Nado Natterings
A weekly column by David Axelson

26 August 2009 Issue #32

San Diego Charger Head Coach Norv Turner had to be seriously conflicted regarding his team’s 17-6 exhibition victory over the Arizona Cardinals last week. There were positives including the nearly meaningless win, which evened the team’s pre-season record at 1-1. More importantly, the Chargers apparently didn’t sustain any major player injuries.

Other positive elements included the fact that when the starting squads left the game, the score was 7-3 in favor of San Diego. Veteran back-up quarterback Billy Volek engineered a scoring drive and looked like he wouldn’t hurt the Chargers if he was forced to play in place of starter Philip Rivers. Wide receiver Legedu Naanee, in his third year from Boise State, accounted for 70 yards total on two big plays and looks like he may be ready to contribute to the Charger offense this season. Placekicker Nate Kaeding nailed a field goal from 56 yards against the Cardinals, to partially atone for a missed chip shot the previous week.

Another positive was the play of linebacker Kevin Burnett, a fifth-year player from Tennessee who spent the last four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. Playing against the second team offense of the Cardinals, Burnett was a man among boys. It’s hard to believe the Cowboys have five or six better linebackers than Burnett in camp this year.

Turner had to lose sleep over some serious flaws in his team, which the Cardinals exposed early and often. The starting Cardinal defensive unit sacked Rivers four times, mostly with blitz packages that the Chargers offensive line simply could not contain. By now, every NFL team on the Chargers schedule this season knows about that deficiency and will attempt to exploit the Bolts offensive line. 

Next on the negative side, Charger special teams gave up kick-off returns of 88 and 61 yards, in part because the aforementioned Kaeding was only able to get his kickoffs to the Cardinal five-yard line on both returns. Charger special teams Coach Steve Crosby surely had an uncomfortable plane ride home Saturday night.

Not only did the offensive line fail to protect Rivers, but they also didn’t create any holes in the Cardinal defensive line for running backs LaDainian Tomlinson and Darren Sproles. In two games, both Tomlinson and Sproles, who account for roughly $10 million in payroll between them, are averaging less than three yards per carry. In both cases, their major yardage gains are coming on short swing passes out of the backfield. Not a good sign in the early going for a team that tries mightily to achieve offensive balance with their running and passing games.

Linebacker Shawn Merriman showed a slight uptick in his mobility from the previous week’s effort, but admitted to “San Diego Union-Tribune” staff writer Kevin Acee that he wouldn’t be fully ready to go until well into the regular season. As shown last year, the Chargers desperately need a healthy Merriman to compete on defense.

I could only handle the first half of the broadcast on KFMB Channel 8. Like watching “TMZ” on the local ABC affiliate, watching exhibition football reduces a person’s IQ at a geometrically increasing rate as the show progresses.

Game play-by-play announcer Ron Pitts and analyst Billy Ray Smith were marginally better this week than during their previous outing.  Smith actually pointed out that if the Cardinals are going to blitz our quarterback, then the Chargers should in turn aggressively rush Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner. It didn’t happen, but at least Smith acknowledged in a back-handed fashion that the Charger offensive line was being manhandled at the point of attack.

Pitts leapt lamely into the now-tired Ed Hochuli bashing sweepstakes during the broadcast. Hochuli, one of the NFL’s better referees, made an erroneous call last year that went against the Chargers and may have cost them a victory. Subsequently Hochuli admitted to all who would listen that he had made a mistake on the play, but by NFL rule, could not reverse his call. Over the summer, the NFL passed a rules change, that in the future, similar mistakes could be corrected.

Hochuli was assigned to Saturday night’s game, which is a wise move by the NFL. At one point in the first half, via instant replay which showed a Cardinal player to be out of bounds before recovering a Charger fumble, Hochuli awarded possession of the ball to San Diego. Pitts actually said the following after Hochuli announced the ruling, “As a Charger fan, thank you Ed.”

Mr. Pitts, the entire point is that you aren’t supposed to be a fan. Your job might best be summarized as describing to the viewer what is unfolding during the game, in case they dropped their pretzels during live action. Smith in turn is supposed to relate why the play happened as it did. Good run, great block freed running back, linebacker fought off blocker to make play, etc. Maybe Pitts will get the concept by Exhibition Game III, but don’t bet the house on it. 

CHS Cross Country Teams Off to a Running Start

CHS Head Cross Country Coach George Green provides an overview of the coming Girls and Boys Cross Country seasons. “With a summer of training under their belts the Girls Cross Country team returns this season as the prohibitive favorite to win the 2009 Division IV CIF title and repeat as the division champs. On paper, last year's 10-point victory over Bishop's should expand to a 40-point margin over the nearest competitor, probably Christian this year, with the top three teams advancing to the state meet in Fresno over Thanksgiving weekend. 

