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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 July 2008 Issue No. 28
The most frequently asked
question this time of year is, ‘When is the Coronado High School Homecoming
football game?’ Since we are all about communication here at Nado Natterings
World Headquarters, the short answer is Nov. 14 vs. Morse High School.
However, we’ll go one better,
or several better, and list the entire 2008 Varsity Football schedule for you.
It should be pointed out that the game times and occasionally the dates of the
games change between the summer and fall.
Friday, September 5 at 7:30 pm
the Islanders open their regular season with a home game vs. Laguna Beach.
Sept. 12 the team has a bye before they run off a string of nine consecutive
regular season games in as many weeks. All of the home games kick off at
7:30 pm.
Sept. 19 Coronado hosts
Hamilton High School; Sept. 26 the team travels to Mission Bay for a 3 pm game;
Oct. 3 Coronado plays at Madison at 7 pm; Oct. 10 Coronado is at home vs. San
Diego; Oct. 17 the Islanders host Santa Fe Christian; Oct. 24 the team hosts
Crawford. Oct. 31 Coronado travels to Kearny for a 6:30 pm game; Nov. 8
Coronado travels to Clairemont with the game time TBA. The final regular season
game is the aforementioned Homecoming contest with Morse.
As we mentioned in our last
column, the re-formatted Central League now includes Clairemont, Madison,
Kearny, Morse, Crawford, San Diego and Coronado. Competing against schools that
range in enrollment from San Diego’s 2,964 students and the 2,622 students at
Morse should make things interesting fro Coronado, with an enrollment of 1,096.
Save These
Coming Boys Water Polo Dates Also
The Islander Boys Water Polo
Team, coming off of a CIF Division II championship season in 2007, begins
their title defense by participating in the Third Annual Coach Draz Boys Water
Polo Classic scheduled for Saturday, August 30 at the La Jolla High School
Coggan Pool.
Coronado plays in what should
be the feature game of the day-long event at 2:40 pm when they face last year’s
Division I champion Carlsbad. Traditionally the best teams in the past several
years have come from Division II where Coronado and The Bishop’s School have
reigned for what seems like ages. Bishop’s plays immediately after the
Islanders contest, with a 3:50 pm starting time, when they take on Torrey
Pines. The final game of the day is at 5 pm between Granite Hills and La Jolla
High School.
Nine hours of water polo can
be yours for the low, low admission price of $6. The complete Coach Draz
Classic schedule is available at cifsds.org.
CYC Sailors
Earn Awards at U.S. Youth Championships
Coronado High School
Sailing Head Coach Jon Rogers also doubles as Head Coach at the
Coronado Yacht Club, or perhaps vice versa. Rogers filed the following report
on the successes turned in by three CYC sailors.
“The Coronado Yacht Club is
very proud of two veteran youth (some would say those are conflicting concepts,
but we’ll move along) sailors who added to their already long list of
accomplishments at the recently completed U.S. Youth Sailing Championship,
hosted by the San Francisco Yacht Club.
Hans Henken, 16, placed
first in the 29er Class, topping the 10 best teams from throughout the U.S. Philip
Lozier, also 16, was the recipient of the prestigious Dave Perry
Sportsmanship Award at the same regatta.
Henken is the first CYC youth
national champion since Mikee Anderson and Frank Tybor won their
divisions in the 2001 Youth Championships. Hans continued his string of 2008
accomplishments, which include: first place at the ISAF World Youth Qualifier;
top American at the 29er World Championships; first place at the 29er
Midwinters East; 29er Midwinters West; 29er CISA Clinic Regatta; 29er San
Francisco Elvstrom Regatta; 29er Luff-in; second place crew at the High School
National Championships, CHS Sailing Team MVP; and second place at the Moth
Pacific Coast Championship.
Lozier is the first CYC junior
sailor to win the Sportsmanship Award and continues his fine sailing season,
which includes the Sportsmanship Award at the CISA Advanced Racing Clinic. He
was one of two sailors to qualify for the High School National Laser
Championship.
Following in the footsteps of
those two great role models is P.J. Eaton, 9, who placed first at the
San Diego ‘Under 12’ Regatta, hosted by the Coronado Yacht Club last week.”
Leary Earns
All-State Baseball Recognition
CHS graduating senior Tim
Leary, who helped lead the Islanders to a CIF Division IV title this
spring, has been named to the studentsports.com California Small Schools
(Divisions IV and V) Baseball All-State Team. Leary was one of 30 players from
throughout the state to earn this recognition.
