Typically the opening slot in ‘Nado Natterings’ rotates from week to week. However, for the second consecutive week, the Coronado High School Girls Soccer Team jump starts the column. Midway through a phone conversation over the weekend with Head Coach Kiko Medina, mixed in with congratulations regarding his club’s 1-0 defeat of Cathedral Catholic, Medina noted that Coronado is ranked No. 15 in the county in the ESPN Fab 50.

That’s nation-wide, all teams included and all divisions. “That’s an unbelievable accomplishment,” Medina said. “After the La Costa Canyon game, the girls were a little surprised and shocked that they played so well. I believed in them from the beginning. Nobody from the high school is pushing (the ranking) or presenting it to ESPN. We are definitely deserving and the team’s confidence is really growing. The better teams from Southern California are going to get the advantage in the rankings.”

The Islanders are now 10-1-2 on the season, with their lone loss coming to The Bishop’s School. The ties were against Poway and Helix. In fairness, it should be noted that the Knights are ranked No. 14 in the country. Also, Bishop’s is ranked No. 5 in California, with you guessed it, Coronado coming in at No. 6. “We won’t get a chance to see Bishop’s again this year,” said Medina of the Knights who compete in CIF Division IV. “That would have been fun. They are No. 1 in the county right now.” And Coronado is No. 2.  

Last week the Islanders slipped by their long-time nemesis Cathedral Catholic at home, on an Ali Culora goal with seven minutes remaining in the contest. Medina described the game-winner. “We did a good job with pressure in their defensive third, winning the ball back. Olivia Lillegraven had good composure and was good on the ball. She passed to Ali who made a great one-touch finish. Ali opened up well and just finished. Of all the chances we had, we finished the one that was offside, but we’ll take it.”

You read that correctly. However in the greater gestalt of prep soccer, it should be pointed out that a prior Islander goal was incorrectly assessed as being offside, so justice prevailed. Goalie Cory DeMarco was credited with eight saves and the shutout.

Friday evening Coronado played Canyon Crest and the Islanders emerged with a 2-0 victory. “They were in the Top 10 for a little bit this season,” Medina said of Canyon Crest. “They fell out of the rankings after a couple of loses. This wasn’t a pretty game and we were just a little bit off. Culora scored the first goal off of a great one touch play. Stephanie Pietkiewicz kicked a one-touch ball through to Ali. She used her speed, a great run and a one-touch finish with the keeper coming out. For the second goal, Mallory Mitchell, on a great individual effort drew a foul in the penalty box and our senior Co-Captain Pietkiewicz converted the penalty shot.”

Thursday the Islanders host La Jolla, where they seek to avenge their Division III CIF Finals loss in 2009 against the Vikings. Game time is set for 6 pm.

Boys Soccer Continues Central League Play

It is possible that all of the positive soccer karma allotted for Coronado High School in 2009-10 is being consumed by the Girls Soccer Team. Wednesday of last week, the Islanders Boys Soccer Team tied Lincoln 2-2, which in itself isn’t news. But the Islanders were shown three red cards during the contest, their first disqualifications in the last four years. Unfortunately, the resulting ejections had a negative impact on Friday’s game against Clairemont.

Wednesday the Islanders scored their first goal on a free kick from Connor Marcone. Their second tally came on a David Rodriguez header on a cross from Nate Hoffman. “They were unfortunate,” said Islander Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu said of the red cards. “The officiating was a little strange. They didn’t seem to have situational awareness.”

Friday Coronado found themselves down 4-0 a mere 15 minutes into the game. “At halftime we set some goals for ourselves,” said Hiatt-Aleu. Translated, that means Hiatt-Aleu set the team’s goals. “We won’t let them score in the second half and we will win the second half. We have a new team (with graduations) and everybody guns for us.

