Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

8 April 2009 Issue #14

Coronado Girls Lacrosse had a nice week, starting with a conclusive 14-3 victory over Serra. According to Head Coach Jessica Battle, “Everybody was able to play. We had goals and assists across the board, which was great.”

But the big game of the week was played on the road Wednesday, as the Islanders trekked northward to Torrey Pines to play one of the better teams in the state on their turf. The Islanders paced by four goals from Jillian Reidy, two goals and an assist from Melissa Humphrey, and two goals each from Coco O’Brien and Anna Turpit, emerged with a 10-8 victory.

According to Battle, the defense played well also. “Goalie Taylor Udell had two huge saves in the last two minutes of the game and she played very well. Jenna Harrison, Kirsten Krock and Lainey Mebust did well defensively.”

Sports polls are ethereal by nature, designed to generate discussion and to provide ink-stained wretches like yours truly with a hook on which to hang a story. Going into last week’s game at Torrey Pines, it was duly noted in this space that the Falcons were ranked No. 4 in the state and Coronado was pegged at No. 13. This week the Islanders are No. 5 in the state, with Torrey Pines falling to No. 10. 

Perhaps the point to be made is that the Islanders are quite good and that designation will be challenged when the team returns from spring break. “We play at La Costa Canyon the Tuesday after we get back from break,” Battle said. “And then we play Poway that Friday at home. Those are two pretty big games for us.”

The lone, strong foe Coronado faces on the conference level is La Jolla. However, the county-wide competitive nature of lacrosse is important especially at CIF playoff seeding time. Currently La Costa Canyon is parked at No. 6 in the state by westsidelax.com, one slot behind the Islanders, with Poway lurking at No. 16. Tuesday’s road game at La Costa Canyon, will face-off at 5:30 pm. The Friday home tilt against Poway is scheduled for a 7 pm start.

Islander Baseball Tops Morse in Lone Game Last Week

Tournament play in baseball can be tough. Take the case of the Islander Baseball Club, which won three of their four games in their division of the City Conference Tournament, but couldn’t advance past pool play. The final of their four City Conference games was played last Tuesday, when the Islanders defeated Morse 8-1.

Kyle Couture was the winning pitcher, allowing no earned runs over five innings, and effectively scattering four hits. The senior right-handed hurler was also the hitting star of the game, going 2-3 with an RBI at the plate. Justin Parsons and Keith Englehart each had a hit and two RBIs. The Islanders had a total of eight hits, provided by a total of seven players. The runs scored were similarly spread out with eight different players scoring one run each.

“Morse is a pretty well-coached team and improved from the last couple of years,” said Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci. “Couture threw well and had a good day at the plate.”

Coronado now proceeds to play in the Lions Club Tournament, where they will participate in the Premier Division, playing against some seriously stiff competition. The event is in its 59^th year and will host 112 teams spread over seven divisions.

The good news is that all three of Coronado’s bracket games will be at home. Monday the Islanders play Division II powerhouse Steele Canyon with the first pitch at 12 noon. Tuesday at 1 pm the Islanders host Palisades (Los Angeles) High School. Wednesday at 10 am El Camino Real (Los Angeles) will play at Coronado with a first pitch set for 10 am.

Thursday the Islanders will host the 3A semi-finals and finals. The semi-final games will be played at 9 am and 12 noon, with the finals slated for 3 pm. Although the Islanders will be toiling elsewhere, hosting these game is recognition that Islander Field, located behind Silver Strand Elementary School, is one of the finest playing facilities in San Diego County.

Playing in the Premier Division, where the competition is tougher, has its advantages according to Ceci. “From a school enrollment point of view, we could play in the 2A division. Two years ago we won the 5A division and last year we played in the Premier finals. In the Premier division, you are guaranteed a fourth game and at this point in the season, you want to get as many games in as you can. Typically we play pretty well in this tournament.”

So, it’s four games, possibly plus playoffs this week and then it gets easier? Not so fast. “We start play in the Western League next week,” said Ceci, allowing himself a brief glimpse into the future. “Tuesday and Thursday of the following week we play Point Loma home and away. They won the City Conference Tournament and beat both Mira Mesa and Scripps Ranch.”

In other CHS baseball news, the Islander JV Baseball team, which is now 14-0, won the JV version of the City Conference Tournament. They defeated Mission Bay 18-5 in the semi-finals and clipped St. Augustine 9-7 in eight innings to win the event.

