Nado Natterings Back to Islandersports
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

14 May 2008 Issue No. 19

Last week proved to be an exciting one for the CHS Baseball Team, as the Islanders clinched no worse than a tie for the Western League title by virtue of their two-game sweep of Mission Bay . The home and road victories simultaneously pushed Coronado ’s conference record to 9-3 and concluded their league season.

Since there are seven teams in the Western League and Coronado’s bye week is the final week of the season, the Islanders get to watch Cathedral Catholic (7-3) and Mission Bay (also 7-3) go at it, while Coronado hopes for the Dons and Buccaneers to each win once.

“We’ve got a piece of it,” said Coronado Head Coach Sam Ceci of the prestigious Western League pennant. “That’s pretty extraordinary. I think the teams are very likely to split, but we’ll see how it goes. It will be interesting.”

To catch the action first hand, Ceci, the coaching staff and players plan to watch Monday’s game at Mission Bay in person as part of a team outing. “I owe them a meal at Rubio’s,” Ceci laughed. “We do that once or twice a year. We’ll practice hard on Tuesday.”

Coronado and Mission Bay squared off for the first of their disjointed twin bill Wednesday at Mission Bay. Ceci sent staff ace Bryan Crabb to toe the pitching rubber and Crabb rose to the challenge according to his coach. “Crabb did great. He was in near total command. He struck out the side in the first inning and set the tone for the game. Our offensive attack was incredible with 16 hits. We just stung the ball and it came from all angles.”

A quick review of the game notes supplied by statistician Bill Seager shows that every Coronado starter had at least one hit, and seven of the nine players who started the game had two hits each. The Islander Murderers’ Row included Kyle Pokorny, Mason Mills, Tim Leary, Justin Parsons, Alex Rowan, Keith Englehart and Blake Malkemus. And from the local department of ‘Chicks Dig the Longball,’ Englehart and Leary both had home runs. Englehart’s three RBIs topped that important category for Coronado.

What would a critical game be without a little controversy? Coronado had five runners picked off base, all in the first three innings. Ceci explained this bizarre aspect to the game. “They had a lefthander who falls to home plate and then throws to first. They (the umpires assigned to the game) wouldn’t call a balk. One time Pokorny was one step off of first and got picked off. But we just kept hitting and pounding the ball. There wasn’t a cheap hit in the bunch. We hit line drives, balls into the gap and a lot of good stuff.”

Crabb pitched a complete game shutout and Coronado prevailed 7-0.

The second Mission Bay game was Friday at home and was a much different contest, with Coronado prevailing 3-2, while having to come from behind twice to earn the victory. “In its own way, this game was probably more rewarding,” Ceci said. “We had our backs against the wall. Rowan had three of our seven hits, including two doubles and a triple. Mills also had a triple. We scored our runs on two sacrifice flies and a squeeze bunt, all done under pressure. Pokorny put down the bunt to squeeze in Crabb and tie the game. Englehart had a sac fly in the sixth to win it. Jake McMahon had our first sac fly.”

Leary earned the pitching victory by hurling six innings, striking out eight Mission Bay batters and yielding only two runs. Steve Conrad pitched a perfect seventh inning to earn his second save of the season, which goes nicely with his 4-0 record and 1.68 ERA for the year. Leary improved his record to 4-1.

Leary also leads the Islanders in batting average (.427), home runs (five), and RBIs (27). Crabb, who is now 6-3, leads the team in victories, ERA (1.86), strikeouts (56), and complete games pitched (four).

Since Coronado has a bye in Western League play this week, the Islanders will host fellow Division IV powerhouse Christian Wednesday at home. “The kids will get up for Christian,” Ceci said. “We have some incentive. We’re 21-7 and if we win, the 22 victories will be our most ever in the regular season. I think we will be the No. 1 seed in the CIF playoffs and Christian will probably be No. 2. Numbers 3 and 4 will probably be Mater Dei or La Jolla Country Day in either order. Then will come Horizon, Bishop’s and Santa Fe Christian in some order. In CIF Division IV we have a play-in game you have to win to make the final field of eight teams.”

The play-in game will be held Tuesday, May 20 at the home of the higher seeded team.

CHS Sailing Earns Fourth Place Finish at Nationals in Annapolis

Recently this column went into considerable detail regarding the fine season being turned in by the Coronado High School Sailing Team, under the direction of Head Coach Jon Rogers. Two weeks ago the team which includes members Pike Harris, Cragan Smith, Brian Smith, Ryan Sullivan, Hans Henken and Karisa Chapa finished in third place in the Pacific Coast Interscholastic Sailing Association event, which qualified them to attend the Mallory Cup Competition in Annapolis, the national finals for prep sailing.