Leary batted .420 for his
two-year varsity career at Coronado. In 2008 Leary had 31 RBIs, a slugging
percentage of .710 and an on-base percentage of .509. Though known more for his
prowess at the plate, the 6-foot, 6-inch Leary also had a 5-2 pitching record
for Coronado, with a fine 2.96 earned run average.
Orozco Earns
Triathlon Medal
Congratulations to Laura
Orozco, who competed recently in the 25th Annual San Diego
International Triathlon held near Spanish Landing Park on Harbor Drive. Orozco
was first out of the water in her age group and placed third overall to earn a
bronze medal at the event.
Cross
Country News
A quick note for all of you
high school harriers out there, that the first legal day of practice is August
13th. All current information regarding running workouts for the
cross country team can be found at islandertrack.com.
Head Coach George Green,
a title designation that includes cross country, as well as track and field,
writes to say that rising CHS sophomore Will Bartsch added eight inches
to his previous personal-best height at a recent USATF all-comers pole vault
event. Bartsch vaulted 12 feet, 9 inches and later brushed the bar at 13 feet
in the same event.
Announcer
Moves Along
Recently it was announced that
Billy Packer, who had been the lead analyst on CBS coverage of NCAA
Basketball, including the Final Four for 27 years, has been replaced by former
player Clark Kellogg. Simply stated, Packer in his own mind had grown
bigger than the event and was prone to pontificating rather than covering the
action.
At one time Packer was a
member of perhaps the greatest announcing team ever, which included
play-by-play man Dick Enberg and fellow analyst Al McGuire.
Enberg was the guy that held the trio together and in my mind Packer was the
weak link of that group. For many years, Packer actually negotiated with
colleges and put together the CBS Basketball Game of the Week schedule and as
such, was force in the sport.
Now, if the Fox Network will
just jettison baseball analyst Tim McCarver, the master of the obvious
(That was really good hitting in that situation) then my energy can be devoted
elsewhere, like ESPN for example.
Padres Update
The lovely and talented Natter
Wife and Your Natterer were out of town recently around the All Star
break and weren’t here to watch the Padres bottom out of the National League
West race. Over the weekend, the San Diego National League Baseball Club
snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in St. Louis, three games in a row. At
this writing, the Padres have the worst record in all of Major League Baseball.
Since the Cardinals, who trail
my beloved Cubs by two games in the NL Central were the Padres opponent, it
seemed like a good idea to watch Sunday’s latter innings. Watching the game was
a waste of electricity, not to mention time, as the Padres took a 5-3 lead into
the eighth inning. They held on briefly, only to flounder 9-5 in the ninth,
finding new and creative ways to lose.
In the players’ defense, you
can’t blame it all on them or even on Manager Bud Black. Staff ace Jake
Peavy is having a so-so year with a 7-6 record, but has posted a strong
2.66 earned run average. Peavy missed a month of the season due to an arm
injury and No. 2 starter Chris Young has now missed more than two months
after taking a line drive to the face May 21st. Any club missing
their top two starters for an extended period of time is going to have
problems.
The Padres everyday lineup is
simply not Major League caliber and for that GM Kevin Towers and
President Sandy Alderson have to shoulder the blame. Padre catcher Luke
Carlin, who committed a costly error in Sunday’s game with the Cardinals,
wasn’t among the top six catchers in the Padres organization coming out of
spring training. That is unheard of for Major League teams who want to convince
their ticket purchases and viewers that they want to win pennants.
Switch-hitting rookie
leftfielder Chase Headley is hitting .271 and in 28 games and 107 at
bats has six homers, 14 RBIs and has a respectable .495 slugging percentage.
Headley appears to have a good chance to be a valuable contributor for years to
come.
Anyone not named Gonzalez
(either Adrian or Edgar), Peavy, Young, Headley, or maybe Jody Gerut
should be made available to the highest bidder in a controlled personnel fire
sale. Losing teams tend to have their talent undervalued, but most opposing GMs
probably have a good feel for where the Padres are from a talent perspective
currently and that’s not much.
Most of the AAA Portland club
has been through San Diego already this year, so bring up the rest of the
Beavers and let them cavort around Petco Park for the next two months to get an
accurate handle on what you have. You might not like the answer.
Sports are cyclical in nature
and the Padres have played well above their level of talent for much of the
current millennium. Ownership and management should admit that it’s a
rebuilding year, save some money by cutting payroll and build for the future.
Most important in all of this is to have a plan, although spending money to
actually acquire talent is apparently out of the question with the existing
ownership group. You don’t earn the appellation ‘Worst Record in the Major
Leagues’ without serious problems throughout all playing levels of the
organization.
Coincidentally, San Diego
Chargers pre-season camp opens this week. At least we have that season to look
forward to.