Nado Natterings Back to Islandersports
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

8 Oct 2008 Issue No. 38

In what could turn out to be the Central League championship game, unfortunately played at the mid-point of the 2008 season, the Madison War Hawks defeated the Coronado Islanders 34-28 Friday night at Madison. It was a game sparked by the long-standing rivalry between the two programs as well as great individual performances on both sides of the ball.

Madison’s senior running back Robbie Rouse rushed for 269 yards and three touchdowns, while Islander quarterback Mason Mills completed 21 of his 33 pass attempts for 338 yards and four touchdowns.

Rouse can best be described as a more muscular version of Chargers running back Darren Sproles, who even when contained by the young Islander defensive line, still managed to gain positive yardage. Rouse played the game with a broken thumb and had a wrap around the affected area that extended midway up his right arm.

Coronado Head Coach Bud Mayfield said of Rouse, “He’s a classy kid and he has speed. You can’t tackle that kid. He got loose a few times, even when we had him.” On a couple of occasions, Coronado tacklers were going for one fake by Rouse, as he was seemingly completing his second move.

As for the effort from Mills, Mayfield thought it was likely that the senior signal caller’s throwing efforts constituted a Coronado High School single game record. “That’s probably never been done before, at least not before I got here 20-some years ago,” said Mayfield.

Unfortunately as well-played and as intense as the game was, the final result may have hinged on an incredibly obvious non-call made by the side judge on the Islander side of the field. With 4.8 seconds remaining in the first half, Madison called timeout with the ball on the Coronado 30-yard line. War Hawk quarterback Lester Fontenette took the snap and threw a fade pass to the end zone, which was well-defended by the Islanders. The Madison receiver pushed the Coronado defender in the back with both hands, directly on the Islander player’s numbers and caught the pass for a touchdown and a 20-7 halftime lead.

The non-call by the side judge was obvious to all because the two players were isolated in the end zone for all to see, except by the one guy who needed to make the call. The same official missed a call earlier in the afternoon in the JV game (won by Coronado 14-7) and of the four important calls in the varsity game, the side judge was correct in only one of those decisions.

On a more positive note, with that many passing yards amassed for Coronado, someone, in this case four someones, have to be on the receiving end of the Mills passes. Leading the receivers’ stats Friday night was Blake Malkemus with eight receptions for 121 yards and one touchdown. Mayfield said of the senior three-sport star, “The passing combination without Blake wouldn’t be the same. He’s one of the best receivers we’ve ever had here. The kids call him ‘Magic.’ He’s our designated receiver and many of the pass plays we run are for Malkemus. But we like to spray the ball around and we have a nice balance with four receivers out there.”

The ‘other’ three include Kodie Englehart, Keith Englehart and Billy Garigen. Kodie had four catches for 87 yards; Kyle snared three Mills passes for 46 yards and two touchdowns; while Garigen caught five balls for 84 yards and one touchdown.

Despite trailing 20-7 at halftime and 28-14 with just under six minutes remaining in the game, Coronado never quit. After a 57-yard kickoff return by Englehart the Younger, the Islanders put together a nine-play, 40-yard scoring drive that made the score 28-21 with 3:02 remaining. Coronado attempted an onside kick, which they recovered. However the same side judge ruled the Islanders offsides on the kickoff, which Mayfield said after reviewing the game film was correct by literally a foot, and the ball reverted to Madison. Rouse scored what would prove to be the game winning touchdown on a 60-yard run, which brought the score to 34-21. 

Not to be denied, the Islanders orchestrated an 11-play scoring drive, which used less than two minutes of game time, to reach the final tally of 34-28. The drive concluded with a 1-yard pass from Mills to Garigen. The onside kick which followed was recovered by Madison. The War Hawks then ran the final 50 seconds off the clock to conclude the contest.

“The kids played really well,” Mayfield said. “We went as far as we could go, playing several sophomores on the line. We need to run the ball a little more, and part of that was due to the score. Chris Page is a player and we have to get him more involved in the running game. We’ve scored 15 touchdowns in four games and we move the football. If we could have gotten the onside kick, we might have beaten them. We won’t have black shirt awards this week because so many kids played well.”