The team sailed in a total of 40 races at the Nationals last weekend, held at the United States Naval Academy and finished in fourth place. My theory expressed to Coach Rogers was that if the season had continued for another six months, that Coronado would have won the whole thing. Rogers didn’t argue with the concept.

“We all got to sail and all of the team members won a race,” said a very proud Rogers from the airport Sunday evening. “Coronado won six races. When it was windy, we did really well. When the winds were light, we struggled a little bit. Our team’s strength is to sail in windy conditions, while a lot of the other teams are better in light air.”

The skippers of the boats included Harris in the Coronado ‘A’ boat and Sullivan in the Islander ‘B’ boat. Both skippers won three races each, with Harris finishing in fifth place in the ‘A’ fleet standings, while Sullivan captured second place in the ‘B’ fleet. Both skippers are seniors, with Sullivan planning to attend UC Santa Barbara and Harris matriculating to The College of Charleston. Both sailors plan to continue in their sport on the intercollegiate level.

Coronado finished behind the Severn High School from Annapolis, Point Loma, and Newport Harbor, who finished Nos. 1-3 respectively. “We were in third place after the first day,” said Rogers. “We ended up finishing 15 points out of third place due to the light wind this morning. We had a few rough races, but the weather was nice. The temperatures were in the 60’s and there were light winds in the morning. It got windy in the afternoon both days, with winds of up to 23 knots.”

Equally impressive to Coronado’s finish in the Nationals were the facilities at the Robert Crown Center on the campus of the Naval Academy, according to Rogers. “It was the best facility the kids have ever experienced. They have almost 200 dinghies. It’s just unbelievable. The director of sailing at the Naval Academy is Cdr. Jay Cavalieri who is from Coronado.”

Accompanying the team on their successful trip to the East Coast were CHSST Faculty Advisor Kevin Nicolls and parent chaperones Scott and Susie Harris as well as Tom and Julie Sullivan.

Girls Lacrosse Buries Henry and Beats La Jolla

An indication that your team has just been soundly defeated is when your opponent’s starting goalie in the first half, plays the field in the second half and scores a goal. Coronado netminder Alyssa Littin turned that nifty trick last week when the Islanders dominated Patrick Henry 21-3. At that juncture it’s time to pack the equipment bags and head on home.

Including Littin, a total of nine Coronado players scored in the contest. Hannah Sebenaler led all scorers with four goals, followed closely by Coco O’Brien, CJ Fisher and Greer Goebels with three each. Players who scored twice included Jena Harrison, Bria Phillips and Melissa Humphrey. Single goal scorers were Littin and Michaela Guerrera.

So, the obvious question to pose to Head Coach Jessica Battle at this point is, ‘If Alyssa is in the field, who was playing goalie?’ “Taylor Udell played in goal during the second half,” said Battle. “Taylor is a junior and a great goalie. She will be our goalie next year. She had five saves in the second half against Henry.”

Friday was the second game of the two-game set with La Jolla, this time with Coronado on the road. The Islanders prevailed and in the process won the City Conference title. Goal scorers included Phillips, Goebels and Sebenaler with three each; Humphrey with two goals and Sandy Shepherd with one. Since Shepherd normally plays a defensive position for the Islanders, that’s a notable score.

“One of the nice things about our team is that we have so many contributors,” Battle said. “We don’t have one person dominating the game. It was nice against Patrick Henry that we had so many players who don’t start, came off of the bench and put some points on the board.”

Coronado now owns a very impressive overall record of 18-1 as they head into their final regular season game at Rancho Bernardo Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm. The game is a replacement for the contest they lost when Poway was penalized for scheduling too many games this season.

“It was good that we were able to pick up the game, because the CIF finals will be played at Rancho Bernardo. So it’s nice that we get to play there.”

With their fine won-loss record, Coronado should host several home games throughout the playoffs. If they attain the No. 2 seed and keep winning, the only road game they will have to play will be the finals at Rancho Bernardo. The Islanders first playoff game will likely be Saturday at 10 am. The CIF playoff seeding meeting is slated for Thursday evening.

Boys Lacrosse Posts Two More Victories

One of the ironies of the spring sports season is that both the Boys and Girls Lacrosse programs are currently 18-1, with their only losses coming against the same school (La Costa Canyon) by similar scores. To keep up their end of the comparison between the two programs, the Boys Lax Team also waxed Patrick Henry last week, although their score was 14-3. They then handled La Jolla 10-4.

“Patrick Henry isn’t a bad team,” said Head Coach Alex Cade of the Patriots. “They have their top two players out for the season, each with a broken hand. Their goalie played well or else the game could have been a little bit worse. Peter Zeller had a nice game in goal for us and had 10 saves.”

The Islanders are deep enough that some shuffling of the lineup doesn’t seem to hurt the team. “Freshman Curtis Nixon got in there and played some close defense for us,” Cade said.  The goal for us at this point of the year is to stay healthy for a good playoff run. You always have guys nicked up going into the playoffs.”

