Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

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

21 Jan 2009 Issue #3

Islander Boys Soccer Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu pointed to last week’s game with fellow San Diego CIF Division III member Montgomery High School as an important game for possible playoff seeding this season. His team received the message and responded with a decisive 3-0 victory over the Aztecs, fueled in part by two goals from Christian Herrera, one from Eduardo Sacal and a shutout provided courtesy of net minder Sergio Duck.

“That was a big game because Montgomery had beaten some of the teams in the Top 10 in the county,” Hiatt-Aleu said. “We were really focused and stayed on task in all aspects of the game. It wasn’t pretty, but we got the result. We smothered them the whole game and didn’t give them any space.”

The Central League in boys’ soccer competition is considered to be one of the better groupings in San Diego County and that was proven Thursday when the Islanders traveled to Crawford and came away with a 2-2 draw. Sacal scored one of the goals and was joined by Kyle Runyon, who scored his first goal of the season for Coronado. “Kyle played well Thursday,” Hiatt-Aleu, praising the sophomore. “That was his first game in a long time because he had been hurt.”

Hiatt-Aleu provided some insight to the contest. “Crawford is a good team. They have three very good individual players and they are very aggressive as a team. This was a good score for us. We started slow and got intimidated early. We worked hard to push our lines up. Then we went up 2-1 and couldn’t hold it at the end. We got caught a little bit, lost our marks and got tied up.”

Assessing the week as a whole, Hiatt-Aleu commended Connor Marcone and Peter Kittiaysawadi for their play and added that Sergio Duck had a solid week in goal.

Overall the Islanders stand at 7-2-3, with a symmetrical 1-1-1 record thus far in Central League competition. Hiatt-Aleu knows the current season is drawing to a quick conclusion. “We still need to come together as a team and hopefully we will before the season ends. We won three games in a row to start, but we have had mixed results since. We’re a little over half way through the season and we need to start playing a little better now.”

This week the Islanders host Madison Tuesday at 6 pm and Thursday they are away at Hoover, where they will face the first place Cardinals.

CHS Girls Soccer Wins Two of Three Games Last Week

The good news is that the CHS Girls Soccer Team dominated two South Bay rivals last week, dominating Chula Vista 5-0 and then took apart Otay Ranch 4-0. Unfortunately their week concluded with a 1-0 loss at Christian in Coronado’s first Western League contest of the season.

Tuesday the Islanders rode the scoring streak of sophomore Lauren Tobin, who scored twice, as did Mackenzie Coutts. The game was well in hand so Head Coach Kiko Medina unleashed his secret offensive weapon, starting goalie Andrea Davis on the Spartans and she scored a goal as well.

The game marked the return of Coutts to the Islander lineup. The senior had experienced significant foot-related problems, to the extent that she thought she might not be able to play this season. “Luckily for us she came back, because she is a big factor on the team,” said Medina. “She was fitted for some special orthotics that allow her to run, cut and play. It took her a while to get used to them and to get fit. Now she is fit and will play a lot of minutes. She is left-footed, which allows her to take free kicks and corners, which makes a big difference.”

Against Otay Ranch, Tobin and Coutts both found the back of the net, along with Brianna Baszak and Danielle Gillberg to account for the Islanders scoring and the 4-0 final score.

Friday afternoon it was off to Christian, which is a Bermuda Triangle of sorts for the Coronado Girls Team, according to Medina. “I don’t know what it is, but for some reason every year I have been here, we struggle when we are playing out there. Maybe it’s the dryness in the air or the field. They have an unbelievable national team player at Christian and we gave her too much space and she created a corner kick. Then she got a free header on goal. That was it and the final was 1-0. We tried, but we weren’t on. We missed a couple of sitters in front of the goal. We couldn’t get anything going.”

This week brings the start of a series of important games for the Islanders as they host La Jolla Monday at 6 pm and then Wednesday play the Academy of Our Lady of Peace at Cuyamaca College at 3 pm. The following Monday, the Islanders host Cathedral Catholic at 7 pm. All three games are against quality opponents and are important in both the Western League standings, but in the CIF Division III seeding process. 

CHS Girls Soccer Fundraiser Slated for Feb. 6

A reminder that the Second Annual CHS Girls Soccer Golf Tournament fundraiser is scheduled for Friday, February 6^th, and will have a 12 noon shotgun start. The tournament will be played at the Sea N Air Golf Course at NAS North Island.

Fees are $100 per player or $400 per team. The tournament fee includes greens fees, golf cart, box lunch and a drink ticket. The registration deadline is Jan. 23^rd. For more information please go to islandergirlssoccer.com.

Islander Boys Basketball Team Tops Christian

Friday night the Christian Boys Basketball Team came to Coronado with a 3-0 mark in the Central League and a shooting guard in the person of Brazilian import Luiz Bidart, who was averaging a sparkling 28 points per game. At the end of the contest, won by Coronado 53-40, Christian had fallen from the ranks of the undefeated in league play and Bidart was held to 19 points, which is where our story begins.

