Ask any prep sports coach and they will tell you that one of the keys to a successful season is returning seniors. If they are talented returning seniors, that’s even better. Coronado High School Head Girls Lacrosse Coach Jessica Battle has three crafty veterans she can rely upon this year in Lainey Mebust, Coco O’Brien and Anna Turpit. Mebust plays line defense, O’Brien is the team’s leading returning scorer and Turpit toils in the midfield.

The Islanders are two games into their regular season already and not surprisingly they are 2-0. Their first two games were a 13-1 victory over San Marcos and a 14-7 win over Carlsbad. O’Brien has scored eight of the team’s 27 goals in the early stages of the season, accounting for nearly one-third of the squad’s scores.

O’Brien will have to stay on her toes if she wants to stay ahead of several members of the junior class in goals scored. Michaela Guerrera, CJ Fisher and Lauren Mack all play attack and are very capable of having huge scoring games if opposing defenses concentrate on O’Brien. Guerrera can absolutely fly up and down the field. Mix in junior midfielders Caitlyn Couture and Alex Reidy and that class alone would probably be ranked in the Top 10 in San Diego County.

Sophomores include goalie Meganne Weissenfels, who is coming off of a successful basketball season. Nikki Krueger plays line attack and Cory De Marco plays line defense. De Marco now embarks on her fourth sports season, following volleyball in the fall, basketball and soccer simultaneously in the winter and now lacrosse in the spring. Clearly De Marco is going to need an extra large chenille letter for her awards jacket.  

The freshman class is well represented by Mollie Privett, Haley Wilson, Taylor Tyer and Caroline Dineen-Carlson. All four underclassmen play midfield for the Islanders.

Paced by Mebust on defense, O’Brien on offense, Couture and Guerrera in midfield, and what Coach Battle called “The best midfield and attack in the county,” the Islanders figure to be playing well into the CIF playoffs. The teams they will likely see in the latter stages of the post season are the usual congregation of larger North County schools in Torrey Pines, Poway, La Costa Canyon and Rancho Bernardo. Mix in smallish, ok small, Coronado and the county Top 5 includes those five schools in some random order. As Battle said, “Those are the tough teams for us.”The Islanders participate in the City Conference, where their toughest competition comes from Cathedral Catholic and Scripps Ranch.

This week the schedule picks up pace as the Coronado hosts long-time rival La Jolla at 7 pm Tuesday and they host Patrick Henry Friday evening, also at 7 pm. The big game of the week comes Saturday at 11 am when Coronado hosts one of the other Big Five, Rancho Bernardo.

“I’m excited for the season and I think we have a great team,” said Battle. “We’re still working out some kinks, but I’m expecting great things. We have a chance to win it all.”

Girls Lacrosse Part II

Perhaps an indication of how talented the CHS Girls Lacrosse team is can be found that nine of the non-senior members of the varsity have been invited to attend the Girls Showcase sponsored by Adrenaline Lacrosse July 9-11 at UC Santa Barbara. The event is billed as the 120 most talented female players in the West Coast. It will allow more than 30 collegiate recruiters to see the players compete.

Representing Coronado will be Couture, Dineen-Carlson, Guerrera, Kruger, Maack, Privett, Tyer, Weissenfels and Wilson. Dineen-Carlson, Privett, Tyer and Wilson are four of only 13 freshmen to have been invited to the event.

Boys Tennis Wins Final Two Non-League Tilts

Last week the CHS Boys Tennis Team went on the road and defeated Mira Mesa 13-5. The main storyline would be that the three Islander doubles teams didn’t drop a set, although they came precariously close in a couple of the matches.

The No. 1 doubles combo of Luke Hoffman and Kyle Koshland won their three sets 6-2, 6-3, and 6-0. A little more excitement came into play as the No. 2 squad of Scott Samperio and Cody Webster won 6-2, 7-6 and 6-2. But at No. 3 doubles, Chip Fisher and Shaun Koshland had to rally to preserve the doubles sweep. “It was an exciting match,” said Head Coach Leslie Koshland. “Chip and Shaun were down 5-2 and came back to force a tiebreaker. Then they were down 6-2 (a tiebreaker is won by the team first to seven points, winning by two points) and they came back to win. It was the most exciting match of the day.”

Thursday the Islanders hosted High Tech High in the make-up of a postponed match from the previous week. Coronado prevailed 16-2 and again the doubles teams swept the opposition.

Hoffman/Koshland and Samperio/Webster reprised their roles as the No. 1 and 2 teams respectively. In this match Brad Mathews and Grey Halpin took a turn at No. 3 singles and won 6-2, 6-2, and 6-2.

