Nado Natterings 9 December 2009 Issue #47

Nado Natterings

A weekly column by David Axelson

9 December 2009 Issue #47

Last week we noted in this space that the Islander Girls Basketball Team opened their season in their own Thanksgiving Tournament by losing four consecutive games, although most of the contests were competitive. Coronado Head Coach Toler Goodwin didn’t panic and noted, “The results on the scoreboard weren’t in our favor, but we’ll find a way to make it work. We have a lot of elements we can work with and we have this week to practice and make ourselves better.”

Apparently that approach worked for the very young Islander team, as they broke into the ‘win’ column last week not once, but twice. Their first victory of the season was a 53-23 home affair over Foothills Christian.

“The biggest thing off of last week was that we needed to get a win,” Goodwin said of his club, which has five members of the sophomore class on the nine-person roster. “We worked everybody in and tried to get their confidence up. The first weekend is of great value if used properly, despite the fact we were 0-4. There is so much we can see and learn from the game film. We got a couple of things fixed last week”

Senior Maggie Harris was Coronado’s leading scorer, with 15 of her 18 points coming on three-pointers. Sophomore Peri Curtis added 17 points and Nicolette Abrantes chipped in 11 more. Alex Evans scored two points, but was active on both ends of the floor with five assists, nine rebounds and seven steals. Point guard Cory De Marco scored one point, but dished out eight assists. Other scorers included Samantha Kirk and Meganne Weissenfels with two points each. Katiana Lynch contributed to a solid Islander effort in the fourth quarter

Saturday the Islanders concluded their Thanksgiving Tournament by defeating El Cajon Valley 40-32. Despite a strong 13-4 start in the contest, the Islanders actually trailed 19-18 at halftime.

“We turned the ball over a few times in the second quarter,” Goodwin explained. “Then we had two and a half minutes where we didn’t do well. We came out and had a good third quarter and received some production from Curtis and Evans. We outscored El Cajon Valley 12-6 in the third quarter. We had a basket from Kirk with 15 seconds to go in the game, with the shot clock running down, that put us up by five points. It was important to get that win confidence-wise.”

De Marco kicked in four assists and four rebounds, Evans had six points and seven rebounds, and Harris added six points. Curtis was the game’s leading scorer with 20 points, and added seven rebounds. Despite being relatively small by front court basketball standards, Evans has begun to use her athletic ability to be a force on the boards for Coronado. “Alex gets angles on the ball,” Goodwin said of the rapidly improving sophomore. “She’s not afraid to go in and get the basketball.”

Alex Reidy, heretofore better known for her contributions to the CHS lacrosse program, has joined the basketball team. Goodwin worked with Reidy in practice Monday and Tuesday and then played her for the entire fourth quarter against Foothills Christian. “Conceptually she’s starting to see the movement of the game. She was under no pressure in her first outing. She ran for a full quarter to get the feel of the game. We’ll work on her skill development. She won’t shy away from the physicality of the game and she will be aggressive.”

This week the Islanders play one game, as they host Castle Park at 7 pm Tuesday night. The annual JV 12-team tournament, which Coronado hosts, runs Wednesday through Saturday. The JV Islanders take on The Rock Academy Wednesday at 6:30; they play Mater Dei Friday at 5 pm; and then compete with Julian Saturday at 1:30 pm.

Although it wasn’t the result they were looking for, the Islander Girls Water Polo Team began their season with a 13-4 home loss to Newport Harbor Saturday at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Center. The visitors from Newport are one of the best teams in Orange County, currently ranked No.2 in Division I of the CIF Southern Section.

“I can identify with how Urban Meyer feels,” Coronado Head Coach Dave Throop said of the formerly No. 1 ranked University of Florida’s football coach, who saw his team lose in lop-sided fashion to No. 2 Alabama over the weekend. “We’re a talented team, but we made a few mistakes. We spotted them a 5-0 lead, but chipped away and it was 7-3 at the half. We were behind 10-3 at the end of three quarters, so then we made changes and tried out different combinations. Newport is coached really, really well. When we see them again later in the season in tournaments, we’ll be a lot more competitive.”

Statistically the Islanders launched 19 shots on goal, but had 20 turnovers. Throop noted wryly, “When you have more turnovers than scoring chances, that’s not good.” Coronado was also a rather anemic 1-9 in their six-on-five situations.