Track and Field News

If it’s spring time, then we have Islander Track and Field news to impart, supplied by CHS Head Coach George Green. “The Coronado traded wins with Hoover last Thursday with the Girls winning by the score of 74-22 and the Boys losing 86-45.

For most of the girls' team it was pretty much a timed workout, with a couple of notable performances. Brianna Giorgione won the pole vault with a personal best mark of 9 feet, 6 inches. Sallie Privett and Adie Davies placed 1-2 in the 800 meters, while cruising to times of 2:28 and 2:33 respectively, as a tempo workout in preparation for the Elmer Runge Invitational at Patrick Henry on Saturday.

The most exciting race of the day was the girls' 400 meters, with sophomore Sadie Gimber seemingly overmatched against San Diego's top runner in that event, Hoover's Vanessa Houston.  As expected Houston took a big lead, but started to tighten-up with about 100 meters to go. Seeing this, Gimber put on the afterburners, and caught her at the finish in a dead-heat in 63 seconds flat. 

The boys' team didn't have it quite so easy. Tim Conway won the long jump with a personal record of 18 feet. Phil Scott also set a personal best while winning the shot put with a toss of 39 feet 6 inches. Scott has won the shot put in all three of our dual meets so far this season.

In the sprints Andrew Smith ran 11.3 in the 100 meters and 23.2 in the 200. Mike Gasparro was right behind Smith in the 200 with a time of 24.0 and placed second in the 400 with a time of 54.7. 

At the Runge Invitational, both Privett and Davies ran the featured Thom Hunt Mile with Privett placing second to Sammy Silva from Our Lady of Peach for the second year in a row. Davies clocked a personal record of 5:23 to make the podium as the fifth place finisher.”

Boys and Girls Swimming

Islander Head Swim Coach Dave Throop checks in with a report on the Islander Boys and Girls Swim Teams and their progress thus far this season. “Overall, I believe we are as aerobically fit as any team we've had in awhile. 

The attitudes and efforts in our training have been good and we are just starting to get into the specific phases of training and the tactical elements that will allow us to race faster.   It should be a good couple weeks of training, and we should see a difference in performance, starting in about two or three weeks. Then we will build upon that for the month of May and the City Conference Championship and the CIF Championship meets. 

On Friday, April 3, we swam against Bishops at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center. With a few illnesses and injuries, we went into the meet with a bit of a skeleton crew, but some performances were good.  We used some of the stronger individual performers in off events, and used that opportunity for some of their teammates to swim well in their stronger events.  It worked well I believe, and we had a few good races. 

On the men's side, the 200 Medley Relay of Andrew Ireland (back), Jackson Hummeldorf (breast), Rex Butler (fly) and Michael Aguilar (free) cruised to a 1:46.63, which was about three seconds faster than the nearest competitor.  The women's relay, which consisted of Maddie Murphy (back), Rachel Rodriguez (breast), Ashley Young (fly) and Kelly Ronimus (free), took second with a time of 1:58.92.  To provide a little history, those times the groups swam were times we would hope to shoot for in a conference championship meet in some years. 

Here's are some other highlights. In the 200 free,   Hannah Green (2:08.85) and Michelle Carroll (2:09.49) swam season-bests for themselves, while Tommy Schofer (1:53.18) swam a personal best record and Brennan Casey (2.01.15) swam a nice race. 

In the 50 free, Butler swam a 22:09 and could have been under the 22-second mark. Hopefully he will be close to the low 21's by the end of the season.  In the 100 fly, an off event for him, Ireland swam a 55.94, outpacing the nearest swimmer by three seconds.  In the 100 free, Ronimus swam a 55.00 and Murphy finished in 56.90. Both swam well in their race and it's a good sign for the relays that we have multiple individuals below the 57 second mark at this time of the season. 

Paul Pedrotty swam a good 52.85 on the boys’ side. In the 500 free,  Young in what amounts to a training event for her, swam a 5:22.20, while Laura Luttrell finished with a strong time of 5:59.41.  Schofer swam a 5:17.57 which is good to see from him, as he's been working extremely hard in the event. Finally, in the 100 breast, Garret Sabesky finished in 1:07.55, Jackson Hummeldorf at 1:07.96 and Braydon Hummeldorf in 1:14.12, and all of them swam well. \ Green, who swam the event in 1:16.09 and Natalie Stringer, who finished in 1:21.22, both performed well also.”