Leading the Islander pack is the 2008 CIF champion Sallie Privett followed in close pursuit by the rest of the 2008 scoring squad including Annie Lovering, Adie Davies, Sadie Gimber and Nicole Davies. Privett, Lovering and Adie Davies all sport sub 5:20 speed in the 1,600-meter run and Gimber was the Division II CIF 400 meter champion. Nicole Davies, just a frosh last year, is coming off a successful track season and should move up to All-Division status.

Last year's squad was pretty thin after our top five runners (the minimum needed for a cross country team), but this season we'll have better depth.  We picked-up a new runner from Poland High School in Ohio, junior Meg Sweeney. At Poland, Sweeney was one of the top runners on her team and fits in well with our varsity squad. Also new to the team is one of the top runners from last year's undefeated Middle School squad Ashley Engelman.

Other runners who could make an impact this season are 300-meter hurdle specialist Maddy Danielson, 400-meter runner Stephanie Pietkiewicz, and returnees Natalie Pettee and Alana Pokorny.  Pettee placed 15th in last year's Central League finals and has had a good summer of training, so she should move up. It'll be easier to repeat as Division Champs than to repeat as League Champs because perennial foe Clairemont is one the pre-season favorites in Division III.

Last year Coronado won the dual meet match-up with Clairemont by nine points (23-32) and both the Chieftains and the Islanders had four runners finish in the Top 10 at the league finals. Six out of their top seven runners are back from last year and if they've fortified their ranks like we have, it could be close.

The girls' team is mostly coached by Bill Davies, who not only has two girls competing on the varsity squad, but his wife Julie Davies is also the ISF booster club representative. The most difficult part of Bill's task is coordinating club soccer practice with cross country training and meets. He's a huge help to me and allows me to concentrate on the boy's squad.

The Boys team lost four members of last year's varsity group to graduation, including David Grimes, Sean O'Brien, Andy Centeno, and Cotter Stacy, so we're in a rebuilding stage. The top returning runners are Kevin Siefert, Will Funk and Aryan Shay, all of whom have had a good summer of training. As mentioned in the girls section above, a cross country team requires at least five runners (seven makes a full team) and at this point it appears that newcomers Ryan Keeney and Conner Wade as well returnees Nick Robles, Chase Dalton, Danny Luiken, Jack Nolan, Luke McCue, Gabe Salvatierra and Greg Wilson will be vying for those slots. It's too early to predict how the boys will fare this season, but from what I've seen over the summer, we should do pretty well.

 There are a number of freshmen ‘wild cards’ coming into both the boys and girls teams in addition to the runners mentioned above. At this point I don't know where they'll fit in. We're still accepting new runners, so if you're interested in joining our team please see our website at islandertrack.com.”

Coronado Middle School Sports Registration Aug. 26th

Wednesday evening, Aug. 26th registration will be held for the fall sports offerings of the ISF-CMS sports program in Granzier Hall at CMS. The meeting will start promptly at 6:30 pm and typically lasts for an hour.  Sports offered in the fall include Girls Volleyball, Girls Fun and Fit, Boys Baseball, Boys Flag Football, as well as Boys and Girls Cross Country. Sailing, which is being offered for the first time this fall, is now full.

The best way to register your child for the ISF-CMS Sports program is to visit the www.IslanderSportsFoundation.com website. The site, which was revamped over the summer under the direction of Cassandra Stroud, has been a major success thus far.

If your child would like to participate in one of the sports mentioned above, attendance at Wednesday night’s meeting is mandatory. Two of the forms found on the ISF website need to be completed and turned in during the meeting.  They are the two-page athletic physical which is to be signed by a doctor and must be current, and the emergency medical treatment form. Those items require signatures which cannot be performed on-line.

The fee for ISF-CMS Sports participation is $120 per child, per sport. Only one ISF-CMS sport can be played by a student during one season. There is no fee to register through the ISF website. Registration for all fall ISF-CMS Sports will close at the end of business Wednesday, Sept. 9th.

Winter sports offerings include Boys Basketball, Boys and Girls Soccer, Co-ed Golf, and Girls Softball. The registration meeting for those sports will be held Nov. 4.

If you have questions regarding ISF-CMS Sports, please call the ISF office at 435-1343.