But all is not lost for the defending CIF San Diego Section Division II champions, according to Throop. “We did a lot of things well, but we were one second late everywhere. We were out of rhythm, closing out defensively or dropping back, we were one second late. We weren’t up to game speed yet. Newport’s pre-season games are very competitive, and ours aren’t.”

Coronado’s goals came from Hillary Estrada with two, while Kelly Ronimus and Shelby Couture had one tally each. Goalie Colleen Moore was credited with five saves in her three quarters of play.

Other than the regular season opener coming and going, the big news in the program is the signing of four senior Islanders to continue to play water polo at the college level. Ashley Young signed a National Letter of Intent to play at UC Berkeley; Ronimus will play at UCLA, Estrada will compete for UC Irvine and Maddie Murphy will play at Maryland.

Throop provided an overview of the team as a whole, starting with the quartet who took advantage of the early college signing period. “They are part of a group of nine seniors who have played together since seventh grade. It’s a unique group. Young is a prolific scorer and a well-rounded player. She is our team leader in terms of her work ethic and her experience. Ronimus is a versatile and all-around player who does a number of things well. Kelly plays on the same side of the pool as Ashley. Maddie is a defender, but will be one of our leaders in assists, as she is playing the left side as a right hander.

Estrada has the highest water polo IQ of any player I have coached in several years. She was a manager for the boys’ team and scouted Mira Monte for us at the NorCal Tournament. She made notes at the game and presented them to the boys team and she was dead on. We beat them because of her scouting. Hillary will be our primary center-back. She can post up or move out and shoot. She needs to touch the ball for us on every offensive series. She is one of our team captains.”

Throop added that the other captain for the 2009-10 squad is Sidney Hoshko. “Sidney is the starting center and a force to be reckoned with. She is a pure center and her mobility is much improved. She is naturally right-handed, but has converted to being left-handed on offense. She’ll establish inside position and will be a matchup problem for the opposing teams. Colleen Moore is our starting goalie and at the end of the season she will be right there for us. Our backup goalie is junior Brooke Bernardy. It’s a 1 and 1A situation, like on the boys’ team this year with Garrett Sabesky and Braydon Hummeldorf. There’s not a lot of separation between the two.”

Three seniors round out the Gang of Nine, including Megan Meloche, Natalie Stringer and Kaylee Ginnane. Throop commended the strong work ethics of all three players and noted that they all have specific roles and will contribute during the coming season.

Junior Shelby Couture is competing for a slot in the starting lineup according to Throop. “She is one of six girls who can create significant matchup problems for the other team. She is multi-talented and is naturally left-handed. Shelby has developed an understanding of the game. She has a right-handed shot like a howitzer and has spent a lot of time working on her left hand. Next year at this time, she will be one of the premier players in San Diego County.”

Also from the junior class, players who will see a lot of playing time include Hannah Green, Lauren Carroll, Kendall Martin, Candyce Day, Alex Reza and Morgan Karney. Sophomore defender Kendall Hoshko will contribute and freshman Emma Renly is working with the varsity this year at the goalie position.

The coaching staff includes Randy Burgess, Ian Silverman, Cheryl Concannon Lynch (CHS ’97) Devon McIntyre Roberts (CHS ’99) and goalie coach Duff Harold (CHS ’87).

The team returns to the pool Thursday with a Western League game at La Jolla at 3 pm and a home game Saturday at 6:30 pm against Long Beach Wilson.

Continuing with our water polo theme, the CHS Boys Water Polo program announced the post-season award winners at their banquet last week. The Novice Team (18-8) awards as announced by Coach Erinn Greenwood included: Co-Captains – Andrew Morris and John Hill; Most Valuable Player – Nick Wiley; Most Improved – Joseph Pack and Coaches’ Award – John Hill.

Coach Greenwood also announced the Junior Varsity (18-5) Awards, which included: Captain – Chris Dudley; Most Valuable Player – Tommy Grall; Most Improved – Patrick Mayles; and Coaches’ Award – Josh Williams.

