Nado Natterings Back to Islandersports
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

30 April 2008 Issue No. 17

As you might expect, after spending my formative years in Kansas City, the world of interscholastic sailing is a tad foreign to Your Natterer. But in the dozen or so years that we have cranked out this weekly column, bits and pieces of sailing information have coalesced into a very partial understanding of the sport on my part. What can be deduced is that the Coronado High School Sailing Team is having a really good season in 2007-08.

The primary thing you need to understand about high school sailing is that the season essentially covers the entire school year. The CHS team, under the direction of Head Coach Jon Rodgers sails in a series of five regattae (those high school Latin classes really paid off with that nominative plural reference) which starts in mid-October with the Sea Otter Regatta in Monterey. The circuit continues with the Anteater Regatta at Newport Harbor, moves on to the Rose Bowl Regatta in Alamitos Bay after the first of the year, journeys up to the Stanford Regatta at the Sequoia Yacht Club and concludes with the Gaucho Regatta in Santa Barbara in mid-March.

The object of sailing in the regatta portion of the season is to finish in the Top 20 in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association standings, which qualifies your team to participate in the PCISA Championships. This year the championships were held April 19-20.

“The Varsity event was hosted by the Treasure Island Sailing Center in San Francisco,” Rogers said. “The team experienced ‘survival conditions,’ with winds up to 26 knots and two to three foot waves. CHSST sailors Pike Harris, Cragan Smith, Brian Smith, Ryan Sullivan, Hans Henken and Karisa Chapa reveled in the conditions and secured their place in the High School Sailing National Championship to be held in Annapolis, Maryland May 10-11.”

In the competition, Harris skippered the ‘A’ boat with Cragan and Brian Smith serving alternately as his crew. Sullivan was in charge of the ‘B’ boat with Henken assuming the crew duties. Chapa was the alternate and will be an important cog in the team that travels to Annapolis. Sullivan and Harris are the only seniors on this year’s roster and serve as Co-Captains of the 15-member team.

This marks the first time since the 2002 season that Coronado has qualified for the Nationals and they earned the right to compete for the Mallory Trophy. For the second year in a row, Coronado was also the most improved team. This year they finished No. 3 after entering the completion seeded No. 7. According to Rogers, in 2007 Coronado entered the PCISA event seeded No. 13 and finished No. 6.

The format at the Nationals, which includes the Top 20 prep sailing squads nation-wide, is frenetic according to Rogers. “We will have more than 40 total races over the weekend and we will compete in both FJ’s and 420’s. When the ‘A’ team goes out in an FJ, the ‘B’ team goes out in a 420 and then they switch.” 

But the good news wasn’t confined to the Varsity level, noted Rogers. “The Jr Varsity Team of Philip Lozier, Kaitlin Dunphey, Tom Ben-Kiki, Sally Harris, Alex Wood, Hayley Eyer and Katie Courtney battled in much calmer conditions on Mission Bay. Their victory was their second in the last month, as they also won the Gaucho Regatta. That opened up the opportunity to add a second CHS Varsity team for the 2008-09 season.”

Rogers went on to mention other sailors from Coronado who performed well at the regattas this season. They included Gia DeMichele, Cooper Dressler, Robbi Robyn and Ryan Foote sailing for Francis Parker and Tom Preston sailing for The Bishop’s School.

If you are interested in joining the 2008-09 CHS Sailing Team, please contact Rogers at headcoach@coronadoyc.org. To follow high school sailing in general, please go to www.pcisa.org or www.highschoolsailingusa.org.

Track and Field Crew Turns in Fine Performances

CHS Head Track and Field Coach George Green relates the good news from his team.”Last week, what is usually the busiest week of the season for us, turned out to be one of the lightest.  “Usually we have a dual meet on Thursday, the all-boys Escondido Invitational on Friday night, followed by the Freshman/Sophomore meet on Saturday.  However, Crawford forfeited the dual meet because their team has dwindled to only a few athletes. We didn't go to Escondido because several of our senior boys were on college trips and we wanted to rest the others.