In the 1986 movie “Hoosiers” the Hickory High School head basketball coach played by Gene Hackman tells his best defender that he wants to know by the end of the game what kind of gum the other team’s star player is chewing. That’s because the Hickory defender will be really closely guarding the other squad’s star.  Islander senior guard Blake Malkemus, who scored two points Friday night, but had a major impact on the game while guarding Bidart, could well have told Coronado Head Coach Ken Caesar ‘Dentyne’ at game’s end.

“He’s always the guy that gets the tough assignment,” said Caesar of Malkemus. “He can guard a two (shooting) guard or a ball handler. He can guard whoever you need him to guard. Blake made him work and Bidart had to find other places to score. Blake does such a good job and he is able to run with a guy for the entire game.”

While guarding Bidart, Malkemus got into foul trouble in the first quarter, before successfully returning to his defensive assignment in the second half. During the interim, sophomore guard Justin Hebner took over the defensive duties, a fact not lost on Caesar. “Justin played well and he had limited turnovers. He guarded Bidart and hit some big shots for us. He’s starting to get a little more comfortable on the court.”

Another key to the game was that Coronado had only nine turnovers in the game, which for a high school game played at this level of physicality, is very few. “We’ve been stressing all week that we need to take care of the ball,” said Caesar. “The guys making our decisions with the ball are ninth (Danny Hebert) and tenth graders (Hebner). Danny and Justin took care of the ball for us coming down the stretch.”

The Christian game also saw junior Brian Allen have one of his best games for the Islanders, scoring 12 points, to join Hebert for the team lead. Caesar was quite pleased with Allen’s performance. “We saw in that game how he can shoot it and slash to the basket. He’s starting to put it together, running it down the court. Playing like that he is hard (for the opposition) to deal with. We will need him down the stretch. Also, Chris Maskevich had a good game. I told the team, ‘You guys are going to get better as we go along.’ Now we need to start to do it in back to back games.”

In addition to the dozen each from Allen and Hebert, Hebner and Krishna Samperio added nine points each, Maskevich accounted for seven points, Malkemus and newcomer Hank Stevens had two points each and Josh McNeal added a point and supplied some good defensive minutes on the floor. Samperio’s three-point play on an offensive rebound and foul shot, helped clinch the win for Coronado. All nine of Samperio’s points came in the fourth quarter. Despite the 13-point final spread, and the fact that Christian never held the lead, the game was competitive throughout.

Now comes the tough part, for Coronado, with two road games before they return for three straight at home.  Tuesday the Islanders travel to recent Central League addition Point Loma for a 4:45 pm game. Friday Coronado travels to Clairemont for a 7:30 pm tip-off.

Salute to NJROTC Color Guard

One of the many things that Coronado High School does better than most schools is the way our home sporting events are presented, beginning with the presentation of the Colors and the National Anthem. This added bit of class is performed by the school’s Islander Company from the award-winning Navy Junior ROTC program under the direction of Captain Lee Pontes.

Friday night at the home basketball doubleheader four of the 15 cadet volunteers who participate in the ceremonies throughout the year were on hand, including Cadet Petty Officer Second Class Michael Cerdinio, Cadet Petty Officer Third Class Devyn Harmer, and Cadets Peter Gumataotao and Stephanie Hopkins.

Thanks to those four students for taking their time to honor our country and for the time they put in to make the beginning of home sporting events memorable.

Girls Basketball Splits Two Contests Last Week

You could say it was ‘an up and down week’ for the Islander Girls Basketball Team, as reflected by their loss at Francis Parker Tuesday by the score of 54-24 and their 37-21 home victory over Christian. Thirty point losses aren’t typically followed by 16 point wins, but that was the case last week.

While discussing the Parker game, Islander Head Coach Toler Goodwin said, “We played poorly all the way around.” So, after pointing out that Maggie Harris and Angela Strohbeck led Coronado in scoring with seven points each, we’ll advance our narrative to Friday night.

Hosting Christian in the first game of the Girls/Boys doubleheader, the Islanders, now 6-5 overall and 3-0 in Central League play, held a 25-7 lead at halftime and essentially coasted downhill to the finish.

Continuing our line of thought regarding the importance of defense from the Boys Basketball section above, freshman Peri Curtis had five rebounds, one steal, and two blocked in the first quarter alone to help set the tempo for Coronado. Fellow frosh CoCo Abrantes led all scorers in the contest with 12 points, followed by Strohbeck with eight, Alexandra Evans added four points, Curtis, Harris and Cory DeMarco added three each, with Megan Weisenfeld and Delaney Luna scoring two points each.

“They are all getting better,” said Goodwin of his very young team. “It’s a function of playing. They are getting more confident in what they can do. We have to run our offense through Strohbeck so she can control what happens and when it happens. Our younger players can’t force action that isn’t there. We’re trying to clean that up. We have to continue to make that look in there (the post) every time. We’re starting to mature a little bit on the court. We occasionally see some great moments.”

Tuesday the Islanders play at home, hosting Point Loma for a 5 pm tipoff. Friday night the girls play the opening game of the Coronado at Clairemont Girls/Boys doubleheader, which has a 6 pm starting time.

