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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
15 Oct 2008 Issue No. 39
Underdog
Then
the Islanders scored the next straight 48 points to win the Central League
contest 48-7.
It’s
become customary at this point to delineate the statistics turned in by
Islander quarterback Mason Mills, which were good again Friday night,
but we’ll change up the format a tad and instead highlight the efforts turned
in by seniors Billy Garigen and Blake Malkemus as well as a liberal dose of good news
regarding junior tailback Chris Page.
Garigen caught a one-yard touchdown pass from the aforementioned
Mills, but it was on defense that the speedy defensive back and receiver truly
shined Friday evening. After blocking a 42-yard Caver field goal attempt in the
second quarter, Garigen had a pair of great defensive
plays back-to-back in the third frame. Immediately after making a fine solo
tackle for a loss, Garigen intercepted a Caver pass
and turned the theft into a 78-yard return for a touchdown. In addition Garigen was credited with six solo tackles and three
assisted tackles. That’s a good season for a lot of prep players.
Not
to be outdone, Malkemus caught nine Mills passes for
a total of 104 yards and two touchdowns. The amazing thing about Malkemus is that if the ball is thrown in his general
direction, he catches it. “Blake had a great game,” said Coronado Head Coach Bud
Mayfield. “He didn’t do much (statistically) in the first two games because
we sat the starters at half time for two straight games. We always thought he
was going to have a great year. He doesn’t drop the ball, which is one reason
why Mason has such a high completion percentage.”
The
Caver game marked a coming out party of sorts for Page, who toted the pigskin
eight times for 145 yards and two touchdowns. For the statistically minded,
that amounts to a spectacular 18.1 yards per carry. Mayfield suspected that
Page was ready to break loose. “We told him his time was coming, if he would be
patient. We also told the team that we wanted to work on the running game. We
always had confidence in Chris and it was his turn. His running was the only
reason our passing yardage was down (more on that later). We score so quickly
that we only had 10 first downs. We don’t drive the ball at all, we just score.
This season we wanted to have Flash (Mills) and Dash (Page) and now we have the
‘Dash’.”
After
keeping the entire Mills family in suspense to this point, it is now time to
reveal that Mason was his usual self, which amounts to 14-16 passing for 178
yards, four touchdowns and one interception. Mills rushed six times for a net
22 yards, which was enough to keep the
It’s
now time for The Englehart Scoreboard, brought to you
by senior Kodie Englehart
and his junior sibling Keith Englehart. Kodie caught a 21-yard touchdown pass and had a total of
two receptions for 39 yards. Keith accounted for two catches for 32 yards.
Looking at the big picture from a passing perspective, Mayfield said, “We have
four good receivers, with Garigen, the Engleharts and Malkemus to go
with Page coming out of the backfield. Wherever Mason is throwing it, we have
someone to catch it. You have to have the whole package, not just the
quarterback.”
Defensively,
fine individual plays were turned in by Stefan Massie with a pass
interception and by both Brad Hughes and Alex Bookout
with fumble recoveries.
This
coming Friday the Islanders play at home again, hosting Santa Fe Christian,
which promises to be a passing shootout of the highest order. “They are
probably the best team on our schedule this year,” Mayfield said. “
The
Eagles enter Friday’s game coming off of a 38-13 win at Brawley. One of their
losses on the way to their current 3-2 record was to Division III power
Pete Thomas Remembered
A
large contingent of
Pete
traveled with us to
The concept of the
SoCal Water Polo Invitational held each year in
For the 2008
version of the gathering,
Then it was on to
Next up was No. 1
seed and eventual tournament champion Miramonte,
which defeated
Burgess assessed
the tournament for his team. “The SoCal Invitational
was a great indicator of both how far we have come, referencing the two Newport
Harbor results, and how much more work we need before the November CIF
Playoffs. Our last game versus Foothill gave all of the players a chance to
play and a challenge in terms of roles and opportunities for playing time. We
are becoming a much better team with each game, but still lack some of the
focus a great team will need to finish the season strong.
This week we have
two big Western League games with
Parsons
Honored as September Star by Hall of Champions
Islander
three-sport star Justin Parsons (Water Polo, Basketball and Baseball)
has been selected as a Prep Star of the Month by the San Diego Hall of
Champions. The 6-foot, 5-inch senior goalie was chosen for his contributions to
the Islander Water Polo Team’s early season success. Parsons will be
recognized, along with other Prep Stars of the Month, at the 63rd
annual Salute to the Champions dinner Feb. 18, 2009 at the Town and Country
Hotel.
Cross
Country Report
CHS
Cross Country Head Coach George Green reflects on his team’s performance
from last week. “Last Wednesday the Islander Girls' Cross Country Team
unofficially won the Central League Championship by beating their only viable
rival, Clairemont, by the score of 23-32. Sallie Privett led the pack by finishing first over the 3-mile
Morley Field course with the fastest time of the week out of all City
Conference schools in 18:48, while running under adverse conditions. Normally
she wouldn't have run that fast, with the temperature in the mid-90's
and relative humidity in the teens, but she was challenged by the Chieftain's Savannah
Roberts for the first half of the race. Sallie pulled-away in the second
half to win comfortably by over 30 seconds. Annie Lovering
and Adie Davies placed third and fourth in 20:05 and 20:08
respectively followed by Nicole Davies in seventh and Sadie Gimber in eighth to round-out the Islanders' scoring
finishers.