This Friday the Islanders return home for another Central League game, this one with San Diego High School. When asked for a preview of the Cavers, Mayfield replied, “They have a new coach again and they are hard for us to predict. It seems they don’t keep a coach for more than two years. They have great, big people and they line them up next to little, tiny people.”

Kickoff time for the varsity game is 7:30 pm.

Mayfield looks for good things to come this season as the Islanders are now 3-1. “I think our kids will be okay. We’ll talk a lot about it Monday. We can still have a great year and maybe we’ll run into Madison again (in the CIF Division IV Playoffs).”

Long-Time CUSD Teacher Pete Thomas Services Announced

Pete Thomas, 68, a long-time physical education teacher at Coronado Middle School, passed away from an unexpected heart condition over the weekend. Thomas, who taught many Coronado kids during his teaching career, including both Axelson children, had “a great attitude and had a positive impact on our children,” according to CMS Principal Jay Marquand.

Thomas for many years contributed his time to the CHS Football program, where he assisted keeping offensive stats for the coaching staff. Along with CHS statistician Kyle Montague, I spent many hours with Pete on the sidelines of Islander games, at many locales. Pette was always someone I enjoyed seeing and conversing with about football and life in general.

Thomas was a walking encyclopedia on the subject of prep football. He would often attend an afternoon game on Friday elsewhere in the county and then keep stats for the Coronado game that night. Pete kept a complete listing, running to several printed pages, of the prep football games on tap for the 2008 season. Several weeks ahead of time, he would highlight in yellow marker the games he planned to attend. A genuinely nice man, who enjoyed football and teaching, Pete Thomas will be greatly missed.

Services for Thomas will be held Friday, Oct. 10 at 11 am at the Bay View Baptist Church, located at 6126 Benson Avenue in San Diego (zip code 92114 for map references).

CHS Boys Water Polo Wins Two of Three Contests Last Week

After their victorious showing in the ‘America’s Finest City’ Tournament two weeks ago, the CHS Boys Water Polo Team faced another busy schedule, with three games last week. The first contest came against University City and Coronado emerged with an 11-6 home win Wednesday. Sparked by a 12 save, two steal and one assist effort from goalie Justin Parsons, the Islanders won their Western League season opener.

Strong contributions also came from Rex Butler with five goals, Paul Pedrotty and Alex Johnson with two goals each and Tommy Schofer with three assists. Single goals came from Andrew Ireland and Adam Ratcliffe.

Friday night the Islanders hosted The Bishop’s School and the Knights came away with an 8-7 victory. Butler and Johnson scored twice each and were joined in the scoring column on single goals from Ireland, Pedrotty and Ratcliffe. Parsons earned 15 saves in goal.

Coronado Head Coach Randy Burgess was philosophical about the loss to Bishop’s. “We had a 5-2 lead at halftime and we played a bad fourth quarter. Our kids are inexperienced and immature in terms of varsity experience and knowing how to adjust to officiating. It was a learning situation.”

Saturday the Islanders hosted the other finalist from the America’s Finest City Tournament 32-team field, Mater Dei of Orange County. The first game ended in an 8-6 Coronado victory, while the re-match was a goal closer with the Islanders prevailing 8-7. “The kids had a point to prove that it (the AFC title) wasn’t a fluke,” said Burgess. “The guys wanted to prove that. Mater Dei is a very good team. They are ranked No. 5 overall in the CIF Southern Section and No. 1 in Division II. They are a legit team.”

Pedrotty scored three times, Ratcliffe twice and single goals came from Butler, Schofer and Johnson, with the latter also contributing three assists and drawing seven exclusions. With the score tied 7-7, Coronado had the ball with 18 seconds left in the game and took a hurried shot that was rebounded by Mater Dei. With eight seconds left, the visitors called timeout to set up a play, which was initiated by the Monarch goalie. Johnson intercepted the pass and made a lengthy shot into the empty Mater Dei goal with two seconds on the clock.

“The last two games, including the loss, I see nothing but positives,” said Burgess summarizing the week’s events, which found his team with an overall record of 7-2. “We’re playing well above expectations for a team with little varsity experience. We’ve improved quite a bit over a short period of time and I’m happy with how they are playing. The players understand their roles and its fun watching it come together. I think we’re going to have a good run into November and we’d love to get to the CIF Finals, but who knows. There is as much parity (among boys water polo programs) as there has been in the last five or six years.”