Over on the singles side, No. 1 singles player Sean Lee won his two sets at love and No. 2 singles player Greg Lyon played one set and won 6-1. Shaun Koshland won two of his three sets at No. 3 singles. Additional singles sets were won by Chase Dalton and Court Dalton.

The team has been without the services of No. 3 singles player Robbie Cattell, who has been ill for two weeks. Coach Koshland expects Cattell to return to play soon, possibly as early as Thursday.

This week the competition heats up as Western League play begins. Tuesday Coronado hosts Scripps Ranch at 3 pm. Thursday the Islanders travel to the Balboa Tennis Club at Morley Field for a match against St. Augustine.

Islander Boys Volleyball Wins Twice

It would be fair to say that the Boys Volleyball program at CHS as been on a roller coaster ride for the past few years. Coaches have come and gone and players have played for a year or two before deciding to move along or graduate.

Varsity Head Coach Steve Merrill returned to helm the program in 2010 after a few years away from coaching the game. Seemingly a perfect storm of players and Merrill as coach has combined to make for a successful season thus far.

Last week the team had a mini roller coaster ride, more akin to ‘Pinocchio’s Daring Journey’ than the ‘Matterhorn,’ as the Islanders struggled at home Tuesday to defeat Lincoln 25-17, 25-19, 21-25, 23-25 and 15-7. As Merrill said later, “It wasn’t very pretty. We had 54 unforced errors. Our guys would either hit it to the moon or into the net. Lincoln sat back and let us make all of the mistakes.”

Thursday Coronado hosted Christian, and the Islanders showcased the better side of their game. Coronado prevailed 25-16, 25-22 and 25-13.According to Merrill, the Islanders cut their turnovers from 54 against Lincoln to 11 against Christian.

The first game against the Patriots was a pretty routine affair, highlighted by the serving success displayed by libero (defensive specialist) Trevor Marcone. In the early going Marcone served for seven consecutive points to push the Islanders lead to 11-1. Chris Maskevich and David Rodriguez established themselves at the net with multiple kills for points. Marcone served for the final four points of the game, with Maskevich hitting a kill shot for emphasis on the final point.

The second game was a much different matter as Coronado never really established any momentum. The Islanders trailed 20-18 and 22-20 before Marcone again served for the final four points of the game, including an ace for the game winner.

In the third game, Christian held a 7-5 lead before Rodriguez stepped to the service area and proceeded to serve for 11 straight points, including five aces. Nick De Marco, Maskevich and setter Jake Nicholson all had kills during the rally. At the end of the Rodriguez run, the score was 17-7 and Christian was essentially done for the afternoon.

De Marco later served for four straight points and Nicholson served out the game. In the nearly 13 years that Your Natterer has been taking up space in the stands reporting on Islander sports, this is the best boys volleyball team I have seen represent Coronado. That is assuming they aren’t doing the hit the ball to the moon, unforced error thing.

Merrill is still tinkering with the basic set the Islanders are playing, either running a 5-1 which features a single setter or a 6-2 (those are the right numbers, but there are still only six players on the court at a time) which would have both Nicholson and Rodriguez setting. Merrill prefers the 5-1, which frees Rodriguez to hit on the left side of the court, the team’s most effective offensive option from that portion of the court.

As a former outstanding beach volleyball player, Merrill occasionally lapses into surfer speak, as follows. “Against Lincoln we were super flat and we were super stoked for Christian. We need to open up the middle a little bit and get the guys running free. We’ll see how we improve as the year goes along.”

This week the Islanders have two more matches, traveling to Clairemont Tuesday and then hosting Madison Thursday. Thursday’s match is slated for a 3:30 pm start and I for one am stoked already.

Islander Track and Field News

CHS Head Track and Field Coach George Green provides an overview of his team’s prospects for the 2010 season, which began last week.  “The track team finally got their collective feet wet against Christian High School last week with split results (girls won, boys lost).

This meet was a bit early in the season for us, especially for the girls, because of the soccer playoffs. Many of our key athletes haven’t had time to prepare. Now we have a gap until after spring break with our second dual meet not until April 15th, which will be at home against Crawford. This will give us some much needed time to work on our events because, once back, there'll be meets every week through the CIF finals May 29th.

There were a couple of notable marks in the Christian meet. Sallie Privett uncorked a pretty good early season 800-meter run in around 2:20 flat, which puts her in the top five or six runners county-wide at this point in time. Will Bartsch pole-vaulted 12-6 and just missed 13 feet in his first outing.