We won the second half 2-0 and we’ll build from it. We’re not getting the bounces in league play (see karma reference above). Maybe we deserve them or maybe we don’t. But we didn’t fold in the second half. It showed some character by the boys to go hard in the second half. Missing a couple of the boys really hurt us.”

The Islanders now stand at 8-3-1 overall. Wednesday evening they host Christian at 6 pm.

Boys Basketball Posts Two More Central League Wins

Coronado Head  Boys Basketball Coach J.D. Laaperi probably thinks this Central League thing is pretty easy, as he cruises through his first season at the helm of the program. The Islanders are currently 14-4 overall and hold a 4-0 mark in Central League play.

Last week Coronado traveled to Madison for their Tuesday game and emerged with a 62-54 victory, but it was a dog fight, according to Laaperi. “Madison came out and played us in an extended 3-2 zone. They tried to key in on Justin Hebner and Danny Hebert and their three-point shooting. Justin made an adjustment on his own. He hit six threes, none of them closer than 23 feet from the basket. At one point in the fourth quarter, he hit a long three and one of their big men who had been guarding him said, ‘You have got to be kidding me’.” Insert your choice of words to replace the euphemism ‘kidding’ in the prior sentence.

With the score tied 40-40 at the end of three quarters, things looked a little bleak for Coronado when the War Hawks scored the first two baskets of the final frame to go up 44-40. Laaperi called a timeout and Coronado hit three three-pointers  in a row, with two coming from Hebert and one from Hebner. “We never looked back,” Laaperi said on their way to a 62-54 victory.

Hebner tickled the twine (retro basketball prose) for 31, with Hebert chipping in 17. Chris Maskevich added seven points, five rebounds and earned some praise from Laaperi. “Chris played well and figured out the zone adjustment. He caught the ball in the middle of the zone and kicked it out to the open shooters.”

Friday night the Islanders traveled to Crawford where they had a rare Central League laugher as they topped the Colts 80-45. Hebert took Islander scoring honors with 24 points on 11-15 shooting, with Hebner close behind with 17 points.

Islander center Billy Schmitt turned in a nice effort with 12 points and four rebounds. “We made a conscious effort to get the ball in to Billy and he had 10 of his 12 points in the first quarter,” Laaperi said.  “He scored five of the seven times we went to him in that quarter. We had 22 steals and another eight takeaways. Josh McNeal played well (six points and four rebounds) as did Bryan Beverly (seven points and three steals).”

This week the Islanders host Kearny Tuesday at 4:45 pm. Friday they travel to Christian for a Girls/Boys doubleheader. The Boys game should start around 7:30 pm.

CHS Girls Basketball Splits Two Games

Sunday evening when we visited by phone, Charger season ticket holder and CHS Head Girls Basketball Coach Toler Goodwin wasn’t a happy camper. Part of it was the Chargers result, (see Chargers Analysis below), with an equal portion devoted to a game that got away Friday night at Crawford.

First things first. Tuesday night at home the Islanders drilled Madison 56-11 in a one-sided game, which did yield some interesting statistical footnotes. Coronado scored 23 points in the first quarter, but didn’t record their first field goal until Maggie Harris nailed a three with 3:20 left on the clock. Harris recorded another landmark of sorts, hitting a rare four-point play in the third quarter, being fouled on a long three-pointer and then converting the free throw. It turns out Harris has now accomplished this feat five times this season, including twice in one game.

Sophomore guard Alex Evans committed eight steals in the first half for the Islanders, on her way to nine in the game. Sophomore point guard Cory DeMarco started the game, scored four points, played a nice floor game, and left at halftime to shutout Cathedral Catholic as the Islander soccer goalie. Peri Curtis scored 17 points, Harris wound up with 12 and Nicolette Abrantes added 10.

Friday night, Coronado traveled to Crawford and completed the first half up by four points, and held a slim two-point advantage at the conclusion of the third quarter. “We were in a position to win,” Goodwin said. “We missed too many short shots, had turnovers at key times and we couldn’t get a defensive stop. We didn’t play defense the way we needed to coming down the stretch. It was a nip and tuck game. We missed three layups in a row attacking their defensive pressure. There was stuff we should have prevented. Crawford is a tough match up for us size-wise, but we gave ourselves a chance to win.”

