Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

1 April 2009 Issue #13

Standing like a Colossus astride the Western League Softball standings are the Coronado Islanders, by virtue of their 14-13 road victory last week over La Jolla High School. Alright, it was the first league game for both teams and the season is still young, but there have been entire seasons when the Islander Varsity went winless in the perennially tough Western League.

Although extremely pleased with the victory, Coronado Head Coach Tony Isabella knows there is a lot of softball to be played when he said, “The rest of the year is going to be tough. The game was exciting and the lead changed quite a few times.”

In games where a lot of runs are scored, there are usually some outstanding offensive numbers posted, but Islander Kayla Englehart was the big winner individually against the Vikings. The talented sophomore was 4-4 at the plate, including two home runs to go nicely with five RBIs. In addition, she was also the winning pitcher, hurling the final three innings.

Also playing leading roles in the victory were Anik Ribera with a 2-4 day, which included a homer and two RBIs and Shannon Julius, who supplied the game-winning two-run homer at the top of the seventh inning.

Isabella mentioned other Islanders who were major contributors. “We had some excellent bunts from Brianna Feist, Jessica Adair and Lizzie Nebo. We also had some aggressive base running from Chantal Perez, who helped spark the victory. She has good wheels and is smart on the bases. She got the team pumped back up in the seventh inning.”

Like many good victories, this one had a great concluding play for the Islanders. Isabella supplies the narrative. “We were winning 14-12 and they had a runner on and the potential tying run was at the plate, with two outs. Their hitter hit a ball over Ribera’s head in the outfield. She picked up the ball, threw to the cutoff man Sandra Cepin, who threw a bullet strike to get the hitter at the plate and win the game. The whole play was a thing of beauty. Everybody was in position and in line and it worked.”

This week the Islanders seek to defend their lofty position atop the league standings as they travel to Point Loma Tuesday and then host Clairemont on Thursday. The opening pitch for both games will be at 3 pm.

Boys Golf Tops Clairemont

The CHS Boys Golf Team had a nice outing last week as they dominated the Chieftains 219-258. Medalist honors for the match went to Connor Pompa who carded a 39, followed by Robert Phelps with a 42 and Alex Valle who posted a 43.

“Juan Pedro Quintana, who is new to the team, shot a 44,” said Head Coach Randy Coutts. “That was a nice breakthrough for him. He gives us another player who can shoot between 39 and 45. He will be a good player for us down the road.”

Coutts continued with an assessment of the team. “We now have six pretty solid players and one developmental player. Pompa is getting pretty strong now and he will be real good by the end of the season. We’ll see what happens this week against Crawford, which will let us see where we are.”

Tuesday Coronado hosts Serra and Thursday the Islanders travel to the Rancho Bernardo Country Club to compete against Crawford. Both matches start at 3 pm.

CHS Track Teams Top Crawford

Coronado High School Head Track Coach George Green checks in with his report on last week’s happenings with the Boys and Girls Track Teams. “Let's just say that Crawford is going through a rebuilding period, so our track meet with them wasn't exactly like the USC-UCLA rivalry.

The final score for the Boys' meet was 86-44 and for the Girls' meet 106-11, both in favor of the Islanders. You can find full results for the meet on Islandertrack.com, but there were a few Coronado highlights. Running the 300 hurdles for the first time, Cassie Callahan clocked a 50.5 to join Maddie Danielson and Danielle Swanson as part of our great and growing long hurdle crew. Callahan also won the triple jump with a leap of 30 feet, 8 inches.

Danielle Gillberg looked good winning the 100 hurdles in 16.9 seconds, with Olivia Lillegraven and Swanson in close pursuit. Gillberg also cleared 4-10 in the high jump and should soon be over five feet.

Charles Westbrook won the 100 in 11.4, followed closely by Andrew Smith who won the 200 in 23.5. Will Bartsch cleared 12 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault and for the second time in a row, Phil Scott won the shot put, this time with a throw of 36-10. 

The girls distance running crew basically had an easy workout with Sallie Privett and Adie Davies saving their energy for Saturday's Mt. Carmel Invite. At Mt. Carmel, Davies placed second in the ‘B’ heat with a personal best time of 5:26.12. The ‘A’ heat turned into a tactical race with most of the top girls in the San Diego Section tripping over one-another for most of the race. Privett came out of it in seventh place, with a pretty good time of 5:13.62, considering the circumstances.”

Islander Girls Lacrosse Has Up and Down Week

The CHS Girls Lacrosse Team played three times last week, defeating local rivals La Jolla and Cathedral Catholic, games which were sandwiched around a loss to the No. 2 team in the United States, St. Stephen and St. Agnes.

The Saints hail from Virginia and CHS Head Coach Jessica Battle competed against the national powerhouse and their coach Kathy Jenkins during Battle’s prep playing days. The Saints who feature a lineup complete with seven players who will compete at the next level, defeated Coronado 14-1. The Saints played four games on a West Coast swing and won all four contests, including a 13-1 win over La Costa Canyon the night before they played Coronado.

Your Natterer (I’m Going ‘Third Person’ alert) has seen roughly 50 lacrosse games in person over the years, and the Saints are the best passing team, boys or girls, I’ve ever seen.

The games that mattered most however were the City Conference victories over La Jolla by the score of 11-6 last Tuesday and Cathedral Catholic Friday by the score of 8-5. “The La Jolla victory was good, as they are our long-time rivals,” Battle said. “Usually we have a cakewalk for the majority of the season, but the level of play has gotten increasingly better across the board. Sometimes the girls are not expecting that.”