“This left only the Frosh/Soph Invitational on Saturday, which is held at El Capitan High School in Lakeside. The temperature was in the mid-90's for much of the day.

“In the girls' sophomore 1,600-meter run, Michelle Cruz (who happens to the daughter of Brazilian 800 meter Olympic champion Joaquin Cruz) went out very fast and built a 30-meter lead by the second lap. However, the Islander's Sallie Privett pulled even by the third lap and increased her lead on the final lap to win by four seconds with a time of 5:14.47. Not a bad time considering the conditions. Adie Davies, feeling the heat, placed 13^th.

“The Frosh girls 1,600 meters figured to be very fast because many of the top girls in the county for any grade-level were entered. Sometimes when you have a field like this the race becomes strategic and everyone basically watches one-another until the later stages when the real racing begins. Such was the case with this race. For the first two laps there was probably less than a five second gap between the first and last runners. Then one of the top runners fell down due to the congestion on the track. The race was eventually won by Escondido's Emily Birch in 5:15.66 with the Islander's Annie Lovering clocking 5:34.35 in the middle of the pack. Not her best but a good time considering the conditions and the way the race played-out. If you do the math, Privett wound-up with the best time of the day in the event. 

“This was the first invitational meet for freshman Cassie Callahan who qualified for all three jump events (high, long and triple). She set a personal record in the freshman long jump, good for fifth overall, with a mark of 15 feet, 5.5 inches. Later in the day she placed sixth in the triple jump with personal best of 31 feet, 1.5 inches.

“The high jump was contested at the same time as the triple jump, so Cassie had to keep checking out of one event to compete in the other. She finished with a high jump mark of 4 feet, 6 inches, a bit off her best. But the two medals she won in the horizontal jumps made her day.

“In the hurdles, Danielle Gillberg placed fourth in her heat of the 100 high hurdles with a time of 17.52 and Maddie Danielson took third in the frosh 300 low hurdles with a great time of 49.15.  Her uncle, Tim Danielson (Google him when you get a chance. A hint, only four high school runners have ever broken four minutes in the mile) was there to watch her first invitational race. In the sophomore pole vault, Briana Giorgione cleared 8 feet, 7 inches. In the frosh 100 meters, Rishina Mancillas ran 13.68 for a new personal record.

Will Bartsch was the only boy to qualify for this meet with a 9-foot, 6-inch height in the pole vault. This put him about in the middle of the qualifiers, but there was something about Will that only the insiders knew (basically me), that he's much better than that.  Will has a history in the sport of gymnastics, so he just needed to get a few timing issues down in the few days before the meet and he was easily clearing 11 feet in practice.

So easy, in fact, that I went out on a limb and told Will and his parents that he may be able to clear 12 feet and win the frosh event.  To make a long story short, Will, after a scare at 10-6 which he cleared on his third and final try (due to a timing glitch), he made me look like one of them savants by clearing 12 feet, one inch, on his first attempt for the win. As far as I can tell this is the best freshman mark in the pole vault this season for all of San Diego County. It was a good day at Lakeside last Saturday. Next up is our last dual meet with Hoover at home starting at 2:30 pm on Thursday. Then we go into the league/CIF portion of our season.”

Girls Lacrosse Rips Off Another Three-Win Week

You know things are going well when you are winning three games in a single six day stretch, which is what the CHS Girls Lacrosse Team accomplished last week. They started their playing schedule with an 18-6 victory over Francis Parker, and followed that with a 14-7 winning effort Wednesday against Scripps Ranch. Bria Phillips, Greer Goebels and Melissa Humphrey scored three goals each to lead the Islanders over the Falcons.

All of that was a prelude to the Game of the Week, which featured Coronado hosting St. Ignatius Prep from San Francisco on Saturday, a team the Islanders had never beaten. Despite the 10 am face-off time, the unseasonably warm weather was in evidence already.