This week Coronado is enrolled in the 16-team SoCal Invitational, where they earned the No. 5 seed and face Long Beach Wilson in the opening round. If they can get past Wilson, their likely opponent is Newport Harbor, with Coronado looking to avenge a 12-5 season-opening loss to the Sailors.

CHS Girls Golf Pushes Season Record to 6-1

The Islander Girls Golf Team had two exciting matches last week, with both decided by a single stroke. The third match, a lopsided win over Patrick Henry made Coronado 2-1 on the week and 6-1 overall.

The week started with a 266-267 victory over Point Loma on the Torrey Pines North Course. “It came down to the final group of Ashley Mendham and Bridgett Nielsen,” said Coach Randy Coutts. “They held it together and beat the Point Loma pair, with Ashley shooting a 51 and Bridgett a 52. We didn’t know it was going to come down to those two and it was pretty exciting. Jackie Davis shot a 48, so everyone shot pretty well.”

Wednesday Coronado hosted San Pasqual High School at Coronado Municipal, but the Islanders came up on the short end of a 234-244 score. “It was a similar finish, but this one went against us,” Coutts said. “Davis was the match medalist with a 40, which is her best score ever. Mackenzie Coutts shot a 44. It was a tough match and we wanted to beat one of those North County schools, but it didn’t happen.

The final match of the week was a 248-306 victory over Patrick Henry at Mission Trails. Davis duplicated her 40 against the Patriots and Coutts shot a 42. “We’ve put them together (in the same twosome) for the first time this year,” said Coach Coutts of his daughter and her friend and playing partner Davis. “They seem to help each other a lot more, playing against and with each other.”

Coutts assessed his team’s strong start this season. “We’re moving forward and we have some depth. We still haven’t seen our best six players on the course at the same time, due to scheduling conflicts. We’re trying to get them all aligned for our matches with Scripps Ranch (Tuesday) and Cathedral Catholic (Wednesday) and see what we have.”

Islander Cross Country Report

CHS Head Cross Country Coach George Green supplies the following report on his team’s activities. “Last week I mentioned that the girls' varsity cross country team hadn't all run together in the same race and when they did they'd be pretty good.

That finally happened Friday at the Saints Small School Invitational held at Morley Field. The girls' varsity race included our two main rivals for League and CIF honors, Clairemont and Bishop's respectively. When our fifth runner crossed the finish-line in 14^th place out of 102 finishers, four runners from both Clairemont and Bishop's had already finished in front of her. If you do the math, that's a total of 12 of the top 14 runners from just these three schools. Clairemont's fifth runner placed 17^th and Bishop's fifth athlete came in 19^th.  The final scores for this trio were Coronado 37, Clairemont 51, and Bishop's 53 (low score wins in cross country - you add-up the finish places of the top 5 runners). 

OLP was far behind in fourth place with 124 points followed by Francis Parker with 153 and San Dieguito with 182.  The remaining schools’ scores were all over 200 points.  Individually Division III State runner-up Sammy Silva from OLP finished first in 16:22 over the 2.84-mile course followed by Islander Sallie Privett in 16:47.

The other Coronado finishers were Annie Lovering (fourth in 17:33), Adie Davies (seventh in 17:55), Sadie Gimber (11^th in 18:28), Nicole Davies (14^th in 18:41), and Selina Schmeck (44th in 20:36).  In the Division IV JV girls' race, Natalie Pettee placed fifth followed by Alana Pokorny (sixth), Coco O'Brien (ninth), Lauren Ribant (11^th), Yvonne Wood (12^th), and Danielle Swanson (20^th). The JV girls placed second as a team behind Bishop's. 

In the boys' varsity race a couple of our top runners didn't compete because of nagging injuries and to rest-up for our dual meet with Clairemont this week. Among competitors from the Division IV schools, David Grimes finished fourth, with a time of 17:09 over the 5k (3.12-mile) boys' course followed by Sean O'Brien (18^th), Andy Centeno (25^th), Cotter Stacy (30^th), Aryan Shay (38^th), Gabe Salvatierra (39^th), and Ben Green (43^rd).  Rounding out Friday's finishers, Dalton Chase placed 24^th and Luke McCue 29^th in the boys' JV race.

