One Islander sports team won all of their games last week and that singular honor belonged to the CHS Boys Basketball Team. Their first game was a challenge, with Coronado hosting Kearny Tuesday and having to go into overtime to earn the 56-53 Central League victory.
As Islander Head Coach J.D. Laaperi said, comparing the previous Friday’s narrow, come-from-behind victory over Point Loma to the Kearny contest, “The team enjoyed that type of game so much, they wanted to play another. We were down nine points in the fourth quarter. I put Dylan Gouthro in and we played a full court, man-to-man press. He had three steals in about three minutes to help us win the game.”
Several players helped Coronado maintain their perfect Central League mark according to Laaperi, including Senior center Billy Schmitt. “The first person to score in overtime in high school usually helps win the game. The first play we ran in overtime was to Billy underneath. He helped us get the win and he had five points to go with 10 rebounds. Kearny played a 3-2 zone and Chris Banks was playing small forward for us. He combatted their zone with his athleticism. Also, Danny Hebert scored 22 points. We’re trying to convince Danny to shoot the 15-footer. He made several shots from the elbow, which is what we are trying to get out of him right now.”
Point guard Justin Hebner added 14 points and earned praise from Laaperi. “Justin has consistently given us six or seven assists a game, which is opening everything up. He has matured to the point that he is doing what it takes to win a game.”
Friday found Coronado with a bye in their Central League schedule, as there are an odd number (seven) of teams in the conference. The Boys and Girls played a home doubleheader against High Tech High, a scheduling move which yielded two easy victories. For their part, the Boys won 70-34. There are 13 players listed on the CHS Boys roster and everyone played. And they played whole lot.
Hebert paced Coronado with 15 points, with Hebner, Harley Ralph, and Schmitt all scoring nine points each. Luke Gillingham added seven points as did Banks and Gouthro. Other statistical leaders included Hebert with six rebounds, Hebner with six assists and Gouthro with five steals. Collin Green scored his first points at the varsity level, nailing a long three-pointer.
“I was pleased with the effort the first group gave,” said Laaperi of his starting unit. “The first three or four minutes of the game they came out strong. We got up 17-0 and then pulled the press.”
The schedule toughens starting Tuesday when Coronado travels to Christian for a 4:30 pm game. Friday night starts Coronado’s second lap through the Central League when the Islanders host Madison in the second half of a Girls/Boys doubleheader. The game will start around 7:45 pm. The Islanders are currently 17-4 overall and 5-0 in league play.
Islander Girls Cagers Split Pair in Central League
Last week CHS Girls Head Basketball Coach Toler Goodwin predicted that the Islanders game at Kearny would be a tough one and he was right. Playing without both Alex Evans and Camille Wilson who were each out for medical reasons, Coronado fell 39-35 to the Komets. There is certainly no disgrace in that, as Kearny is the two-time defending Central League champs.
“I was disappointed we lost,” Goodwin said of the road defeat. “We started slowly in the first quarter and were down 15-5 early. We went on a 13-0 run to make the score 21-17 with 1:10 to go in the half, but we gave up a shooting foul and a late three-pointer. They went up by one point at the half. We relaxed too much in the last minute and didn’t finish the half. We also left some points on the free throw line.” Goodwin noted the team was 9-23 from the charity stripe.
“It was a two-point game with a minute to go,” Goodwin continued to say. “We had a couple of opportunities and missed a shot. We had a nice comeback in both halves.” Peri Curtis was the leading scorer for Coronado with 13, Nicollette Abrantes scored 12, Samantha Kirk added seven and Meganne Weissenfels chipped in three points.
The basketball injury deity both giveth and taketh away, as Wilson was cleared to practice last Thursday and Evans followed with medical approval to play Friday. In the meantime, JV and varsity two-way players Martha Byrne, Rachel Brennan and Airean Gillig sustained injuries of various types and weren’t able to play last week. Thus Goodwin didn’t know how many players were going to suit up against High Tech High until late in the week.
As it turned out it really didn’t matter as Coronado won 71-2. As in dos, a pair, snake eyes, a deuce, and so on. The game marked Goodwin’s 200th win as head coach of the Islanders and also provided some interesting statistics on Coronado’s side of the ledger.
Among them, Curtis scored 38 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Evans had nine points and five rebounds in her return to action. Kirk added eight points, six rebounds and four steals. Cory Demarco contributed four points, seven rebounds, eight assists and seven steals. Weissenfels laid some serious defense on the High Tech High Storm with nine steals. Wilson had four points, five steals and three assists in her first game back. To their credit, the Storm played hard until the end, just not with a lot of success. Well, basically no success.
Goodwin, who along with his Islander team now will compete in Division III during the CIF Playoffs, looked ahead, just a little, to the playoffs. “The top three teams in Division III are Our Lady of Peace, Mission Bay and Mount Miguel. You can shuffle the order a bit here or there. OLP is a very solid team and they work hard defensively. They have a really solid point guard. Mission Bay has young athletes and likes to run and press. They are a lot like Mt. Miguel. Then you add in Cathedral Catholic, Del Norte, Valley Center, Canyon Crest and those types of teams.”
Tuesday Coronado travels to Christian for a 3 pm game and then hosts Madison Friday night at 6 pm.  “We’ve got Alex and Camille back,” said Goodwin. “Friday was the first time in over a month that we have had our front seven varsity players on the floor. I’d like to win Tuesday and keep a rhythm going.”
