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Nado Natterings |
A weekly column by David Axelson |
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16 September 2009 Issue #35
Even though classes started at Coronado High School three weeks ago, the sports calendar is churning a bit more slowly than the academic calendar. Perhaps an analogy can be drawn between the Gregorian calendar and the Julian calendar - oops let’s get back to the topic at hand. Currently most of the CHS teams are emerging from their scrimmage schedules and heading into their regular season games.
Islander Girls Volleyball Tunes Up in Fall Classic
If you are part of a prep Girls Volleyball program, the place to be over the weekend was the Epic Volleyball Club, home of the annual Fall Classic. “This is the best tournament in San Diego,” said Coronado Head Coach Leilani Au Hoon. “We played in this tournament last year and got kicked. La Jolla Country Day, Torrey Pines and Parker all play in this tournament.”
It’s a tradition of sorts in volleyball to amass a bunch of tournament games at the beginning of your season, to assist in the rapid development of your club for the conference season. In pool play for the Fall Classic, Coronado defeated Horizon and lost to Steel Canyon, Sage Falls from Orange County and the ever-present Academy of Our Lady of Peace, or OLP as it more commonly known. OLP and Coronado are both among the upper division teams in the Eastern Conference, but more on OLP later.
After pool play concluded the Islanders were assigned to the Silver Bracket, where the format turned to single elimination Saturday. Coronado fought their way through Granite Hills, Carlsbad and Grossmont, before facing OLP again in the Silver Bracket title game. Unfortunately OLP emerged victorious.
This might be a good time to re-wind that last paragraph, where Coronado defeated Carlsbad. “Last year we played Carlsbad first in this tournament and they beat us 25-4 and 25-4,” Au Hoon vividly recalled. “The girls were a little scared this year when we had to play them. We thought we might be going home early. They don’t have the players they had last year, but they are still a really good program and better than the teams in Division IV. We hope to build on that win. That match was so fun.”
For the record the scores were 25-23 and 25-23. Reminiscent of a David and Goliath scenario,
Carlsbad is the third largest high school in the San Diego Section and Coronado is 68th. Coach Au Hoon’s assessed who played well throughout the Fall Classic. “Kori Fitzgerald, Annie Wilson and Lainey Mebust all played really well and Alana Pompa played really well at setter. We don’t have a starting lineup yet and all three setters are fighting for a starting slot.”
Through the modern medical miracle of a third doctor’s opinion, senior Mariah Stacey has been cleared to continue playing, but must employ a knee brace on her left knee. As a three-person setting unit, senior Krista Baszak, Stacy and Pompa provide Au Hoon with the luxury of having three players who can all move the ball effectively on offense.
This week the Islanders start their league schedule with two road games. The first is against, you may have guessed by now, OLP on Wednesday. The second is Thursday at Morse. “We’re opening our league schedule against one of the better teams in the conference,” said Au Hoon of OLP. “It’s a good thing we played them twice in the Pyramid (site of the Fall Classic). We have a little heads up now on how they play and that should help us prepare for them.”
Coronado Girls Golf Posts 3-0 Regular Season Start
While mny of their CHS Fall Sports counterparts are just concluding their exhibition season, the Girls Golf Team has run off a nice little three-game regular season win skein. Last week the Islanders defeated Patrick Henry 284-308, at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course to run their record to 3-0. The previous week the Islanders bested both San Diego and Christian.
Leading the way for Coronado was Erin Dupree who shot a 54, while both Kendall Hoshko and Andrea Perez carded 55’s. As was reported last week, senior Bridgett Nielsen will not be able to play this season due to injury. Another off-course setback occurred when Giovanna Ascolani, who started her golf career at Coronado before transferring to a South Bay school, was denied the right to play for the Islanders this year after transferring back to CHS.
On the plus side, Lety Buil-McCarty reported to Islander Head Coach Hanna Cohan that she is taking full swings with golf club in hand and feels good regarding her recovery from injury. Wasting no time, to ponder the evolvement of say the Gregorian calendar, Cohan said, “I’ll play her this week.”
Another positive according to Cohan is the improvement of first time golfer Kayla Englehart. Heretofore better known for being the starting shortstop on the successful Islander Softball Team, Cohan said that Englehart “was excited that she is playing better. She is very strong,” said Cohan of the junior athlete. “This is her first year and we are thrilled she is out there. What is impressive about the team this year is that all of the girls are strong athletes. There are no slackers.”
