really perked up. Kirsten
Krock and Sandy Shepherd are our D wings and they did well. Lainey
Mebust, Allie Wolfe and Alex Reidy all play low D and played well.
Reidy started the game, is a freshman and did a great job.”
This week the Islanders play
at Francis Parker Monday at 5:30 pm, they host Scripps Ranch Wednesday at 7 pm
and Saturday Coronado hosts St. Ignatius at 10 am. “St. Ignatius is currently
undefeated,” Battle said about the Northern California power. “This is a big
game for us. We lost to them by one goal last year in a tournament. The game
doesn’t count for much in the overall scheme of things in San Diego County, but
it would be a good win for us.”
Islander
Baseball Wins Two of Their Three Games
Competition is so tough in the
Western League in baseball, that you can win two of your three scheduled games
and lose ground to the league leaders. “We won two of our three games, but we
were hoping to win three of three,” said Head Coach Sam Ceci. “Point
Loma was better than advertised. They went into the game 7-7 and there is more
to them than their record would have suggested. They played us tough both
games. We were lucky to get a win out of the first game.”
The week began Monday with a
road game at Point Loma, a contest which featured several lead changes. “We had
pitching by committee,” Ceci said. “Stephen Conrad got his fourth win.
It was truly an epic kind of battle. Tim Leary had a big day at the
plate, going 4-5 with a stolen base. Mason Mills was 3-4 and had two
RBIs. Kyle Pokorny hit a home run and had two RBIs.”
Wednesday the Pointers came to
Coronado and walked away with a 3-1 victory. Ceci sent staff ace Bryan Crabb
to the mound and the junior righthander had a tough start to the game. “Their
first four guys got hits and before we knew it, we were down 2-0,” Ceci
recounted. “Crabb settled in after that and went the whole way to get the loss.
We only had three hits in the game.”
Friday Coronado hosted
University City, the defending CIF Division III champions, who were hit hard by
graduation since last year. Ceci provided the highlights of the Islanders 3-1
victory. “They came in with a record of 7-9 and they played us quite tough as
well. We were down 1-0 after the first inning. Leary threw his best game of the
season and settled in after the first inning and got people out. He got a lot
of ground ball outs. Justin Parsons homered, scored twice and stole a
base. Jake McMahon was 2-3 with two stolen bases and one run scored.”
Coronado is currently in the
middle of the Western League standings, trailing both Cathedral Catholic and
Mission Bay, who are 4-1, and tied with La Jolla at 3-2. “It would be
absolutely a huge feather in our cap if we could find our way to the top of
this league,” Ceci added.
The CIF Division IV Playoffs
should be interesting as Coronado (15-6) will find competition among several
old rivals, according to Ceci. “Christian moved up into the Eastern League,
which will battle-harden them. Mater Dei (formerly Marian Catholic) is right
around .500 in the South Bay League. They are going to come into the playoffs
not intimidated at all. If we’re firing on all cylinders, we should be very
tough to beat.”
This week Coronado travels to
University City Wednesday, and then travels to La Jolla Friday. An important
game will be the return game at home Monday against La Jolla. All games start
at 3 pm.
CHS Softball
Splits Two Contests
It was a bit of a strange week
for the Islander Softball Team as they fell to Clairemont 12-0 and then
rebounded nicely with a 6-4 win over Point Loma. Unlike their baseball
brethren, the Western League softball schedule features one complete trip through
the league, followed by the return trip through the same opponents a couple of
weeks later.
“It was a game to forget,”
said Head Coach Marti Bonelli of the Clairemont game. “Rosie Harris
did go 2-4 and our super freshmen Kayla Englehart and Olivia Nebo
also got hits, but the rest of the team combined for many weak outs. After the
game, our conversation centered on the fact that we are a much better team than
we are showing.”
Whatever was said after the
Clairemont loss must have been pretty effective, because Coronado won their
third Western League game of the season two days later via the Point Loma win.
“This was a victory that was a long time coming,” Bonelli said. We didn’t play
sterling defense, but we managed to stay close and put pressure on the
opponent’s defense late in the game. The winning runs we scored in the bottom
of the sixth inning were very similar to the runs we have been giving away all
season.”