Finally a note about one of our many past cross country and track stars who were CHS valedictorians, Samantha Piper.  After graduating from Harvard, Sam received her M.D. from U.C. San Francisco and is currently in her Orthopedic Surgery Residency. Sam still holds both the girls' 800 meter and 400 meter school records at Coronado (2:14.13 and 57.55 respectively) and in her senior year (1999) Piper was named the State Academic Athlete of the year. Go Sam.”

CHS Girls Tennis Competes Well, But Drops Two Matches in Western League

Last Monday, the CHS Girls Tennis Team played Scripps Ranch and came out on the short end of the 12-6 scored. “It was a rough week,” said Coronado Head Coach Rob LeBuhn. “But we had a nice, competitive match with Scripps Ranch. Spencer Berman won her three singles matches, Jackie Hites won one and our second doubles team of Alex Rawlings and Kirsten Krock won two sets.”

Thursday Coronado fell to the Academy of Our Lady of Peace 15-3, with Berman winning two sets and Krock/Rawlings winning one set.

This week the Islanders host La Jolla Tuesday at 3 pm. They travel to Cathedral Catholic Wednesday for a 3 pm match, which starts the second round of Western League competition.

Pop Warner Report

The Junior Midgets notched their first win of the season with a stirring 14-12 victory over San Carlos. After falling behind early, the Islanders defense tightened behind strong play and hard hitting from Ryan Nies, Will Echols, Jared Meoni, Nick Vido and a game-saving interception by Chris Ryan. The consistent play of the offensive line including: Randy Kaiser, Zack Kozlik, Austin O'Brien, Jack Foley and Mike Dunphey opened big holes for the running tandem of fullback Kevin Fahey and tailback Mike Snyder.

The Mitey Mites improved their record to 4-1 Saturday, beating the San Carlos Patriots 20-13. The Islanders took the lead in the first quarter on a long drive, capped off by a touchdown run by quarterback Adam Weissenfels. San Carlos then tied the game and the teams traded touchdowns to go into halftime tied 13-13.

The Islander offensive line lead by Ryan Brown, Andy Rogers, Cole Nichols and Jake Herman consistently pounded the Patriots off the line, gaining one first down after another. With only a minute and a half left to play, Max McNary scored to put the Islanders on top.

The Junior Pee Wees lost a tough battle to visiting San Carlos 31-7, but Coronado never gave up and scored their lone touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Coronado and San Carlos played to a 7-7 tie in the second half. 

Chris Ruiz and Greg Gonzalez had some big runs while Christian Waterhouse made a big catch in the scoring drive.  Wyatt Montague, Charlie Duffy, and Kyle Hebert all had pancake blocks, while working hard on the line.  The defense was led by Marshall Aldrege, Luke King, and Jon Luke Vido who were all in on numerous plays.  Alex Burke and "DJ" Jackson also made some nice tackles.

Thoughts Regarding the San Diego Chargers

Watching Sunday’s San Diego’s loss to Miami, Your Natterer was repeatedly struck with the thought that the Dolphins wanted to win the game a whole lot more than the Chargers do. There is no spark and no fire on either side of the ball from the Chargers.

I’m convinced and have written in this space a couple of times this season, that the injuries to key Chargers offensive personnel LaDainian Tomlinson, Antonio Gates and defensive standout nose tackle Jamal Williams are worse than the San Diego front office is letting be known to the public. Diminutive back up running back Darren Sproles is the ultimate over-achiever, but he isn’t Tomlinson, when the Hall of Fame-bound back is healthy.

The Chargers desperately miss injured linebacker Shawne Merriman, whose strength and speed made the entire Bolt defensive unit better. Opposing defenses had to account for Merriman on every play, which made the Charger defensive line infinitely more effective.

There were published reports before Merriman’s early season surgery that the Chargers weren’t going to re-sign the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year when his contract expires in another year. Charger Executive Vice President and General Manager A.J. Smith needs to huddle with the Spanos family ownership group and get the money to make re-signing Merriman a reality, assuming the 24-year-old recovers completely from his knee surgery.

Right now the Chargers have the look and approach of an 8-8 team. Currently two games behind AFC West Leading Denver after just five games, the Chargers are now realistically competing against Baltimore, Indianapolis and New England for a single wild card playoff spot. Next Sunday’s 5:15 pm home game against the Patriots falls into the ‘must win’ category for the Chargers.