Varsity (22-9) awards as announced by Head Coach Randy Burgess went to: Captains – Tommy Schofer and Brennan Casey; Most Improved – David Rodriguez; MVP Offense – Rex Butler; MVP Defense – Garrett Sabesky; Team MVP – Alex Johnson; Coaches’ Award – Patrick Geer; The Steve Schofer ‘For the Love of the Game Award’ – Asante Sefa-Boakye; Golden Tassel Award for Highest GPA – Andrew Ireland; and ISF Award – Alexander Aponte.

The CHS Cross Country program, which includes both the boys and girls teams, also held their awards banquet last week. The winners announced by Head Coach George Green included: Most Valuable Players – Annie Lovering and Ryan Keeney; Captains – Adie Davies and Kevin Siefert. Coaches’ Awards Girls – Special Award to Sadie Gimber, awards to Meg Sweeney and Nicole Davies. Coaches’ Awards Boys – Will Funk and Aryan Shay. All-Central League Girls – Lovering, Gimber, Adie Davies, Sallie Privett and Sweeney. All-Central League Boys – Keeney, Shay and Siefert. All-CIF – Keeney, Lovering, Gimber, Adie Davies, Privett, Sweeney, Nicole Davies and Ashley Engleman. ISF Award – Privett.

Head Football Coach Bud Mayfield announced the Varsity Football (7-5) award winners at the team’s banquet Sunday night. They included – Most Valuable Player – Kodie Englehart; Most Valuable Lineman – Austin Copp; The Adrian Taufaasau Heart of an Islander Award – Andrew Toomey; and Most Improved Player – Austin Denson.

First Team All Central League honors went to: Englehart, Austin Branch, Bryan Beverly, Copp and Toomey. Second Team All Central League honors were presented to: Charles Westbrook, Andrew Smith, Chris Page, Jose Sanchez and Glenn Smith.

The 2009 team, which went 5-1 in Central League play, scored the second most points in Coronado High School history with 413. Only the 1929 CHS club outscored this year’s team. It also marked the third time in eight years that the Islanders had scored more than 400 points in a season.

Following the ESPN Networks’ theory that you can’t get enough football, we’ll continue that theme with a note about the Pop Warner Junior Peewee’s final game this season. The narrative is supplied by CHS Football Stats Guru and proud father Kyle Montague.

“The Coronado Jr. Peewees concluded their 6-4 season with an 18-6 victory over the La Habra Silver Lions in the Sun Bowl last weekend. John De Scisciolo and Braden Seay rushed for touchdowns, while Adam Weissenfels made a nice catch for the Islanders’ other touchdown.

Linebacker Alex Legidakes provided some solid hits for the defense. Wyatt Trujillo, along with Wyatt Montague, made several stops in the Silver Lions’ backfield for losses, to blunt multiple offensive drives.”

Although the weather outside is frightful (stop me if you have heard this one), mentioning baseball makes it seem a little cheerier. It’s time to remind you that the CHS Baseball program under the direction of Head Coach Sam Ceci will be holding their annual Alumni Game Saturday, December 26th at 11 am at Strand Field.

The criterion for participation in the game is pretty daunting. Basically if you can hold a bat, the coaching staff will get you an at bat. Or, if you know somebody who can hold a bat, you can still play. Throwing and possibly catching are not required.

Batting practice and the fun, both coincidentally start at 9:30 am and as has been the tradition for these events, hot dogs and hamburgers are supplied to the players and hangers-on after the game. “All former Coronado High School players are welcome,” Ceci said. “Especially the old ones.”

A few jobs back and roughly 20 years ago, Your Natterer was the Vice President of Sales and Broadcasting for the Miami Heat, while also serving as the club’s public address announcer.

During the franchise’s first year of existence, which was the 1988-89 season, the team lost their first 17 games of the season, which was an NBA record until last week.

Thankfully, although I lost whatever small slice of NBA history that was associated with working for a really bad team, the New Jersey Nets lost their first 18 games of the current season, to eclipse ‘our’ record and my accompanying claim to hoop fame.

The Heat were so bad that year that when the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan visited Miami for a regular season game, Jordan played 18 holes of golf with Heat season ticket holder and professional golfer Raymond Floyd, the day of the game. Later that night I asked Floyd if Jordan was good enough to play golf professionally. Floyd smiled and very slightly shook his head, mouthing the word ‘No.’