Friday night’s home game with La Jolla turned out to be a battle, according to Cade. “It was a physical, physical game. There were 13 penalties called on them, which is unheard of. We won 10-4. We can mix it up when we need to, but I like to save that for bigger games instead of a team that’s not that good. Attack Olivier Schmied had a nice game for us.”

Like the Girls Lax squad, Coronado’s final regular season game is Tuesday night, with the Santa Fe Christian Eagles providing the opposition. The face off for the Islander home game is set for 7 pm. The Boys contest may have CIF Playoff seeding implications. “If we win, we should be the No. 2 seed, unless something really strange happens,” Cade commented. “Santa Fe Christian beat LCC early in the year and if SFC beats us, they will have beaten the top two teams in the county. If SFC loses, they will probably be seeded No. 4 as they lost to both Torrey Pines and Poway.”

Islander Track Sends Nine Athletes to CIF Prelims

CHS Head Track and Field Coach George Green provides a report on the Islanders’ fortunes as they head into CIF competition. “After the dust settled from last week's Central League Track and Field Championships, Sallie Privett, Kyle Brown, David Grimes, Will Bartsch, Danielle Gillberg and Briana Giorgione found they had one thing in common, they were all League Champions.

“The competition was spread out over five days among three schools, beginning with the pole vault competition at Coronado Monday and ending at Cathedral Catholic Friday with most of the finals.  In-between were trips to Hoover on Tuesday and Wednesday for finals in the 3,200-meter run, discus throw, shot put, high jump and triple jump, as well as prelims in various other events.  The league finals have the dual purpose of determining league champions and qualifying athletes for the CIF prelims which begin this Saturday at Mt. Carmel.

“To qualify for CIF competition, an athlete must place in the top two for their event at the league finals or achieve a minimum standard. Bartsch and Giorgione won the boys and girls pole-vault on Monday with Danielle Swanson picking up third place in the girls event. Both winners advance to the finals with Swanson designated as the first alternate for girls. 

“On Tuesday Privett and Annie Lovering ran away with the 3,200-meter run. Both set personal records with Privett clocking 11:25.1 and Lovering 11:55.6. Both girls advanced to the CIF prelims by both their finish position and by running under the CIF standard. On Friday they qualified for the 1,600 meters, again both by place and by standard. In that event Privett won in a time of 5:12.44, with Lovering second with a personal best time of 5:23.66. Privett also qualified for the 800 but will scratch that event at the CIF prelims to concentrate on the other two. Adie Davies placed fifth in the 800, 1600, and 3200-meter runs and has a good chance of advancing in the 3,200 as the first alternate.

“Kyle Brown had some stiff competition in all of his events but came away with a victory in the triple jump with a mark of 44 feet, 11 inches. In addition he had two close second place finishes including the long jump with 22 feet, 7 inches and 100-meter dash with a time of 11.24 in the finals. His time in the preliminary heat of the 100 meters, however, was 11.15 which broke his own school record of 11.18 set last year. He advanced to the CIF prelims in all three events by both place and standard.

“Except for Brown and Hoover's Deontray Johnson (who won the 100 and placed second to Brown in the triple jump) the sprints were dominated by Lincoln. No one knows this better than Islander Michael Gasparro, who despite posting fast times in both the 100 and 200 meter dashes didn't get to the finals with 15th and 12th place finishes respectively. David Grimes held back on the first lap of the boys' 800-meter finals then unleashed a kick that the first lap leaders couldn't answer to win with a personal best time of 2:02.15. Ben Enowitz concentrated on the longer events and placed third in both the 1600 and 3200 meter runs. Both races were very fast and he was able to advance in both by running under the CIF standards. His times were 4:29.10 for the 1600 (run on Friday) and 9:48.9 for the 3200 (run on Tuesday). Both were personal records.  Michael Davies ran eighth in the 1600 finals and Andy Centeno was eighth in the 3200 followed by Gabe Salvatierra and Dean Galliano in 11th and 17th. 

“Danielle Gillberg won the girls' 100-meter hurdles going away with a personal record time of 17.17 to join her teammates at the CIF prelims on Saturday. Rishina Mancillas was fifth in that race but didn't advance. Another great hurdle performance was turned in by our freshman ace Maddie Danielson who placed second in the 300-meter hurdles behind Christian’s Hannah Pearl. Both qualified by both place and time but Maddie has three more years to go and is the top San Diego Section freshman in this event. We have another fine freshman hurdler in the person of Danielle Swanson, who placed fourth the 300 hurdles with a time of 51.76. This gets her on the alternate list in this event, as well as for the pole vault. 