CHS Boys Golfers Score Well, But Fall to Crawford

Last week the Islander Boys Golf Team played Crawford at the Rancho Bernardo Country Club and fell by the score of 203-210. “We lost a tough one,” said Head Coach Randy Coutts. “It was one of those days, where we teed off behind another group and it was freezing cold and dark by the time we finished. But the kids hung in there. If we had shot one stroke better, per person, we would have won. We outplayed them tee to green, but around the green Crawford is good. All of our kids shot right where their average is.”

The good news is that Coronado supplied the match medalist in the person of Connor Pompa, who shot an even par round of 36. Also, according to Coutts, the Rancho Bernardo course is tricky if you haven’t played it before. “It’s a pretty tough course around the greens and the traps. The greens are quite a bit faster than our course. The greens are tough to putt. We should have a good match next time we play them at our course.”

This week the coaching staff (Coutts) is thinking outside the box a bit. Monday the Islanders play St. Augustine. But then Coutts goes off the reservation, pun intended. “We’re going to have a Ryder Cup-style match Thursday and Friday. We’re going to play at Pechanga Thursday and Barona Friday and play 36 holes a day, for two days.”

Islander Girls Softball Record Now 4-4

As Head Coach Tony Isabella said last week when the Islander Softball Team was 1-0 in the Western League, “The rest of the year is going to be tough.” After opening with a 14-13 road win at La Jolla, last week the Islanders fell to Point Loma 14-4 and to Clairemont 10-1.

Isabella, a convivial sort by day, was still incensed at the umpire working behind the plate in the Point Loma loss, nearly a week after the fact. Skipping the prologue and going directly to the punch line, Isabella said, “Point Loma is a good team, but they didn’t need the help. Even the Point Loma fans were commenting on the umpiring. Brianna Feist pitched a good game, despite the umpire.”

Olivia Nebo was 3-3 at the plate, including hitting for three-fourths of the cycle with a single, a double and a triple. “She also played great defense behind the plate,” Isabella noted.

The Clairemont game was closer than the score would indicate, as the Islanders trailed 4-1 after six innings. “We actually played them pretty tight,” said Isabella. “Kayla Englehart was 3-4 at the plate and pitched a good game. Shannon Julius was 2-4 and made some fine plays in centerfield. Liz Nebo and Rachel Bible shared second base and did an excellent job.”

With an overall record of 4-4, the Islanders will do battle with a very good Bishop’s team Monday during spring break. The game will be played at home with a 4 pm first pitch.

Strasburg and Cepin Battle at Petco Park

Friday while perusing “The San Diego Union-Tribune” sports page, that fact that college pitching phenom Stephen Strasburg was pitching against UC Davis at Petco Park later that day leapt off the page. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Strasburg, after graduating from West Hills High School, he signed with the Aztecs and added 10 miles per hour to his low-90’s fastball. Some scouts are employing the sobriquet ‘Best College Pitcher Ever’ when describing the 6-foot, 5-inch right-handed Strasburg.

The same scouts are also saying that the aforementioned fastball isn’t his best pitch. That designation is reserved for the Strasburg curveball (Deuce, Yakker, Hook, Uncle Charlie, take your pick) that freezes hitters on both sides of the plate.

The matchup had an added extra appeal, which was that CHS Alumnus Daniel Cepin (CHS ’07) is the starting centerfielder for the Aggies. So it would be good to see the left-handed hitting Cepin, who was batting .338 with an on base percentage of .415, take on Strasburg.

Round One went to Cepin, who opened the game with an infield single (looks like a line drive in the box score) to quickly quash any silly talk of a no-hitter. Later in the four-game series, the balance of which was played at Tony Gwynn Stadium on the SDSU campus, Cepin would hit a three-run homer to help UC Davis win the fourth and final game between the two schools.  The Aztecs prevailed in the series 3-1.

Strasburg, who by his own admission in print the following morning, didn’t have his best stuff Friday afternoon. He yielded three hits over six innings and shut out the Aggies during his mound stint.

The Petco Stadium scoreboard, with the pitch count and speed operating sporadically, clocked Strasburg between 95-98 miles an hour all afternoon. But it was the 80-81 mile an hour curve, that broke somewhere between 18 inches and two feet down and across, that was mesmerizing. Talk about the movement on the fast ball, the tight break on the curve and the seemingly unfair change-up and it boils down to the fact that Strasburg is going to be a very wealthy man in short order. If you get a chance to see Strasburg pitch while he is still wearing the Aztec red and black, do so. If not, he’ll be coming to a Major League stadium near you very soon.