The game came complete with three ties and three lead changes and featured a series of mini-offensive runs by both teams. The Wildcats opened the scoring with two goals in the first four minutes of play, before senior Hannah Sebenaler got the Islanders on the scoreboard from an assist by freshman speedster Michaela Guerrera. St. Ignatius answered with a goal four minutes later to take a 3-1 lead, an event that was followed immediately by a Coronado timeout.

Watching the game from the press box high atop Niedermeyer Field, the exact words that Coronado Head Coach Jessica Battle said to her team weren’t heard by yours truly, but whatever she said seemed to do the trick. Humphrey scored 87 seconds later, followed in short order by a goal from Guerrera. Goebels converted on a penalty shot with 1:50 remaining in the half and Coronado took a 4-3 lead into the intermission.

The Wildcat coach must have had some choice words for her squad also, as St. Ignatius scored twice before Coronado settled into the second half of play. Then the Islanders scored three times in just over three minutes on a penalty shot by Kirsten Krock, a goal from Phillips on another Guerrera assist and a tally from Sebenaler on an assist from Sandy Shepherd.

Then the teams traded goals for a while, with the next Coronado score coming from Shepherd. One of the prettiest goals of the game came on a solo effort from Guerrera, who cut from right to left across the face of the goal and found the back of the net for Coronado’s ninth goal of the morning. Coco O’Brien circumnavigated the St. Ignatius goal a short while later to score on a nice individual effort. A penalty conversion from Goebels and the third goal of the day from Guerrera from a Goebels assist, completed the scoring.

If you have used all of your fingers and toes to keep track of the goals, the final score was 12-6 in favor of Coronado. Islander goalie Alyssa Littin was credited with nine saves.

 “Saturday was the hottest day we have had all year,” said Battle. “It definitely showed. The fact that we were able to score five goals in the last minutes of the game was a testament to what this team is all about.”

When it was noted that eight different Islanders scored in the game, Battle replied, “Honestly that’s pretty standard for us. The opposing team can stop one particular girl defensively, but we have five more ready to go and score.”

Of Guerrera, who simultaneously was the slightest and seemingly the fastest player on the field Saturday Battle said, “She is a great player who knows where to be on the field. Every single game, she has had at least a goal and an assist.”This week the Islanders (14-1) host City Conference archrival La Jolla Tuesday at 7 pm. Friday night they travel to Serra.

CHS Baseball in Thick of Western League Chase

Last week the CHS Baseball Team (17-6, 5-2 Western League) defeated University City Wednesday at home and then beat La Jolla Friday on the road. “Both of the wins were big,” said Head Coach Sam Ceci. “But the La Jolla game was real big.”

To review the bidding (contract bridge term), the Western League schedule for baseball finds the member teams playing each other in consecutive games. Wednesday’s contest with University City was the completion of that series and the La Jolla game Friday was the first of a two-game set with the Vikings that will conclude Monday at Strand Field. That contest will feature the aces of their respective staffs with Bryan Crabb toiling for Coronado and Patrick Christensen toeing the rubber for La Jolla.

For now, let’s return to last week’s play, which found Coronado shutting out University City 6-0. “We came out strong and played real efficiently, which we needed,” said Ceci. “We got our guys in scoring position and got them home. Crabb got the win and we got him out after five innings. He only threw 62 pitches, which hopefully will leave him nice and strong for Monday.”

Two-hit games were turned in by Kyle Pokorny, Mason Mills, Alex Rowan and Crabb. Rowan earned the ‘Chicks Dig the Longball’ award for the game with a triple.

Kyle Couture, Keith Englehart, Jake McMahon and Crabb were all credited with one RBI against the Centurions, and Mills drove two Islander teammates home.

The La Jolla game proved to be interesting as the first three Coronado hitters in the game, Pokorny, Mills and Tim Leary, reached base and scored. The Islanders only had a total of five hits in the game. 

“We scored three in the first and didn’t look back from there,” Ceci said of the game which marked the third time this season La Jolla and Coronado have played. “After that we didn’t score. Their pitcher shut us down pretty hard after that, and struck out six of our hitters in a row at one point.”