Bonelli detailed how the
winning runs scored. “Jessica Adair started the rally with a two-out
single and alertly advanced to second when the center fielder bobbled the ball.
Harris followed with a sharp grounder to the third baseman and the ball skidded
under her glove and followed the foul line to short left field. Jessica was
running on the play and scored the go-ahead run easily. Harris never stopped
running and ended up a third. Alexis Wright then followed with a
dramatic single on a 1-2 count, to bring in Harris for the two run lead. Briana
Feist pitched a solid game, only allowing five singles and four walks. The
four Point Loma runs were all unearned. Englehart was 2-4, including a single
and a triple, with two RBIs. Wright also had two RBIs.”
The Point Loma win was third
Western League victory of the year for Coronado, which represents a dramatic
improvement for the program this season. However, the schedule this week is
brutal as Coronado hosts La Jolla Monday and then it’s on the road at
University City Wednesday and then it’s really on the road with a doubleheader
Saturday at Holtville.
Boys Tennis
Scores Improve Last Week
Although the Boys Tennis
Team didn’t win either of their two matches last week, their overall team
scores were competitive. Tuesday Coronado played at University City and
lost 10-8. No. 1 singles player Krishna Samperio won two of his three
sets, as did the No. 1 doubles tandem of Frankie Harrison and Daniel
Grazian. But the big story was that the No. 2 combo of Patrick Holman
and Evan Wheeler won all three of their sets.
In addition, Head Coach Jim
Mashburn noted a set victory turned in by the No. 3 doubles team of Jordan
Vance and Andrew Stump. “That was a good win for them,” Mashburn
said.
Thursday Coronado hosted
Cathedral Catholic and fell 13-5. The Dons employed the strategy of placing all
of their better players into the doubles draw. “Krishna won all three sets and Brenton
Mashburn won one set and almost won a second one, before falling 6-4,” the
elder Mashburn noted. “It was the best set he has played all year. Our only
doubles win was when Holman and Vance combined to win one set. It was 7-6 and
7-4 in the tiebreaker.”
This week the team hosts
Scripps Ranch Tuesday and travels to La Jolla Thursday. Both matches will begin
at 3 pm.
Girls Soccer
Honors and Awards
The CHS Girls Soccer
program held their post season awards banquet last week and since the 2007-08
season concluded in a CIF Division IV title, it was a festive affair.
Head Coach Kiko Medina
announced the Varsity awards, which included: The Islander Sports Foundation
award for Integrity, Sportsmanship and Friendship - Kallie
Caldwell; Rookie of the Year – Mallory Mitchell; Most Improved – Lauren
Ribant; Coach’s Award – Leah Hatheway; Most Valuable Defensive
Player – Rosie Harris; Most Valuable Offensive Player – Colleen Burns;
and Team MVP – Courtney Ryan.
Medina also announced that
Ryan earned All-Western League First Team honors and Caldwell was named to the
Second Team. In addition, Harris, Ryan, Caldwell and Hatheway all earned First
Team CIF Division IV honors, while Mackenzie Coutts, Andrea Davis and
Mitchell were named to the Division IV Second Team.
JV Head Coach Roby Monroe
announced his squad’s award winners. They were: Coach’s Award – Stefanie
Pietkiewicz, Most Improved – Jana McConville; Most Valuable
Defensive Player – Mariah Stacey; Most Valuable Offensive Player – Alana
Pokorny and Team MVP – Mariah Stacy.
Girls
Lacrosse La Salsa Fundraiser
The CHS Girls Lacrosse Team
has teamed up with the La Salsa Restaurant at 1360 Orange Avenue for a
fundraising event Thursday, April 24, 2008 from 4-9:30 pm. The concept is
simple. Take a copy of the special fundraising flyer, which can be downloaded
from IslanderSportsFoundation.com, with you to La Salsa and 20 per cent of the
net sales of your food order will go to the CHS Girls Lacrosse Team. In
addition, you can phone in your order ahead of time by calling 435-7778. Eating
and donating at the same time is a wonderful concept.
Join the Girls Lax Team and
help them raise money at La Salsa Thursday night.