This week the Islanders host Morse Monday at Coronado Municipal. Tuesday Coronado hosts Scripps Ranch and Madison, an event that will be counted as two matches with separate scoring posted against each of the other two schools.
CHS Cross Country Trains Hard Through Last Week
In-season polls conducted by ink-stained wretches should be taken with a grain of salt, unless of course the poll reflects your team in a really positive light. Such was the case last week when the Islander Girls Cross Country Team popped up in the No. 3 slot in a DyeStatCal.com state-wide poll of Division IV programs.
Holding the No. 1 slot was La Reina of Thousand Oaks and No. 2 was Morro Bay, both representing the CIF Southern Section. CHS Head Cross Country Coach George Green added, “Currently both the San Diego section and Central Coast Section send three Division IV teams to the state meet, but for several years before that we sent two and they sent four. There was a stretch of four consecutive years with San Diego Division IV teams placing in the state Top 10 (twice for Bishop's, once for LJCD and our finish last season) that caused the switch. If Santa Cruz (ranked No. 5 in the same poll) finishes ahead of us this year, the Central Coast Section may take their slot back.”Politics in sports? Who knew?
Green already has next week’s events plotted out. “Next weekend we'll have kids at two big invitational meets. One is the Mt. Carmel here at Balboa Park and a few girls (Sallie Privett, Meg Sweeney and Adie Davies) will compete at the Woodbridge Invitational in Irvine.”
Islander Girls Tennis Off to Strong Start
Head Coach Rob LeBuhn said over the weekend that he was, “still fiddling around with our line-up before Western League play begins Sept. 22nd. I’m still trying to determine who will play singles and doubles and at what numbers. We are getting some good indications (about our rosters) from our non-conference matches.”
Two weeks ago the Islanders tied Tri-City Christian 9-9 in set scores, but won on the tiebreaker, which is determined by the total number of games won, by the score of 72-64. This past week the Islanders took on two solid tennis programs in Granite Hills and Canyon Crest. Coronado lost to Granite Hills 10-8 and to Canyon Crest 12-3. In the latter match, a number of the sets ran longer than normal and three weren’t completed.
Against Granite Hills, Mary Mulvey at No. 1 singles, Heidi Johnson at No. 2 and Jackie Hites at No. 3 all won one match. The big winners for the day were the No. 1 doubles duo of Brittany Kuhlberg and Jordan Vaughan, who won all three of their sets. The No. 2 doubles team of Andrea Sassenrath and Nikki Kruger won one set, as did the No. 3 team of Layla Zbinden and Monica Holman. Against Canyon Crest, Hites playing at No. 2 singles won two sets and Sassenrath/Kruger, playing No. 1 doubles won one set.
This week the Islanders host Hilltop Tuesday at 3 pm.
Boys Water Polo Has Final Tune-ups Last Week
The CHS Water Polo programs, both Boys and Girls, usually follow a pattern of using all of their available scrimmages, opening their regular season against a strong out-of-section opponent, and then before you know it, they have played 15 games.
Thus far in the 2009 season, the Islanders just finished their scrimmage season with a three-sided affair among Esperanza, Servite and Coronado, played on the road last Saturday. “Esperanza and Servite will be among the Top 10 in their section,” said Coronado Head Coach Randy Burgess. “We played without two of our starters who had academic testing conflicts and we still performed very well. We had a short bench, without a lot of extra players.”
The short bench concept came to be because the Islander JV team was winning a South Bay varsity-level tournament hosted by Chula Vista and the Frosh/Soph team finished seventh in a 16-team JV tournament.
But back to the varsity, which played four games in the scrimmage, each consisting of two, nine-minute halves. “The games were shorter, but pretty intense,” Burgess said. “The guys were tired, but really played well. We had some little things wrong, but we’re playing at a higher level. That is part of our growth as a team. Garrett Sabesky and Braydon Hummeldorf played well in goal and they split the playing time evenly. We rotated the two-meter set position among Alex Johnson, Eitan Peled, and Asante Sefa-Boakye. Andrew Ireland and Brennan Casey did a good job on defense as did David Rodriguez. Lex Aponte and Patrick Geer were our two primary drivers.”
Van Burgess, Randy’s son and a sophomore driver on the varsity is battling a double health bogey of having a back problem and mono.