The final score was Crawford 44, Coronado 41. Curtis scored 13 points, Harris had 12 and Abrantes chipped in with 10 points.

This week the Islanders (8-8, 3-1) travel to Kearney Tuesday for a 3 pm game. Friday they are on the road at Christian for a 6 pm tip-off. “Kearny could be a tough game” Goodwin said of the Islanders Tuesday opponent. “We have to get through this week, play well at Christian and get on a run again. I think we can take Kearney.”

Girls Water Polo Competes in SoCal Tourney

Last week’s schedule can be divided in two unequal parts for the CHS Girls Water Polo Team. First, they dominated Cathedral Catholic 12-2 in a Western League tilt, an opponent that earned the respect of Islander Head Coach Dave Throop. “I think Cathedral is going to challenge into the playoff semi-finals, depending on their matchup with Bishop’s and La Jolla. The Division II semi-finals are going to be pretty competitive. We had a very nice defensive effort with 16 steals and three field blocks.”

The Islanders were led by Ashley Young with five goals and five steals, with Hillary Estrada adding five additional steals. Two-goal efforts came from Hannah Green and Sidney Hoshko. Others scoring goals included Shelby Couture and Maddie Murphy.  Couture also had two assists, Murphy had four steals and Kelly Ronimus was credited with four assists. Goalies Colleen Moore and Brooke Bernardy each made four saves and had an assist. Moore also blocked a Cathedral penalty shot, a relatively rare occurrence in prep water polo. The good news, the team was 4-5 in their man-up conversions and held Cathedral to an 0-6 mark in the same category.

During the week the squad held a team meeting, which Throop described as, “a meeting that had nothing to do with x’s and o’s. We want to set the bar for the team really high and it was an emotional meeting. I feel pretty positive about it. I want to let the team focus on the things they do well. In the tournament we set goals of playing to win, grow as a team in and out of the pool, and to gain experience.”

Injuries started to mount for the team as they headed to the Santa Barbara Tournament of Champions, where Coronado held the No. 9 seed. Hoshko sustained a hip flexor injury and Murphy injured her thumb on the last play of practice Thursday before their departure.

In their first tournament game, Coronado defeated Foothill 8-7 behind four goals from Young, three of which came on penalty shots. Murphy, injured thumb and all, had a goal, an assist and two steals. Couture and Estrada also scored. (Ed. Note – I know that doesn’t total eight goals, but one tally vanished in the ether.)

“Moore had 10 saves and played the whole game,” said Throop. “She had a solid performance in goal and bailed the team out in a couple of situations. Her passing down-pool was strong as well. We knew when we won the first game that we would have great games the rest of the tournament.”

Game No. 2 was a 10-1 loss to eventual tourney champion Dos Pueblos. The lone Islander goal came from Estrada. “We came out strong initially,” Throop said. “But then we played not to lose. We played backwards instead of attacking.”

Saturday brought two more games, the first of which was against Laguna Beach, according to Throop. “I felt good about the game. We were behind by one goal at the half and at the end of three quarters and lost 7-6. We came out and played well. We hit the bar a couple of times. Kaylee Ginnane scored three goals and got us back in the game after we missed some shots. She scored the first two goals for us and played very, very well. At one point of the game, we had four starters on the bench for various reasons. Ronimus had two goals and Hoshko had one.”

The Islander power play continued to be effective, converting on two of their three chances. They defended the power play well, allowing Laguna to score just once in five tries.

The final contest was against Palos Verdes and Throop decided going in that everyone on the roster was going to get a chance to play. Palos Verdes features three National Team players, and despite that fact, the Islanders were in it, before losing 7-6. Young scored four goals to go with one assist and one steal. Ronimus had a goal, three assists and a steal. Estrada had an assist, four steals and a field block. Hoshko added a goal. Both Moore and Bernardy had five saves.