Battle said that senior midfielder Melissa Humphrey and goalie Taylor Udell played well against the Vikings. Jillian Reidy and Michaela Guerrera both scored three goals for Coronado against La Jolla. Battle noted the fine play of line defender Jenna Harrison in the Cathedral game.

This week the Islanders host Serra Tuesday. Wednesday, the Islanders ranked No. 13 in California by westsidelax.com, travel to No. 4 ranked Torrey Pines. Both games start at 7 pm.

Islander Baseball Goes 2-1 Last Week

The Islander Baseball Team won twice in the annual City Conference Tournament last week, as they handily defeated Crawford 21-1. Kyle Couture threw three scoreless innings and Austin Hunter pitched the final two frames. Offensively Ryan Shepherd scored three runs, and went 2-4 at the plate with a homer and four RBIs. Hunter, in addition to a fine pitching effort, was credited with three RBIs. The Islanders sent 17 different batters to the plate.

Tuesday Coronado handled Clairemont 14-3 as Justin Parsons threw five shutout innings to earn the win. Mason Mills was 4-5 at the plate, Keith Englehart was 3-4 and Shepherd was 2-3 with three RBIs.

Thursday the competition stiffened considerably as Mira Mesa visited Coronado and emerged with a 7-0 shutout victory over the Islanders. The Marauder pitching staff had a no-hitter into the fifth inning, which was broken up by a ringing double down the left field line from junior first baseman Hunter Ralph. In the sixth inning, Parsons singled sharply to place Coronado runners on first and second base, but the rally died there. And those were the only two hits of the game for the Islanders.

Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci re-capped the week. “Against Crawford, everything went our way. Clairemont played reasonably well and they might do okay in the Central League. We swung the bats and our pitching and defense were solid. We are able to beat ‘okay’ teams, but we’re not tough enough yet to beat better quality teams. I don’t know why we aren’t hitting better. We have several gritty kids who got it done last year.”

In the Mira Mesa game, senior pitching standout Bryan Crabb had his best outing of the season, at one point in the proceedings striking out nine of the first 17 batters he faced. According to Ceci, the San Diego State-bound Crabb deserved a better fate. “He was as sharp in that outing against Mira Mesa as he has been this season. He had much more command this time out.” All in all, Crabb yielded two hits and three earned runs, while going five innings.

By losing to Mira Mesa, the Islanders are likely to be out of the running for the weekend’s festivities in the City Conference playoffs and finals. Mira Mesa would have to lose to either Clairemont or Crawford for the Islanders to advance and that is unlikely. Coronado is left with a game at Morse Tuesday to complete City League Tournament play. The Islanders have an unexpectedly open weekend and will probably take a team trip Saturday to see Coronado alumnus and current UC Davis outfielder Danny Cepin play against San Diego State Saturday.

However, the pace picks up again the following week when the Islanders compete in the Lions Tournament. Their first opponent is Steele Canyon, a team that Ceci described as, “Real strong last year, with everybody returning this year. Their pitcher Andrew Bellatti is supposed to be one of the best in the county.” Other pool play opponents in the Lions event include Palisades High School from L.A. and El Camino Real, who were state champions recently.

Boys Tennis Fights the Good Fight

Last week the CHS Boys Tennis Team played twice, and lost to San Dieguito 13-5 and Scripps Ranch 15-3. The first match, a non-league affair, found Luke Hoffman, Sean Lee and Brad Mathews all winning a set in singles. The doubles tandem of Patrick Holman and Robbie Cattell won a set as did the pairing of Andrew Stump and Luke McCue.

The Scripps Ranch match was a Western League contest and the doubles team of Daniel Grazian and Holman won all three of their sets. “They played real well together,” said Islander Head Coach Jim Mashburn.

This week the Islanders, who sport an overall record of 5-4, have two Western League matches and both are on the road. They play at La Jolla Tuesday and at Cathedral Catholic Thursday, with both matches scheduled to start at 3 pm.

Winner’s Edge Water Polo Clinic to Run from April 6-9

If you are looking for an opportunity to introduce your child to the sport of water polo, or you just want to get the apple of your eye out of the house during spring break, an all-encompassing water polo clinic will be held at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center from April 6-9.

There will be fundamental instruction for boys and girls from the ages of 8 to 12, including swimming skills for the game, basic rules and strategies, and ball handling and shooting skills. There will be classroom instruction for this age group from 1:30 to 2 pm, with pool time scheduled from 2-3 pm.

For experienced players between the ages of 13-17, the schedule will include classroom time from 2-3 pm and pool time from 3-5 pm. This group will receive position-specific instruction, strength training and injury prevention instruction, and sports nutrition information.

Costs for the younger group are $65 and the experienced group is $100. Discounts for Coronado Aquatics Club members apply.

The strength of the clinics is found in the roster of coaches assembled to instruct the attendees. The staff is headed by Randy Burgess and Dave Throop, the CHS Boys and Girls Water Polo Head Coaches respectively. Also included are Paralympic competitor Joe McCarthy; Olympian and CHS Grad Genai Kerr; former NCAA Player of the Year, CHS and Stanford alumna Katie Hansen; Devon McIntyre, a CHS and UCLA grad; Coach Jim Brumm from Foothill Santa Ana; and Julie Huber, director of Water and Sport Physical Therapy.

For more information regarding the Winner’s Edge Water Polo Clinic, please contact Coach Burgess at 619-851-9733 or via E-mail at rbpolo@gmail.com.