Leary, who is the team’s leading hitter, also earned the pitching victory for the Islanders. “Timmy had a good outing. He got a lot of ground balls and made some pitches and did real well. He was in control until the sixth inning, when one of their guys hit a two-run homer. We went to Stephen Conrad in the seventh, who got their best hitter to ground out to Mills at short to end the game. It’s a battle every time we play those guys. They pitch well and they hit well. They don’t give up and they aren’t intimidated at all.”

The ramifications and permutations of the Western League pennant race are endless, but the best case scenario basically comes down to Coronado continuing to win and the other teams in the pennant race (Cathedral Catholic, Mission Bay and La Jolla) splitting their games against each other.

This week the Islanders host La Jolla Monday, host Clairemont Wednesday and then travel to Clairemont Friday. Next week the Western League season concludes with Mission Bay and Coronado playing Wednesday and Friday. Game times are at 3 pm.

Islander Boys Tennis Earns Western League Victory

Last week the CHS Boys Tennis Team took on La Jolla for the second time in Western League play and fell to one of the storied programs in San Diego County tennis by the score of 15-3. Accounting for the three games were two victorious sets from CHS No. 1 singles player Krishna Samperio and one from the No. 2 doubles team of Patrick Holman and Evan Wheeler.

But the big news came earlier in the week when Coronado defeated Scripps Ranch 10-8 to earn their first Western League match victory of the season. “Krishna won his three games,” said Head Coach Jim Mashburn. “Including a tiebreaker win of 7-6 (7-1) against their No. singles player. Daniel Grazian and Frankie Harrison won all three of their doubles sets as did Wheeler and Holman.”

Grazian/Harrison won by scores of 6-4, 7-5 and 6-3. Wheeler/Holman won 6-4, 6-2 and 6-1.

“But the dealmaker was a victory at No. 3 doubles,” said Mashburn. “Andrew Stump and Jordan Vance defeated their No. 3 doubles team 6-1 to win the match for us.”

This week Coronado hosts St. Augustine Tuesday at 3 pm and the Islanders hope to reverse an 11-7 loss from the last time the two teams played. “We have a chance to win if everyone is playing well,” Mashburn said thoughtfully. “If we can pick up a singles set and get a win from our No. 3 doubles, we could beat them, which would be nice.” Next week, Coronado begins play in the Western League team tournament.

Islander Softball Squad Racks Up Another Western League Win in Busy Week

Although it probably looked good when it was scheduled, last week’s four-game softball odyssey turned out to be a tough one. To start the week, Coronado unleashed an offensive barrage on La Jolla, which included 23 Islander hits on their way to an 18-8 victory.

“Everyone in the lineup scored at least once,” said Head Coach Marti Bonelli. “Alexis Wright was 4-5 with four runs scored. Sandra Cepin was also 4-5 with two runs scored and five RBIs. Briana Feist was the winning pitcher, running her overall record to 8-3.”

The victory allowed the Islanders to even their record at 4-4 in the Western League, at least for two days before Coronado traveled to University City Wednesday. The Islanders fell by the score of 10-7, in large part due to an uncertain defense. Bonelli wasn’t pleased with her team’s glove work, but there were some bright spots. “The nightmare on defense overshadowed some very nice offensive work. Brandi Bible hit a home run and added two singles. Nora Kaminski was 2-3 and Rosie Harris was 2-4. All 10 of University City’s runs were unearned.”

Then came, which considering the weather and the distance involved, is my nominee for the worst road trip of the 2007-08 CHS sports schedule. The Islanders hit the road for a doubleheader Saturday at Holtville. The Islanders and the Vikings split the double dip with Coronado winning 6-0 in the lid lifter and Holtville winning the ‘nightcap’ 11-7.

It was 92 degrees at the start of the first game and 99 degrees at the first pitch of the second. There was a junior varsity game in between. To make it worse, the games may actually have playoff seeding ramifications, as the two Division IV programs faced each other in the first round of the 2007 CIF Playoffs.

