Nado Natterings Back to Islandersports
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

29 Oct 2008 Issue No. 41

CHS Boys Water Polo Head Coach Randy Burgess described his team’s recent three-game schedule as, “a roller coaster week.” Since last week’s column, the Islanders have gone from being in control of the Western League race to now having to hope for assistance from other teams to win the 2008 pennant.

Wednesday Coronado traveled to The Bishop’s School to take on their arch rivals, seeking to avenge an earlier 8-7 loss in their own pool. Paced by five goals from center forward Alex Johnson, the Islanders did just that, emerging with a 9-8 victory, which put Coronado temporarily on top of the Western League standings. Four Islanders scored one goal each, including Paul Pedrotty, Rex Butler, Andrew Ireland and Adam Ratcliffe to complete the scoring. Goalie Justin Parsons was credited with five saves and three steals, with Burgess describing the steals as “very timely.”

The game was tied at 1-all at the end of the first quarter, with Coronado taking a 5-3 lead at halftime, a 7-5 lead at the end of three quarters, and then holding on for the 9-8 victory.

“The big difference in this game from the first game against Bishop’s (played October 3^rd), was that our guys showed a lot more maturity as the game changed tempo,” Burgess said. “We were very balanced emotionally and didn’t panic. We showed a lot more maturity than we had recently.”

It should be pointed out at this juncture that the CIF Division II title chase, long the exclusive domain of either Coronado or Bishop’s, has now expanded its ranks to include La Jolla and Cathedral Catholic. Since the same four schools are also members of the Western League, there are few competitive secrets among the four programs.

Armed with that bit of information, it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that when La Jolla visited Coronado Friday evening looking to avenge their prior 7-4 home loss earlier this month, that the Vikings prevailed 9-8. Since Bishop’s had already defeated La Jolla twice, the Coronado loss shifted the league lead back to the Knights. The wild card in all of this may be Cathedral Catholic, which lost to Coronado earlier in the season 12-9.

“I thought we played well against La Jolla, but they played very well,” said Burgess of the growing rivalry. “It was one of the best games I have seen them play in a couple of years, including the time they beat us last year. Our shooting went cold, and that’s the way it is.”

The Islanders were 8-24 from the field and perhaps as importantly played all week without their leading passer Tommy Schofer, who was out of town on a family-related matter. “We were forced to make some adjustments without our leading assists guy,” Burgess added. “We were unable to put the ball in the net. Our inexperience is pretty obvious at times. It was one of those losses that hopefully we will find something positive from.”

Those who did find the net against La Jolla included Johnson with three goals, Butler and Ratcliffe with two goals each and Pedrotty with one. Parsons had 14 saves in the contest.

Saturday Coronado’s fortunes were again heading upward on their metaphorical roller coaster as the Islanders hosted Long Beach Wilson and dominated the visitors 10-3. This marked the second confrontation between the two perennial water polo powerhouses this season, with the first being an 11-10 victory by the Islanders in the S&R SoCal Invitational.

Burgess knew his charges were worn out at the end of the week. “The guys were tired. This was the last game until we leave for San Jose. I thought we came out pretty relaxed after coming back from a tough game, which was played less than 24 hours after the La Jolla game.” Ireland, Butler, and Johnson scored twice each, with Lex Aponte, David Rodriguez, Brendan Farrell, and Ratcliffe scoring one goal apiece. Parsons accounted for 12 saves in the first three quarters, before giving way to Joe Clarkson in goal for the final frame.

This week the Islanders travel to Santa Cruz for a game with Soquel High School Thursday evening. That contest is a tune-up for the Finis Memorial Tournament, traditionally termed the Norcal Invitational, which is the unofficial state championship of prep water polo. The format pits teams from Southern California against Northern Californian squads for the first round. True to that concept, Coronado will play Clovis West in their first round game. According to Burgess, the Islanders are the No. 3 Southern California seed in the 16-team event. “We’re guaranteed four very good games. We will likely play either Long Beach Wilson or Sacred Heart Prep of Northern California, if we win in the first round.”

Islander Football Defeats Crawford by Forfeit

Occasionally a development comes along in the world of sports that just doesn’t make sense. Last week was one of those times, as the Crawford Colts forfeited their Friday night varsity football game with Coronado High School. At various times the reason for the forfeiture was given as kids quitting the program, grade problems with some of the athletes and injuries.

But the really puzzling portion of the equation is that the Colts, after taking a week off against Coronado, plan to complete their schedule with San Diego High this week and Madison next.