Coaches Versus Cancer Girls Basketball Event in Coronado Saturday, Feb. 7

One of the better girls basketball competitive gatherings held in one place this season, will be conducted at the Coronado High School Gymnasium Saturday, Feb. 7 when the Coaches Versus Cancer event comes to town.

The Coaches vs. Cancer event, the proceeds from which go to the V Foundation for cancer research, features seven games, all of which can be seen for a single $8 admission fee.

Starting at 11 am, La Jolla plays Morse; at 12:30 pm Scripps Ranch plays Serra; at 2 pm Mission Bay plays Mira Mesa; at 3:30 pm Coronado plays Hoover; at 5 pm Santana plays San Marcos; at 6:30 pm San Diego takes on El Capitan and the finale is scheduled for 8 pm when The Bishop’s School plays Mt. Carmel.

Recapping, that’s seven top-flight games for a total of $8, which benefits a great charity. How can you lose?

Girls Water Polo Posts Rare Losing Week

Last week, after nearly a full two weeks away from game competition, the CHS Girls Water Polo Team, returned to Western League play for two games and then competed in one of the toughest prep water polo tournaments in the country. All in all they played a total of six games, two of which went into overtime.

The week started Wednesday with an 11-8 overtime home loss to Bishop’s. Sidney Hoshko, Michelle Carrol, and Hillary Estrada all had two goals each, while Kathryn Bailey and Ashley Young scored once each. Maddie Murphy led the offense with three assists and goalie Alex Adamson was credited with eight saves.

“It was a good game where we melted down a bit in the fourth quarter,” said Head Coach Dave Throop. “We allowed a 4-2 scoring run by Bishops. We didn’t play well, which has been the case for a little while. We had a two week layoff which affected our timing, especially on offense. Once we lost Young and Kelly Ronimus to foul trouble (in the third and fourth quarters respectively), it was clear that we were a little confused in our roles with the new group of personnel. To give Bishop’s credit, they capitalized on our lack of offense to jump start their offense.”

The following day, the Islanders dominated La Jolla 12-6 on the road, which included jumping out to a 5-1 lead in the first quarter. Estrada had a great day with four goals, three assists, four steals and two field blocks. Young and Ronimus had two goals each, with Bailey, Hoshko, Carroll and Shelby Couture all scoring once each. Goalie Colleen Moore was credited with three saves in the fourth quarter.

Then it was on to the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, which opened Friday with Coronado defeating Palos Verdes 7-5. Young, Murphy, and Carroll scored twice each, with Estrada scoring once and Adamson having six saves and two steals.

Later that day the Islanders lost to Newport Harbor 8-3, with Young, Ronimus and Estrada each supplying one goal. “We played very well against Newport, much better than the score indicates,” Throop said. “It was 5-2 at the end of three quarters and we were 0-4 in player advantage power plays in that time. We clawed back to 5-3 and saw it quickly become 6-3 in favor of Newport. Then we missed another man-up opportunity and Newport capitalized quickly again.”

Saturday’s first game was a 13-6 loss to Laguna Beach, where the Islanders trailed 5-0 in the first quarter. “We came out flat and the 6-3 halftime score was as closest we could make it,” Throop added.

The final Santa Barbara Tournament game was the 7^th/8^th place game against Foothill, which Coronado lost 7-6 in overtime. Young had three goals, with Murphy, Estrada and Bailey finding the back of the net once each. Ronimus had three assists and Adamson earned eight saves.

The scores were 1-1 at the end of one quarter, 2-2 at halftime, 4-4 at the end of three quarters and 5-5 at the conclusion of regulation. At the end of the first of the two double overtime periods it was 6-6 before Foothill scored twice to Coronado’s lone goal in the final portion of overtime.

The Islanders now have a 7-6 overall record on the season and in the very short term, Throop wasn’t pleased. “The week could be described as ‘disappointing and frustrating’ due to the wins and losses and the way we played. But once we took a step back and looked at who we played, it was a very competitive week and we showed we can compete with anyone. All of the teams we played in the Santa Barbara Tournament are highly ranked in the CIF Southern Section. It was very good competition and a very tough schedule.

With finals this week, we have fewer practices, however that means the quality of our practices should increase. Friday and Saturday we host the 24-team America’s Finest City Tournament (details below). It’s time to get back to work and get the train back on the track.”

Americas Finest City Tournament This Weekend

As noted above, Coronado hosts the 24-team American’s Finest Tournament this week, at three sites including the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex, the Coronado Community Aquatics Center and the La Jolla Coggan Family Aquatics Complex.

Competing in the same three-team pool as Coronado are Malibu and Valhalla. Coronado will play Valhalla at 12 noon and Malibu at 6 pm on Friday. Competition pairings from there depend on won-loss records.

To see the complete tournament field, which includes El Toro, Poway, Tesoro, Vista, Agoura, El Modena, Chaparral, Ventura, and Whittier among others, please go to nadoaquatics.com, click on the link which says ‘Coronado Schools Aquatics programs,’ and then on the tab for ‘Women’s Amercia’s Finest City Tournament.’