Over the weekend all three levels of the CHS Boys Water Polo program are in play at various events at Newport Harbor. The Newport varsity beat Foothill 16-3 last weekend, which means the Islanders need to have all cylinders firing Saturday for their game which starts at 7 pm. “We’ll take something positive away from Newport,” said Burgess. “We’ll have a very competitive season in our conference and in our division. We were very happy with our play Saturday.”
Islander Football Has Bye Week Before Friday’s Game at Laguna Beach
Last week the Islander Football Team was recovering from jet lag after returning from their game in Hawaii against the Kauai High School Red Raiders, which they lost 49-13. With a scheduled bye week built into the schedule, Coronado has this week to prepare for their road game Friday at Laguna Beach. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 pm.
“We’ll get going Monday and pull them back in this week,” said Head Coach Bud Mayfield of his team. “We’re back home and settled in.”
Mayfield reported that lineman Chris Paige was out of commission last week with a concussion suffered in the Kauai game, but expects the two-way lineman to return to action shortly.
Boys Basketball Parent Meeting Slated for Sept. 16th
“All boys interested in CHS Boys Basketball for the 2009-10 season need to have a parent attend the information meeting scheduled for Sept. 16,” said Boys Basketball Booster Club President Darrell Hebert. “The meeting will begin at 6 pm and is to be held in the physical education classroom located above the CHS gymnasium.”
According to Hebert, topics to be discussed include overall plans for all of the CHS Boys basketball teams for the season, the purchase of spirit packs and apparel, and coming travel opportunities. Varsity Head Varsity Coach J.D. Laaperi and his staff will be discussing the program and his plans for all three levels of play including varsity, JV and Frosh/Soph.
Pop Warner Football Report
All three levels of the Coronado Pop Warner Football program were in competition this past weekend, and here are the reports on their games, supplied by members of the respective coaching staffs.
“The Coronado Islander Pee Wees played Mount Helix on the road Saturday. Despite the fact that Mount Helix outmanned Coronado in number of players by nearly a 2 to 1 ratio, which caused many Islanders to have to play both offense and defense, the Islanders turned in another impressive performance.
Co-Captains Kyle Anderson and Tyler Clark anchored the offense and defense, while Thomas Scott made three hard-hitting tackles at linebacker. Anthony Ricketts played a solid tight end while Tyler Umansky did well at both cornerback and wing back. Chris Haas, Jack Arbaugh and Nick Horton all played well at linebacker. Co-Captain Michael Bukholt and teammates Patrick Wamsley, Paul Feightner, Niko Markakis and Ryan Meoni worked hard all day keeping the powerful Mount Helix defensive line at bay.
Chris Overstreet, Co-Captain Chase Brehm, Luke King, Jason Maracle and Christian Waterhouse all battled at their defensive backfield positions to limit the Mount Helix passing game. On the defensive line, DJ Jackson, Marshall Alldredge, Justin Davis and Ian Thorliefson all played hard in the trenches. Despite a valiant effort the Islanders fell to Mount Helix 33-0.
The Coronado Jr. Peewee game saw the Islanders travel to Valencia Park and lose in a defensive battle 6-0. Fumble recoveries were made by Wyatt Trujillo and Charlie Duffy, while both Jake Herman and Hugo Shirey-Villavicencio supplied some nice hits on the Hornets. Offensive lineman Joe Byrne provided some crushing blocks along with Alec Legidakes. Michael Wilson caught several balls, but the offense just couldn’t push across a score and lost a hard fought game.
The Islander Junior Midgets started Saturday's game a little slow, as they spotted the Valencia Park Hornets 21 points before they got over their nervousness and started playing football. The Hornets scored on the opening kickoff as well as on their first play from the line of scrimmage.
The Coronado team played well for the next three quarters and made several great plays on offense and defense, including two legitimate chances to score. But the offense self destructed on both attempts and didn't get the ball into the end zone.
Of note was the outstanding play of Eric Thorleifson on both sides of the ball. Tanner Caldwell gained some tough yards up the middle and Ryan Wade made several great stops on defense. Additional highlights on offense included great catches by Casey McPherson, Andre Olsen and Josh Fortson. The final score was 28-0 Valencia Park.
The Islander Pop Warner teams host South San Diego Saturday at Niedermeyer Field in Coronado. Flag football plays the first game of Saturday’s schedule at 9 am and the Junior Midgets finish off the day with their game, which kicks off at 5:00 pm.