In essence, Crawford is employing selective scheduling. Can’t beat Coronado, but maybe San Diego is doable. To add insult to (ahem) injury, Crawford asked that the junior varsity game be played as scheduled.

“I talked to their head coach and their reasons (for the forfeit) were really fuzzy,” said Coronado Head Coach Bud Mayfield. “The fact that they plan to play the rest of the year made me even madder. He apologized late in the conversation for the game (cancellation). They had the nerve to ask for a JV game. It doesn’t do us any good not to play. Their varsity is getting hammered every week, but they couldn’t think we were going to hurt them physically. I wasn’t happy.”

Coronado won the JV game 35-7, using sophomores in the first half and freshmen in the second.

“Crawford is an albatross for us (the Central League),” Mayfield said.  “In 2006 they had to forfeit all of their league games. They should be out of the league and play an independent schedule until they can get their program together.”

The next-to-last home game on the Coronado regular season schedule was to have been Parents Night. In addition, former Islander gridiron great Harry Sykes, who passed away recently, was to have been honored in a ceremony before the game. Add a loss of gate, concession and novelty revenue, and it was a financial as well as athletic setback.

A couple of E-mailers also pointed out the fact that a once-proud athletic tradition at Crawford has now been tarnished by the forfeit.

After wasting the better part of a week on Crawford, Mayfield and his staff now have to set their sights on the Kearny Komets, a program on the upswing. “They improved a lot last year under a new head coach and they have pulled the program together,” said Mayfield. “They are a decent opponent and I’m leery of them. Also, Morse (Coronado’s Homecoming opponent Nov. 14^th) defeated Clairemont last week, so we have to worry about the last three games.”

Now standing at 5-2, the Islanders have a very reasonable chance to finish the season at 8-2, which should place them among the top five teams in CIF Division IV for playoff seeding. As Mayfield noted, there were several interesting results on the field last weekend. “Santa Fe Christian got thumped by Christian and interestingly almost everybody in the division lost and Mission Bay tied. It will be interesting to see how the CIF will shake this out when it comes to the seeding. Our loss to SFC will complicate things.”Mayfield indicated that the playoff pairings should include Valley Center, Madison, La Jolla, SFC and Coronado, with Santana also in the mix.

Cross Country Report

CHS Cross Country Head Coach George Green provides insight into his teams’ success during the past week. “Last Wednesday the Girls' Cross Country Team continued their romp through the league, easily besting Christian High School by the score of 20-35.

After the first mile, sophomore Annie Lovering left the Patriots' best runner, Taryn Dunton, in her dust to tour the rest of the City Conference three-mile course solo in 20:09. Dunton finished in 20:58 followed by Sallie Privett, Nicole Davies and Sadie Gimber, who were running together, in around 22 minutes.

Privett was using this race as workout, because she planned to compete in the Jaguar Invitational on Friday. Natalie Pettee was the fifth Islander finisher followed by Lauren Ribant, Yvonne Wood and Coco O'Brien.

Unfortunately the Boys' race with Christian came out as the paper match-up predicted, with Christian winning by the score of 23-33. Only David Grimes was able to break-up Christian's top three by placing second with a time of 17:14 (over the same 3-mile course as the girls run). Andy Centeno was next, placing seventh in 18:51 followed by Kevin Siefert (eighth), Cotter Stacy (11th), Ben Green (12th), Aryan Shay (13th), Will Funk (15th), Nick Robles, Dalton Chase, Danny Luiken, Jack Nolan, Luke McCue, Lucas Hemp, Alex Fish and Kyle Mendenhall.

At Friday's Jaguar Invitational, Privett pulled away from Clairemont's Savanna Roberts in the final stanza to win the Small School girls' varsity race with a time of 16:22 over the hilly 2.6-mile Kit Carson Park course. Clairemont won the team title by 15 points over the second place finisher Canyon Crest, which I bring up to point out that had we entered as a team we would have done very well as we bested the Chieftains twice already this season. First at the Small School Saints Invitational, and then again in our Central League dual meet.

In last weeks' report I neglected to mention our dual meet wins over Madison on October 15th so here is the Cliff Notes version. Both the boys and girls used this meet as a training run because Madison is in a rebuilding phase and posed no threat. Led by David Grimes and Sean O'Brien the boys finished 1-2 and placed their seven varsity finishers in the top eight overall to win by the score of 18-45. The top five Coronado girls ran together, placing one through five, to win by the score of 15-50.