Islander Boys Water Polo Looks to Take Advantage of Team Speed

Brute strength with a mixture of finesse normally represents the basic components for a successful CHS Boys Water Polo Team. But this year, with three High School All-American swimmers returning to the water polo program in Tommy Schofer, Rex Butler and Andrew Ireland, speed will definitely play a major role in the team’s success.

“We have a lot of speed,” said Head Coach Randy Burgess. “We’re as fast as any team and we need to translate that speed into goals in transition. Butler and Schofer also give us the strongest left-handed combination we have ever had. We’ve never had two quality lefthanders in Coronado at the same time. They will be our play makers on the left.”

But in water polo brawn is required in the center of the pool and a pair of senior center-forwards Alex Johnson and Asante Sefa-Boakye bring that element to the pool for Coronado. The remaining seniors, in total an eight-man group which Burgess describes as ‘the nucleus of the team,’ include Brennan Casey, David Rodriguez and Alex Aponte.

One of the larger losses, literally, from last season is goalie Justin Parsons, widely considered to be one of the best prep goalies in the nation. “We have strong expectations from our juniors, and we have two goalies trying to fill JP’s shoes,” said Burgess. “Garrett Sabesky and Braydon Hummeldorf will be our goalies. Another junior who will make an immediate impact is Patrick Geer.”

Burgess continued the countdown by class, which includes sophomores Van Burgess and Eitan Peled, two players who accumulated a lot of practice and game time as freshmen on the varsity a year ago. Sophomore Joe Rodgers rounds out the three-man goalie rotation.

Overall, the season will be a continuing work in progress, according to Burgess. “We have 19 athletes now on the varsity and another 19 on the JV. A total of 15 or 16 kids will get a lot of varsity time. We’re going to use the first part of the season to see how things are working and looking for team chemistry. We are also looking for improvements from a year ago in conditioning, growth and knowledge of the game. In terms of starters, I don’t know right now who all of them are. Clearly we have some very good players, but I don’t know if we are in superstar mode. We have lots of kids getting good playing time (in practice). It’s wide open right now in all positions. I have no idea how it is going to pan out, which is typical. We have a lot of guys who can contribute.”

One of the surprises of the coming season is the addition of another school to the local water polo pantheon, in this case Cathedral Catholic. Burgess elaborated on this development his pre-season overview. “Bishop’s will be strong again and La Jolla is a young team, much like we will be next year. The pre-season favorite is Cathedral. They have a lot of guys coming back and this could be their year.”

This Saturday the annual Draz Classic will be held at Rancho Bernardo High School. Coronado will scrimmage against Vista High School, with the starting time listed at 2:20 pm. Burgess plans to find playing time for most of his varsity roster. “We’ll use the scrimmage as a final evaluation before we get going. If the kids are healthy, they will play. Our first regular season game is Sept. 19 at Newport Harbor. They are the pre-season No. 1 in the nation. They were good last year, with everyone coming back. That game will provide a good start for us.”

Joining Burgess and Dave Throop on the Islander coaching staff this season are Duff Harold and recent SDSU graduate Erin Greenwood.

CHS Girls Varsity Tennis Team Takes Shape

Islander Girls Tennis Coach Rob LeBuhn recently announced his 12 player Varsity roster, which includes nine returning athletes and three new members. Returning players include Alex Rawlings, Andrea Sassenrath, Mary Mulvey, Sarah Moore, Kaitlyn McCue, Jackie Hites, Jordan Vaughn, Monica Holman and Brittany Kullberg.

New additions to the squad include Nikki Krueger, Heidi Jonson, and Brittany Henderson.

In the proverbial, ‘If the match were to be held today’ scenario, LeBuhn’s lineup would be Mulvey, Hites and Jonson playing singles, in that order, from No. 1 to 3. The doubles teams would be Rawlings and Sassenrath at No. 1, No. 2 Kruger and Kuhlberg, with Vaughn and McCue playing third doubles.

Coronado’s first match is slated for Sept. 3 when they play Tri-City Christian and the first Western League tilt of the year will be Sept. 22nd when the Islanders take on Scripps Ranch. According to LeBuhn, Cathedral Catholic and La Jolla figure to be the top two teams in the always tough Western League, again this year. 

“The girls had a grueling pre-season,” LeBuhn added. “We had two-a-days (practices) which ran from 7-9 am and in the afternoon from 4:30 to 6:30 pm, we played challenge matches. Everyone was tired, but happy when the pre-season ended.”

In other team news, the players voted McCue, Sassenrath and Holman as tri-captains. The Varsity and JV teams will have their Second Annual Disneyland Team Trip Sept. 19th.