Most
of the runners for both teams were having heat issues and for a while it looked
like a couple of
Selina Schmeck and Alana Pokorny
were our sixth and seventh finishers followed by Lauren Ribant,
The
Boys didn't fare quite so well, losing to Clairemont
by the score of 25-30.
We
won't face Clairemont again this season because
they're a Division III team (
There
are currently eight
Not
only has the CHS Girl's High School team been performing well the Girls'
CHS Section Assignment Confusion Reigns
Popping up in Your Natterer’s E-mail this morning were
several communiqués from the CIF San Diego Section. The info included the fact
that both CHS Basketball Teams will compete in Division IV in 2008-09.
Meanwhile the Islanders Boys and Girls Soccer Teams, both of which are the
defending Division IV section champions, will compete in Division III next
year. Previously it was announced that the Islander Baseball squad, defenders
of the Division IV crown, will also compete in Division III in 2009. There will
be a test later this week, so start your memorization exercises now.
Islander Girls Volleyball Splits Two Eastern
League Games
The Islander Girls Volleyball Team charged into the
athletic fray Tuesday of last week with an away game at
The following day
Baszak, the team’s senior libero, or defensive specialist, who was injured for much
of the season, returned to the lineup two weeks ago.
Lahr went into more
detail regarding the OLP contest. “Melissa had a really good game in terms of
running the offense and running the team. I know it was a tough loss for the
team. They wanted the win and knew the outcome was going to affect our chances
in the Eastern League. A league title is still possible, depending on how the
other games play out. We played well in the beginning, but backed off enough
for OLP to come back. They made adjustments in the second game and we weren’t
able to make the adjustments in the third and fourth games to beat them.”
Next week
CHS Girls Golf Experiences Rare Losing Week
Entering last week’s
play, the CHS
Girls Golf Team was sporting a nifty 6-1 record. However last week’s City
Conference opponents Scripps Ranch and Cathedral Catholic are two of the better
teams in
“We lost 241-247 to
Scripps Ranch,” said Islander Coach Randy Coutts. “We played at Rancho
Bernardo Country Club and it was 100 degrees. Jackie Davis shot a 41 and Mackenzie Coutts shot a 45. Everybody
played pretty well.”
Newly emerging conference
powerhouse Cathedral Catholic was next at Fairbanks Ranch. Coutts discussed the
match. “We didn’t compete as well as we thought we should. The course was
tough, with a lot of knolls and hills. There were no even lies on the fairways.
It is a difficult course with a lot of lakes. Three of their girls shot really
well, posting scores of 38, 39 and 41.”
Thursday it was back to
practice and Coutts was pleased with the team’s reaction. “I hate losing two in
a row. The nice thing about practice on Thursday is that we got a lot
accomplished. We had fun and the girls are learning so much. It opened my eyes
to letting some of the other girls get a chance to play. We’ll do all right the
rest of the way. The girls are practicing much better.”
Wednesday the Islanders
play Point Loma and Thursday they host Cathedral Catholic and both matches are
at Coronado Municipal. “We tend to play better on our home course,” said
Coutts. “And the other teams don’t seem to play well there.”
Girls Tennis Drops Two Western League Matches
The two best girls’
tennis teams in the Western League were on the Islanders’ schedule last week,
with
Better news came from the
Cathedral result, where the first time through league play the Dons defeated
the Islanders 17-1. This time paced by three set victories from Jennifer Carney and Spencer Berman at No. 2 doubles,
Coronado improved to a 15-3 loss.
“Starting Thursday
against Scripps Ranch, we’re going to mix it up a little bit and let the two
seniors (Berman and Carney) play together and see if they can have some fun in
the Western League championships,” said Head Coach Rob LeBuhn. Berman has
occupied both the No. 1 and No. 2 singles slots this season for
“We try to get all of the
girls (15 on the varsity this year) in a match once or twice during the year,” LeBuhn added. Next week when
CHS Sailing Squad Fares Well in Sea Otter
Regatta
Competing in the first of
six regattae (please note Latin plural) of the season
that will determine if the Coronado High School Sailing Team will qualify for
nationals, the Islander varsity finished eighth out of 27 teams Sea Otter
Regatta, hosted by the Monterey Peninsula Yacht Club last weekend. The Coronado
JV squad finished fifth out of 27 entrants.
Competitors for
In other sailing news,
Wood and Lozier competed recently in the High School Laser Nationals Qualifier
hosted by Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club in San Pedro. ‘Hurricane Gulch’ just
outside of
Pop Warner Report
The Junior Midgets lost a
hard fought 24-0 battle at
The
Coronado Pee Wees tied
The
Jr. Pee Wees beat the Mt. Helix Running Rebels 21-6
behind some inspiring play on the offensive line from Ryan Samara and
Max Clausen. Alec Legidakes provided
some big holes from the tight end position and also played a tough game at
linebacker. Receivers Sammy Zbinden, Jarret Osmialowski, and Zachary Pyne did a fantastic job keeping the