Islander Girls Golf Wins Three Matches

“We came out of the doldrums and had a good week,” said CHS Girls Golf Coach Randy Coutts. In a somewhat confusing week, the Islanders defeated La Jolla twice, with the second victory coming by way of a forfeit. The other Coronado victory came over Bonita Vista at Sea ‘N Air Golf Course by the score of 235-250. The three victories pushed the Islanders’ record to 9-5 overall and 3-4 in the City Conference.

The week started appropriately enough on Monday, with CHS traveling to Torrey Pines to face La Jolla. The Coronado contingent was comprised of “kids who don’t get to play as much and the ones who have to play to qualify for the CIF playoffs,” said Coutts.

The latter group includes Jackie Davis, Bridgett Nielsen and Mackenzie Coutts, who must compete in at least 12 matches to participate in the post season events. Nielsen responded by shooting a round of 49 to earn medalist honors.

Two days later, Coronado was supposed to host La Jolla, but the Vikings opted not to participate (sound familiar?) and the Islanders instead had an intrasquad match. “They told us they weren’t coming out Monday when we played them,” Coutts said of Wednesday’s scheduled match. “So we went out and played. Freshman Kendall Hoshko shot a 51, which was a breakthrough for her and was her low score of the year.”

Thursday it was time to boogie with Bonita Vista, which found Coronado’s Nielsen as the match medalist, shooting a round of 40. “Bridgett was six over par for the first four holes,” Coutts commented. “And she was two under in the last five. She finished 3-3-3, which were two birdies and a par. We had four of our five girls shoot in the 40’s.”

Coronado’s regular season comes to an end this week after two matches. First, they must face the County’s No. 1 team Francis Parker Monday at River Walk Country Club. Thursday they complete Western League play with a home match against Scripps Ranch. “I would like to see our girls play really well against Scripps Ranch,” Coutts said.

Islander Girls Tennis Continues to Improve in Two Western League Losses

The CHS Girls Tennis Team lost twice last week. The first match was an 11-7 setback at the hands of Our Lady of Peace and the second a 14-4 reversal to La Jolla. But the news was actually positive from the program.

“We played very well against OLP,” said Head Coach Rob LeBuhn. “The first time they beat us 14-4. That’s a big change for us.”

Specifically the No. 1 doubles tandem of Spencer Berman and Jennifer Carney won two sets, as did the pairing of Natalie Brooks and Kirsten Krock. Mary Mulvey, Alex Rawlings and Andrea Sassenrath all won one singles set.

Similar improvement was shown in the La Jolla match. In their first trip through the tough Western League schedule, Coronado fell to the Vikings 18-0. This time the score was 14-4. Carney/Berman won three sets at No. 1, with Brooks/Krock winning once at No. 2 doubles.

This week the Islanders play San Dieguito on the road Tuesday, then they prepare for the Western League tournament and hope to qualify for the CIF Team Playoffs.

Random San Diego Charger Thoughts

First. If the Charger defense ‘held’ the New Orleans to 37 points in London Sunday, how many points would the Saints have scored if running back Reggie Bush had been able to play?

Second. It’s probably not a good idea for Charger Defensive Coordinator Ted Cottrell to sign a long-term lease on a house at this juncture. And maybe he shouldn’t send his laundry out to an overly deliberate dry cleaner either.

Third. Good teams don’t play from behind. After exchanging field goals in the first quarter, the Chargers trailed from the 11:09 mark of the second quarter on, with the deficit reaching its zenith at 37-20 just inside the beginning of the fourth quarter. Good, playoff-bound teams get the lead early and maintain the lead with tough defense and a solid ground game, emphasizing ball possession. The Chargers currently possess none of those elements.

Fourth. Charger strong safety Eric Weddle does a celebration dance after intercepting a pass, which wasn’t really an interception? Whatever happened to acting like you have been there before and maintaining your focus when you defensive unit is having its collective head handed to them? Those actions aren’t befitting a contending team.

Fifth. Just a guess here, but I don’t think there won’t be a lot of Chargers in Honolulu during Pro Bowl time this year.

Sixth. The AFC West, which contains (in order) Denver, San Diego, Oakland and Kansas City, is arguably the weakest in the NFL circa 2008. The Chargers trail the Broncos by two games in the loss column, but a modest winning streak and a victory over Denver Dec. 28^th in the last regular season game for both teams, might allow San Diego to touch out Denver for the divisional crown. But the Chargers need to solve a plethora of problems before they can even imagine making the playoffs.