There was also an Invitational meet last Saturday, the Runge Classic, which was attended by a small group of Islanders and held at Patrick Henry. In that meet Privett won one of the featured
events, the Thom Hunt Mile, with Adie Davies placing sixth. Maddy Danielson blew away the field in the 300-meter hurdles field. She improved her time by nearly 1.5 seconds with a time of 47.92 which places her well-up on the San Diego rankings for that event. In the girls 3,200 meters, Meg Sweeney pulled away in the last 100 meters to win the open event at that distance. Not a bad showing for the four girls who competed.

This weekend a small group will compete in the Mt. Carmel Invite with Privett running the 800 meters. Davis will run the 3200, Bartsch and Briana Giorgione will compete in the pole vault and Danielson hopefully will be able to enter the 300 hurdles based on her time at the Runge Classic.

This year's roster has around 50 athletes and contains a few more girls than boys. Top returnees for the girl's mid-distance and distance running squad are Privett, Adie Davies, Nicole Davies, Sadie Gimber (last year's Division II, 400-meter champ), and Annie Lovering (CIF Division IV Cross Country champ). New members are freshman Ashley Engleman and a junior class transfer from Ohio Meg Sweeney. The aforementioned group comprised one of the top Division IV Cross County teams in the state last fall.

Our top returning female sprinters, hurdlers and jumpers are Danielson, Cassie Callahan (hurdles and horizontal jumps), Lauren Bower (sprints and short hurdles), Olivia Lillegraven (hurdles and horizontal jumps), Danielle Swanson (hurdles), Giorgione (pole vault, high jump, sprints) and Bethany Buklew (throws).

The boys returning are Bartsch (pole vault) and Aryan Shay (distance running). However there are a number of new members who appear to have some talent in various events. As the season progress these names will become legendary, hopefully.

We have some great coaches associated with the team this season. Kerry Elders our 7-foot plus former high jumper, returns as high jump and hurdles coach. Another returner is Karla Martinez, who was one of Mexico's best horizontal jumpers in her day. She will again be our long and triple jump coach. Sprints, relays and hurdles are coached by Bob Hicksman, a veteran athlete/coach with impressive credentials.

Bo Retsch, a former head coach for decades at Monterey High School is coaching our throwers. The girls' distance team is really lucky to have professional athlete and U.S. Olympian Alice Schmidt (Google her when you get a chance) volunteering. Schmidt trains at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista in the morning, but lives in Coronado so her afternoons are free. Sometimes you just get lucky. Also helping with the distance runners is CHS teacher/former runner Anne-Lise Rendina. To top it off our current school record holder in the 110 high hurdles Bob Mansueto is helping out with the hurdlers. The pole vaulters are stuck with me.”

CHS Girls Softball Competes in Hilltop Tourney

The Islander Girls Softball Team participated in the Hilltop Tournament last week and went 1-2 to even their season record at 2-2. Their first encounter of the week was a 3-0 loss to the tournament hosts. Head Coach Tony Isabella said, “Multiple Coronado errors accounted for the Hilltop runs. Brianna Feist had an excellent pitching day and gave up only three hits and had seven strikeouts.” Feist had one of the two Coronado hits, a double.

Then it was on to a doubleheader Saturday, with the first game coming against Olympian High School, which the Islanders won 3-0. Anik Ribera was the winning pitcher and on defense, the Islanders had no errors. “The defensive star of the game was Olivia Nebo, who came back to playing catcher after being out with an injury,” Isabella said. “She threw out two runners who tried to steal second base. It’s good to have her back.”

Hitting stars in the Olympian game included Alanna Pompa who had a triple, and Shannon Julius and Nicole Aguilar who had two hits each.

The second game of the day and the third of the week was a 5-2 loss to Southwest of El Centro. The Islanders could only scratch out four hits, which were singles by Ribera and Bailey Haines and a double from Kayla Englehart. Nebo had an RBI single and scored on the same play on two errors from Southwest.

Aguilar was injured in the last inning of the victory over Olympian, according to Isabella. “Jessica Adair filled in for Nicole at the end of the first game Saturday and played the whole second game. She did a very good job.”

This week the Islanders start Central League play Thursday when they travel to Our Lady of Peace Thursday for a 3 pm game. OLP is considered to be one of the favorites to win the Central League title.

Boys Golf Goes 1-2 Last Week

Two weeks ago the Islander Boys Golf Team was a perfect 3-0 and last week Coronado stepped up the competition level a tad and were 1-2. Their first match was a 209-221 loss to Bonita Vista, but the bright spot of the competition was a 37 carded by Alex Valle, who was the match medalist. “Alex played head-to-head with Bonita Vista’s best golfer and beat him,” said Head Coach Randy Coutts. The match was played at Salt Creek Country Club.

Wednesday it was a return home to Coronado Municipal and the Islanders emerged with a 219-233 win over Point Loma and Islander Jake Schwartz was the medalist with a 38 and Valle added a 39. Jordan Oval carded a 45 for the Islanders’ third best score.

