|
Nado Natterings |
A weekly column by David Axelson |
|
Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive
Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation
3 Sept 2008 Issue No. 33
Football season is upon us in
full force. If you aimed your remote control in the general direction of your television
set this weekend, you know that the sheer number of gridiron games available
for your viewing pleasure was staggering, with most of
them airing while we were still in August.
Not to be outdone by their
collegiate counterparts, the CHS Football Team takes to Niedermeyer Field this Friday night against
Friday night’s kickoff will
mark the beginning of the 21st season as head coach of
“Mason started halfway
through his sophomore year, so he has 15 games, including two playoff games of
experience,” said Mayfield. “He has good feet and he can also run. We’ll tilt
the offense to take advantage of what he can contribute. Everything looks good
in preseason. We have good receivers and running backs. This offense can
explode. A lot depends on the front five (offensive line) who are less
experienced. It may take them a couple of weeks. We have playmakers and speed
on the perimeter and good speed on defense.”
After assessing the team in
general terms, Mayfield specifically discussed several of his players. “If Blake
Malkemus has a good year, he could statistically
be the best receiver we have ever had play here. We have Kodie
Englehart as a wide receiver, who has speed and
skill too. Our starting running backs will be Chris Page and Keith Englehart (Kodie’s older
brother by one year), who will be in the backfield at the same time. We have a
gifted sophomore running back in Brenden McElmore and Bryan Crabb
will also help.”
Division IV schools such as
Coronado typically don’t have big enrollment numbers in the program and the
better, more experienced athletes normally play on both offense and defense. “Crabb, Page and both Engleharts
will start on defense,” Mayfield said. “And Malkemus
may alternate in on defense. Billy Garrigan is
a two-way guy as well, playing wideout and linebacker.
Jon Little has had an outstanding preseason. He
will play offensive tackle and defensive end. John Mikesell
will be a starting linebacker and he is our starting center on offense. Mikesell and Mills are the team captains.”
An interesting element is
thrown into the mix with the first regular season against
Mayfield, who was a star
running back in the Cleveland, Ohio area during his prep playing days, would
prefer to employ the (former Ohio State Head Coach) Woody Hayes ‘three yards
and a cloud of dust’ offense, but has adapted his coaching style to his
available playing talent over the years.
However, don’t count Mayfield
as a huge fan of the trend to the ‘Spread’ offense. “Everyone is running that
offense now. Every time you turn on the TV (nice tie-in to the opening
paragraph) you see it. What happened to the physical part of the game? It’s
like a fast break offense in basketball.”
So the obvious question, ‘Why
the popularity of this offense?’ Mayfield responded, “It spreads everyone
across the field. When you have skill players they can get into the spaces and
there’s not much the defense can do but react. It allows you to not to have to
emphasize blocking and an opponent’s size and strength are neutralized by
speed. We’ve run the Four-Wide (an offensive set with four wide receivers) for
years here, but traditionally we rely on a strong tailback offense. This year
we can have both.”
Last week the Islanders
participated in a four-way scrimmage involving Fallbrook, Orange Glen, and
Mayfield handicapped the
Central League race, a grouping that now includes
On the CIF Division IV
playoff level, Mayfield will see most of the top tier schools during the
regular season, in part due to the expansion of the Central League. “Because
they expanded the league, there are an odd number of teams this season. Midway
through the schedule we play Santa Fe Christian. Brian (Sipe,
former Cleveland Browns quarterback and current SFC head coach) and I agreed to
play and I figure we are pretty darned even.
The final key to a successful
season is to stay from injuries, according to Mayfield. “We have to stay
healthy. We’ll be on the field Monday (Labor Day) morning. We have three days
left to polish up for the first game.”
Complete CHS Varsity
Football Schedule
As noted above, Friday,
September 5 at 7:30 pm the Islanders open their regular season with a home game
vs.
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
Two CHS Football Alumni
Injured at USD
Although at different places
in their collegiate careers, former CHS running backs J.T. Rogan and Ricardo
Oberwager both experienced season-ending injuries
while competing for the
Oberwager
a freshman at USD (CHS ’08), separated his shoulder in a scrimmage recently and
will be lost for the season. According to CHS Head Coach Bud Mayfield, Oberwager had hoped to be a factor on the Toreros special teams unit returning punts and kick-offs.
Rogan, a red-shirt senior
(CHS ’04) sustained a significant knee injury, tearing both the anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligaments in his left knee.
Rogan entered the season as the USD record holder in career touchdowns, rushing
yards and all-purpose yards.
Islander Cross Country
Teams Off and Running
CHS Head Cross Country
Coach George Green provides a pre-season look at his two teams. “The
cross country season gets underway this Friday with the Wolf Pack invitational
at West Hills high school but the league meet part of the season won't start
for another five weeks, commencing with our first dual meet against Clairemont October 8.
The boys will need that five
weeks of training because Clairemont figures to be
their, um, "Chief" rival this season. (Column Note – Clairemont’s nickname is the ‘Chieftains.’). The other
threat to break our four-year winning streak is
The boys' team lost five
seniors to graduation last season including Central League Champion Ben Enowitz, but most of the last season's league
championship team return. Leading the pack are David Grimes, Kevin Siefert, Sean O'Brien, Andrew Centeno,
Ben Green, Cotter Stacy, and Gabe Salvatierra.