“Neisha Scales placed third in the girls 100 in 13.04 and scratched in to the prelims at the seeding meeting held last Saturday. Cassie Callahan was one of the top seeds in the high jump, long jump, and triple jump but an ankle injury sustained during soccer practice kept her out of the top placers. Still she managed to make the prelims in the long jump with a leap of 15 feet 5 inches, but scratched from the prelims because of a soccer commitment this weekend.

“Not making the prelims but turning in good performances were Stephanie Pietkiewicz and Grace Laukaitis who ran 65.22 and 65.25 respectively for fourth and fifth places in the girls 400; Brigid Twomey who placed fourth in the girls long jump; Natalie Brooks and Bethany Bucklew who placed in the sixth and seventh positions in the girls shot put, and Bucklew for seventh place in the girls discus.

“In the coaches meeting after the meet Sallie Privett was honored as the Central League Girls Track MVP. Kyle Brown and Hoover's Deontray Johnson were honored as Co-MVP's for Boys Field based on their combined jumps and sprints throughout the year.”

Islanders Perform Well in City Conference Event Held at BBMAC

Coronado High School’s Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center was the site of the recent City Conference swimming championships. CHS Swimming Head Coach Dave Throop provides a report on that event. “In the City Conference Meet, the Boys Team finished second by a slight margin of 20 points to Champion La Jolla. 

“A big difference La Jolla established over our team came from having a diver score 13 points to our zero, due to our lack of any divers.  On the Girls side, Coronado concluded the meet in third place, behind second place La Jolla and hands down Champion Cathedral Catholic, who

had more than double the point score of either La Jolla or the Islanders. 

“I was pleased with our effort, with how we presented ourselves and raced.  You can teach technique, pacing, and strategy all a coach wants, but this time of year it comes down to mental preparation and racing. It's that simple.  I thought we raced extremely well as a group, and the swimmers were rewarded with great time drops throughout the duration of the prelims and finals.
“The girls 200 medley relay swam by Heather Ireland (backstroke), Alana Burgess (breaststroke), Ashley Young (butterfly) and Maddie Murphy (freestyle)placed second with an outstanding time of 1:55.36, which is one of the top couple times in recent team history.  The Boys 200 medley relay of Andrew Ireland (backstroke), Jackson Hummeldorf (breaststroke), Jacob Smith (butterfly) and Norby Karoly (freestyle) won the event in a time of 1:42.38, which as was the case with the girls, places them in the top couple times in modern team history.

The 200 freestyle event saw some great action from both the Boys and the Girls sides, with Ashley Young (second place in 1:59.25), Kelly Ronimus (fifth place in 1:59.69), Heather Ireland (seventh place with a time of 2:03.57), Andrew Ireland (third place in 1:45.96), Sean Cook (seventh place in 1:50.26), and Adam Ratcliffe (eighth place in 1:51.96) all racing well and placing in the finals. 

The 200 individual medley had Michael Aguilar (eighth place in 2:05.99), Hummeldorf (2:09.43), Hannah Green (2:23.45) and Burgess (2:26.82) all turn in fine performances. The 50 freestyle saw good times and results from Murphy (tied for fifth in a time of 25.76), Rex Butler (third in 22.12), Jacob Smith (seventh place in 22.49) and Karoly (eighth place in 22.87). 

Some other great swims included the 100butterfly with Young (fifth place in 1:02.82) and Allie McRae (14^th place in 1:08.34), Ratcliffe (seventh in 56.50), Chris Barnard (ninth - 56.98) and Michael Aguilar (11^th in 57.18).

Other good efforts included Maddie Murphy (sixth in 56.14) and Ronimus (fifth place in 56.13) placed well for the girls in the 100 free. Rex Butler represented the guys well (second place in 48.22), also in the 100 free. Cook (third with a time of 5:04.82), Tommy Schofer (sixth in 5:08.28), Lex Aponte (fifth in 5:13.56) and Sam Working (16^th place in 5:33.77) all performed well in the 500 free.

In the 100 backstroke, Heather and Andrew Ireland both swam superb times. They both finished in third place, with Heather’s time being 1:00.67 and Andrew’s 54.97.  Francisco Heredia (ninth place in 1:03.87) and Hummeldorf (10th place in 1:05.52) had great time drops. 

The final events of the evening were the 400 free relays.  The Islander Girls placed second to Cathedral with a time of 3:44.63, averaging 56.15 per swimmer. The squad included  Ireland, Young, Murphy and Ronimus.  The CHS Boys 400 free relay concluded the meet with a flair for the dramatic.  Consisting of Ireland, Butler, Karoly, and Smith, the guys swam a time of 3:14.88, holding off La Jolla's furious challenge of 3:14.89.

Overall, we're pleased with our time drops and performances, as well as having hosted the event at the BBMAC.  It's a fast pool as people are starting to figure out, and it'll be an exciting week ahead.