The showdown match of the week came Thursday when Coronado hosted Central League rival Christian and the Patriots came away with a 211-222 win. “Give Christian credit,” Coutts said. “Their kids, who usually shoot a round of 50, shot a 45. They played well when they needed to.” Brian Turley shot the Islanders best round with a 40.

Through six matches, the Islanders three-headed monster of Schwartz, Turley and Valle have each medaled twice and the three are within two-tenths of a stroke of each other in scoring average. Unfortunately all three haven’t shot well on the same day, according to Coutts. “One time when all three shoot lights out, we’ll surprise some people. Logically we should be scoring around 210 strokes per match. It’s time for the kids to step up.”

This week Coronado has four matches, starting with a return competition with Bonita Vista Monday. They play St. Augustine Tuesday, Clairemont Wednesday and Lincoln at Bonita Vista Thursday. The first three matches are at Coronado Municipal and tee off at 4 pm.

Coronado Little League Goes International

Fourteen 12-year-old players, three coaches and two chaperones from Lithuania will be coming to Coronado April 1 as part of a swing through California. The group will arrive in L.A. March 27 and then play games March 28-30 before coming to Coronado April 1.

March 28 they will play a doubleheader against the Clairemont Hilltoppers at 1, followed by a 4 pm game against Clairemont Mesa. Monday they play Peninsula at 5 pm and Tuesday the Lithuanians play Rancho Penasquitos at 6 pm. Wednesday they are off and at 4:30 pm Thursday they are in Coronado for a game.

According to CLL Vice President Kelly Weissenfels, Coronado will be represented by the Tigers of Majors Little League in the game. “All of the managers, who were interested in playing, put their names in a hat and we picked the team that way. We’re only five games into the season and the Tigers are doing well, so it should be a competitive game.”

During the game, El Tapatio Restaurant will be selling two tacos for $3 as a fundraiser to defray expenses for hosting the Lithuanian team. As a guess, 14 baseball playing 12-year-olds will probably graze through a large number of tacos.

“We want to encourage everyone to come, watch and have some tacos,” said Weissenfels. Sounds like Thursday’s dinner and a baseball game to me, especially since Nattering World Headquarters is a brisk 90-second walk from Bradley Field at Vernetti Stadium.

After the San Diego portion of the game schedule concludes with the game against Coronado, the Lithuanian travel party will go to Sea World and then on to L.A. for a series of games and presumably a trip to Disneyland.

Bryan Crabb Having Stellar Freshman Year at SDSU

Bryan Crabb (CHS ’09) has started his pitching career at San Diego State University in much the same way he pitched at Coronado, quite well. Two weeks ago, Crabb was named Mountain West Pitcher of the Week, after he pitched a one-hitter over seven innings against Monmouth. The right-hander struck out seven in the Aztecs 7-0 win.

Sunday Crabb cranked it up a notch, and threw a two-hit, complete game shutout against Santa Clara as SDSU won again 7-0. Crabb stands 2-2 on the season, with an ERA of 2.05.

Hall of Champions Announces All CIF Awards

The Hall of Champions announced the All-CIF teams for the winter sports season this week and the Islanders did extremely well in several sports. The awards are for players in all divisions throughout San Diego County.

In Girls Soccer, Cassie Callahan was named Player of the Year. Joining her on the All CIF First Team was Mallory Mitchell. Cory De Marco was named to the All CIF Second Team. Islander Head Coach Kiko Medina was named Coach of the Year.

In Boys Soccer, Connor Marcone was named to the All CIF Second Team.

The CHS Girls Water Polo Team, which like the CHS Girls Soccer Team won a CIF title, also garnered several post season honors. Ashley Young was voted Player of the Year and Kelly Ronimus was named to the All CIF First Team. All CIF Second Team honors were accorded to Hillary Estrada and Maddie Murphy. CHS Head Coach Dave Throop was named Coach of the Year for the second consecutive year. Congratulations to all of the All CIF award winners.

CHS Girls Basketball Honors and Awards

The CHS Girls Basketball program held their post-season banquet Sunday. The varsity awards as presented by Head Coach Toler Goodwin included: Most Improved – Katiani Lynch; Best Defensive Player – Meganne Weissenfels; Rookie of the Year – Samantha Kirk; and Team MVP – Peri Curtis.

Curtis was named to the All-Central League First Team. Maggie Harris and Nicollette Abrantes were both named to the All-Central League Second Team.

The JV awards were presented to: Coach’s Award – Elizabeth Standley; Best Defensive Player – Alexis Perez; Most Improved – Haley McKay; and Team MVP – Camille Wilson.