Bonelli provides the highlights of the first game. “Feist pitched a great game, allowing only four hits and one walk, while striking out six. Our defense only committed one error, which was in the first inning of the game. The defensive highlight was a fine running, shoe-top grab by centerfielder Rosie Harris to close the third inning, with a runner on third base. Nado followed that play by scoring three runs in the fourth on hits by Olivia Nebo, Kaminski, Lauren Zeleniak, Lizzie Nebo and Kayla Englehart (Column Note: Among Kayla and her brothers Keith and Kodie, all of whom play varsity sports at CHS, this may just be The Year of the Englehart). Another three runs scored in the top of the sixth with the key blow being a two-run triple by Olivia Nebo.”

The war of attrition, or rather Game 2 started with 18 players, including some of the aforementioned JV players, on the Islander lineup card. Bonelli recaps the highlights. “Kayla Englehart was 2-2 (Column Note II: Told You), Lizzie Nebo was 2-3 and Bailey Haines was 2-3 with a booming two-out double in the first inning to drive in two runs. Brittany Penn was 2-4. This was a roller coaster game, with the lead changing hands each inning. Holtville pulled away in the bottom of the fifth. This was a great game for many of the players and for the coaches to see the up and coming players for next season. Penn was the ‘Iron Woman’ of the game, being the only player to play the entire game.”

“It was nice to see the team compete hard with Holtville after a very disappointing performance against U.C.,” Bonelli commented as she summarized the week. “This week we are looking to improve even more when we travel to Mission Bay for a 4 pm game Wednesday and to Serra for a 1 pm game Saturday. The season is beginning to wind down and we are trying to peak and give our best performances.”

Hakes and Pompa Advance in City Conference Match Play

Last week the CHS Golf Team participated in the City Conference Tournament and two Islanders finished in the Top 32, thus qualifying for the City Conference Match Play Tournament to be held this week. Dillon Hakes qualified in the No. 8 position and Connor Pompa finished at No. 16.

The format, according to Head Coach Dean Cummings is pretty simple from here; just win and you keep playing. “Monday Dillon and Connor play at Cottonwood. If they win they play at Cottonwood again Tuesday. The final three rounds, Wednesday through Friday are at Singing Hills.” Hakes was the City Conference match play runner-up in 2007.

The CIF Tournament, which the Islanders qualified to play in by virtue of their Central League championship, starts May 15 at Warner Springs. The Top 6 Coronado golfers will participate in the event.

Boys Volleyball Wins Lone Match With Madison, With Big Week Ahead

Coronado had one Western League match last week, a three-set affair which found the Islanders defeating Madison. “It was one of the better games we have played as a team,” Head Coach Steve Merrill said. “We played good defense and covered their hitters. We received some tough serving from Nolan Woodhouse, Junior Quintero and Cotter Stacy.”

Merrill continued to assess his players’ contributions to the victory. “In the back row, Nick De Marco and Will Holder played good defense. We were running the quick offense with Connor Martin and Brett Clifford, who both had good days hitting the ones. A couple of our rallies went 18 or 20 hits. Madison played well and we had some good rallies mixed in there.”

This week the Islanders travel to Clairemont Tuesday and then host Lincoln Thursday. “That will be our last home game,” Merrill noted. “This week should decide who is going to come out on top of the Central League. We’re gelling as a team at the right time and team play is important.”

Cheerleading Honors Varsity Letter Winners

The CHS Cheerleading program held their post season banquet recently at the Coronado Community Center. Cheer Advisor Nicole Belong recognized 21 cheerleaders with varsity letters for their participation in the sport.

Those recognized included Co-Captains Rosetta Wilson and Kelly McCray, Andrea Arendsee, Christen Grant, Lexi Scott, Jackie Cumming, Nicole Tesh, Neisha Scales, Brittany Penn, Nora Kaminski and Margaret Pack.

Other honorees included: Kaitlyn Mehrwerth, Jessica Lewis, Monica Chapa, Allie Wright, Bridget Garbers, Kristen Bonner, Kelli Vertiz, Allison Dowell, Mercedes Hinton, and Ashleigh Lloyd.