The Islander power play continued to be a strong element of their game, with Coronado going 3-7 and Palos Verdes 2-5.

“I’m really positive and we’re moving in the right way,” Throop said as he summarized the week’s events. “We’re working pretty hard. We need to work hard together, which is the next facet that this team needs. We need to gain some confidence.”

This week the Islanders host Bishops Thursday at 5 pm and then head into their own America’s Finest City Tournament. The event is a 32-team tournament, which will be competed at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex, the Coronado Municipal Pool, La Jolla High School and Rancho Bernardo High School. Among the top teams in the event are Coronado, Vista, and Santiago from the Riverside area. Top local teams include La Jolla, Carlsbad and Cathedral Catholic.

CHS Sailing Team Competes in Rose Bowl Regatta

The Coronado High School Sailing Team attended the Rose Bowl Regatta recently and competed in extremely light wind both days. Unique to this event, a college regatta runs concurrently, on the same race course, giving the CHS sailors a chance to see the best college sailors in the country. The Islanders also have the opportunity to meet with college coaches.

The CHS Varsity took 12th place out of 30 teams. Competitors included: Esteban Forrer, Alexa Cavalieri, Philip Lozier, Karisa Chapa, Katie Dowling and Kaitlin Dunphey.

The JV team took sixth out of 24 teams. Representing Coronado were Patrick Powell, Jenny Melnick, Greg Coumes, Ryan Nies and Chuckie Eaton. Congratulations to Powell and Melnick for placing first in the ‘A’ Division.

Boys and Girls Lacrosse Clinic Announced

A reminder that the Coronado Boys and Girls Lacrosse Clinic will be held on five consecutive Saturdays at the CMS Field, from Jan. 23rd to Feb. 20th. The clinic times are from 2-3 pm. The clinic fee is $110 per player, with checks made payable to Coronado Schools Lacrosse. The instruction is designed for boys and girls, from first through eighth grades.

Included in the clinic fee are a U.S. Lacrosse Association membership, a Coronado Lacrosse decal, and a reversible jersey. Players are required to provide their own stick and boys should bring their own shoulder pads.

Clinic registration will be conducted from 2-2:45 pm at the Sixth Street entrance to the CHS football field Saturday.  For more information, please contact Megan Stanley at 435-1649 or Brian Dozier at 435-8670. For E-mail, Stanley may be reached at megandyno@sbcglobal.net. Dozier is available at bdozier@sbcglobal.net.

Chargers Analysis

Ten days ago, it was a simpler time. The San Diego Chargers were eight point favorites to defeat the upstart New York Jets in the second round of the American Football Conference playoffs, and resident placekicker Nate Kaeding had not yet begun to spray footballs around Mission Valley.

For what it’s worth, my personal take on the game at that point was that the Chargers would win the game by a field goal, but that the Jets would cover the spread. I wouldn’t have bet the house on that result, but the living room, my favorite recliner and the fitty (pop culture reference, ask your kids) could have been in play. It was hard to believe that a team that dominated the Tennessee Titans, on the road no less, by the score of 42-17, and was the winner of 11 straight, was capable of yet another playoff El Foldo.

On an irregular basis, Your Natterer conveys some thoughts regarding the local NFL franchise. This is primarily a prep sports column, but including some Charger notes in this space allows me to remind the Natter Wife that the three plus hours spent most Sundays in the fall and winter watching the Bolts represents column research. Now more creativity will be needed in the excuse department to get me through the rest of the NFL Playoffs.