A total of 24 boys are out this season, with 14 athletes returning from last
year and 10 who are new to the sport.
Most of last year’s Central
League champion girls' team returns this season with a several new runners who
should make us the favorite for the girls' league title once again. At the
division level we'll be competitive for one of the two state meet berths. The
pre-season Division IV favorite is The Bishop's School, with the Islanders and
Francis Parker (in that order) vying for the second spot.
Returning are Sallie Privett, Annie Lovering, Adrianna
Davies, Sadie Gimber, Selina
Schmeck and Coco O'Brien. Our new
runners are Nicole Davies, Natalie Pettee, Alana Pokorny, Laruen Ribant, and
Yvonne Wood.”
CHS Girls Golf Season
Tees Off Thursday
Over the past several years,
the CHS Girls Golf Team has made the progression from new CIF sport
which was challenged with finding enough good players to complete the squad, to
the 2008 version of the squad where 17 players competed for the team’s 12
roster spots.
Girls Golf Coach Randy
Coutts, who shares coaching duties with Hannah Cohan, noted “the
team will be much stronger and very competitive this year. We’ll find out who
is serious and who will play consistently well. Sometimes the 3-4-5 players on
the roster are the most important.”In prep girls’
golf, six players compete in a match at the varsity level, with the best five
scores used to compute the team score.
Coutts discussed several of
the team members. “Jackie Davis and Mackenzie Coutts, who were
our Co-MVPs last year, are both back. Bridgett Nielsen will be our No. 3
player. Lety Buil-MacCarty
is our captain, returning letter winner and she played a lot over the summer. Ashley
Mendham and Hillary Gibbs will round out our top six players.” Look
for there to be fierce competition as the season progresses from Brooke
Clifford and Sidney Hoshko among others.
Competition in the City
Conference will come from defending champion Cathedral Catholic, with the
Islanders competing in the half of the conference schedule that includes
Cathedral Catholic, Scripps Ranch,
“Coronado Muni has been very
cooperative with us again this year,” said Coutts. “The Head Pro Ron
Yarborough and Jamie Darnell who schedules matches and tournaments
have both been great to work with.”
U.S. Men’s Water Polo
Head Coach Terry Schroder’s Journal – The Final Chapter
For the last month we have
had access, through USA Men’s Water Polo Publicist Wayne G. Bean, to the
personal journal of U.S. Men’s Water Polo Head Coach Terry Schroeder’s
personal journal. Being able to read the thoughts of the head coach of a team
that competes at a world class level, and a team that includes Coronado High
School alumni Layne Beaubien and Jesse
Smith, is intriguing to me and hopefully to you.
The
“When the girls and I finally
arrived at our home it was wonderful. Our home owners association had
taken the time to decorate our gate and our front yard with red, white and blue
banners and flags. The house looked great and we all felt the love and
support from our neighbors. Our refrigerator had been filled and we
dinner ready to serve and fresh homemade cookies on the table. It was a
very nice welcome home.
I have been stopped and
recognized in the airport, the gas station and our local store. I believe
that water polo in riding a big wave right now and we need to take advantage of
the momentum that the Olympics created and really try to take the sport to the
next level in this country. We can be a contender on a regular
basis. We have the athletes. We need to keep them excited and
involved with the national team.
As I reflect back on the
Games, the one thing that keeps coming back to me is how blessed I am to have been
a part of this team. I loved being up there in the stands and watching
them receive their medals. That brought tears to my eyes. In that
moment my mind raced back to 1984. I was wearing my silver medal and I
remembered my Dad giving me this big bear hug and telling me how proud he was
of me. I could almost hear my Dad saying those words to me in that
moment. Later that evening at our team celebration, I had the chance to
give each of the guys a big hug and tell them how proud I was of them and how
happy I was that they were a part of this team.
To me this was a testimonial
to how much can be accomplished when a group of guys (or people) become a team
and work together for a common goal. We may not have been the most talented
team at the Olympics but for that two week period of August 10 – 24th,
2008 we were one of the two best “teams” in the world. That is an awesome
feeling. We had big dreams and they came true. We got back to
the podium!”
Add Olympic Water Polo
In journalism, when you start
a piece with information that isn’t part of the main point of the story, it’s
called ‘burying the lead.’ Well, Your Natterer
was guilty of that to an extent last week when we talked about the Men’s
Olympic Water Polo finals between the
In
Perhaps the fastest growing
athletic segment in
For the 2008-09 school year, and due to the growing popularity of the on-campus
Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Facility, swimming will be added to the list of
sports offerings for fall 2008. Other fall sports include boys and girls cross
country, girls lacrosse and girls volleyball.
Registration for fall sports
will be held Wednesday, September 10th at Granzier
Hall at CMS. The session will run from 6:30 to 7:30 pm and it is important that
you attend. The most critical element for parents to prepare for is that your
student-athlete is not permitted to try out for or participate on a team until
they have a valid physical form, signed by a physician. You may download this
form from the ISF website, which is IslanderSportsFoundation.com.
Registration fees are $110
per sport, per child. Please refer to the ISF website for additional
information. If you would like to have a two page information sheet E-mailed to
you, please contact me at Ax@san.rr.com.