In the Sept. 23, 2009 issue of “The Coronado Eagle & Journal,” after the Chargers lost 31-26 to the Baltimore Ravens at home in their second regular season game, the following unedited prose appeared in this column, “Now, let’s reflect on the Chargers. Losing All-Pro nose tackle Jamal Williams, San Diego’s anchor on the defensive front line, is a huge loss for Bolts. Losing two starters from the offensive line, plus losing Williams, borders on catastrophic. That leaves the Chargers with two significant problems. First, they can’t run the ball on offense. Second, they can’t stop the run on defense. When future Hall of Fame running back LaDainian Tomlinson returns to action from his latest injury, don’t expect any 200-yard rushing afternoons from LT. The current offensive line can’t open the holes required to spring Tomlinson, Darren Sproles or Michael Bennett.”

 So, roughly four months ago, sitting on the top floor of Nado Natterings world headquarters, a local sports columnist determined that the lack of a running game would be detrimental to the Chargers eventual playoff success. And yet the Chargers staff couldn’t address that issue?

The unfortunate fact is that Hall of Fame-bound running back Tomlinson has lost a step and is not the offensive factor he once was. Tomlinson, completing his ninth season in blue and gold, has simply lost his marvelous gifts as an elite runner. He ranked 29th in yardage in the NFL this season and averaged a mere 3.3 yards per carry on his way to a total of 730 yards. Against the Jets Sunday, LT gained 24 yards on 12 carries. In addition, he caught three passes for zero net yards. That is not a playoff caliber performance.

Worse, Tomlinson’s 2009 salary is $6.7 million, with a cap value of $7.5 million. Combined with Sproles, who weighs in at $6.6 million in both salary and cap impact, the Chargers are allocating more than $14 million for the 31st ranked regular season ground attack in the NFL. Expect that to change and soon. Tomlinson will be toting the pigskin in another locale in 2010.

The mantra coming from Mission Valley this season is that Charger quarterback Philip Rivers is now among the elite signal callers in all of football. Allow me to disagree. Criteria – your team must win one game or you face lifetime exile in the Greater Sandusky, Ohio area. Here are the Top 5 quarterbacks from 2009: Peyton Manning, Brees, Favre, Brady and Roethlisberger. The next four, you pick the order: Rodgers, Schaub (Houston Texans, more yards, touchdowns and higher completion percentage than Rivers), Eli Manning, and Romo.

For the 10th slot, pick among Ryan, Rivers, Cutler, Warner, McNabb and Palmer. My pick for this year is Rivers. My preferred future pick for the tenth slot or higher, based on upside and potential, is Ryan from Atlanta.

Erudite football fans that you are, someone will make the point that the Indianapolis Colts have the worst running game in the NFL and they are still in the chase for Super Bowl XLIV. The Colts use the short passing game as their ground attack and Peyton Manning is the best quarterback of his generation. By the time he films his last commercial, Manning may be considered the best quarterback of all time. He will at least be in the discussion. Simply stated, I’ve watched Philip Rivers and he is no Peyton Manning.

Shortly after Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith ejects Tomlinson from the payroll, linebacker Shawn ‘Lights Out’ Merriman and his $4.56 million cap value will hit the bricks. Among injuries, the Tila Tequila fiasco and a steroid suspension, here’s guessing Merriman has worn out his welcome at Chargers’ headquarters. Or to look at the Chargers another way, a $115 million payroll apparently doesn’t earn you a playoff victory in 2009.

The larger impact of this playoff loss to the Jets may be felt off the field. The Chargers needed to mount a strong playoff drive to garner the public backing necessary for their new downtown stadium venture. If you think that is far-fetched, think back to 1998, the San Diego Padres appearance in the World Series and the subsequent voter approval of what became PETCO Park in 2004.

In the Chargers case, what was once a privately constructed stadium proposal has now morphed into a public/private venture that at some juncture will require substantial taxpayer support. Advancing well into the playoffs could have equated to a new stadium. Losing early may result in the Bolts being the Los Angeles Chargers, returning to the lucrative television market from whence they came and where a brand new stadium, without an anchor NFL tenant, is under construction.