North County Times Boys Basketball Poll
Good friend John Maffei was kind enough to forward the current edition of the “North County Times Prep Basketball Poll” to pass along to our readers. The poll reads as follows: No. 1 Lincoln; No. 2 La Costa Canyon; No. 3 Torrey Pines; No. 4 El Camino; No. 5 Rancho Buena Vista; No. 6 St. Augustine; No. 7 Hoover; No. 8 Francis Parker; No. 9 Westview; and No. 10 Otay Ranch. Others receiving votes include Mount Miguel, Hilltop, Coronado, Mater Dei, Eastlake, Rancho Bernardo and Army-Navy.
Islander Boys Soccer Streak Stopped by Hoover, New Streak Begins
All good things come to an end and last Tuesday the CHS Boys Soccer Team had their 12-game winning streak, during which they did not give up a single goal, stopped at Hoover. The Cardinal defeated Coronado 3-2 in a Central League contest.
“It had to happen sooner or later,” Islander Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu said. “It was a combination of things. We always struggle at their place and we usually don’t match up well with them. It was finals week and the weather is different over there, dry and hot. The kids were nervous and we weren’t prepared. We made some mistakes and they punished us. We tried to tie it up at the end, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
Kyle Koshland scored the first goal for the Islanders and Coronado’s second tally came as the result of an own goal courtesy of the Hoover defense. Hiatt-Aleu explained the play. “It was a corner kick by Nate Hoffman and one of their guys hit it first and it went into the side netting.”
Thursday night things returned to pre-Hoover normal as Coronado schooled Lincoln 4-0. Kyle Runyon scored twice, with single goals credited to Tommy Hart and Andrew Orozco. Goalkeeper Jake Nicholson earned the shutout. “Everybody stepped up in the game,” Hiatt-Aleu said of his team, which is now 13-1 and is allowing .214 goals per game. “We talked about the character we were going to have to come out with. We needed to get back on the winning track and put the loss behind us. Everybody came out and played well. If everybody does what they are supposed to do, we play well. It was a good team effort.”
Hoover has a loss and a tie in league, so Coronado still holds a half game lead in the Central League standings. This week the team has two away games, at Clairemont and at Christian, with both games slated to start at 3 pm. Clairemont is in the process of installing artificial turf on their field and the game will be played at Bayview Terrace Elementary School. Next Monday the Islanders host Monte Vista High School, which is coached by former CHS coach Tomo Usyian, at 6:15 pm.
Coronado Girls Soccer Splits Pair in Western League
Last week the CHS Girls Soccer Team defeated Mission Bay 2-0 and in a quick sequence of defensive mistakes on the same play, lost to Cathedral Catholic 1-0. But we’ll go with the better news first.
Mallory Mitchell scored the first Islander goal against Mission Bay, according to Head Coach Kiko Medina. “She received the ball wide and did a good job of taking on players and taking them in. She hit a left-footed shot from 18 feet into the upper ‘V’. It was a really nice goal.” The second goal was scored by Cassie Callahan on an assist from Olivia Lillegraven. “We got the ball to Olivia,” said Medina. “She shielded the defender off and then ran it off to Cassie, who hit a one-touch shot from 20 feet out and just inside the goal. They were two great shots from just outside the 18. I was happy about that.”
As an added plus, the defense performed well also. “As a group we defended well. They didn’t have any legit shots. They were tentative at getting numbers forward. Offensively they didn’t create anything.” Cory De Marco earned the shutout in goal.
Friday the team headed north to face their old nemesis Cathedral Catholic on the road. Medina praised the Lady Dons for their effort. “They deserved to win. That’s tough to say, but they really did. In the last 15 minutes of the game, I was thinking that if we got out with a 0-0 tie, we would be lucky. They did everything they needed to do to win. We didn’t act like it was a championship game Friday. They did exactly what we prepared for, but we didn’t show up. It’s good for us and the loss will keep us working. We have to earn results, they won’t be given to us.”
Coronado is now 4-5-3 overall and 1-1 in the Western League. Medina thinks it’s a two-team race for the league title. “It’s just down to us and Cathedral. They are 3-0. If we go out and take care of Cathedral at home, we’ll share the league championship. Losing to Cathedral might have been the best thing for us. We only have one more shot at them. That’s the perfect scenario right there.” This week Coronado hosts OLP Wednesday at 6:30 pm. Friday the team travels to La Jolla for a 3 pm contest.
Girls Water Polo Posts Winning Week
The CHS Girls Water Polo Team had a busy week last week, playing a total of seven games in six days. Head Coach Dave Throop talks about the games and the results. “Sometimes in a season, as in a classroom setting, a teacher and coach must attempt different strategies to get the point across. Our contest Jan. 17 was a continuation of that exercise, when Coronado hosted Irvine High School.  We mixed some playing time up and expanded some roles for girls to get the message across that playing time is not a given, there is no entitlement and that a team needs to be comprised of attitudes that put the team goal first. Also effort and attitude are more important than ability, experience, or grade.  
We started six new field players and except for their inexperience in such an expanded role, they handled the challenge well.  Sophomores Gabie Darlak, Noni Jones and Sarah Alfano teamed with freshman Rebecca Bayer, Kaitlin Seay and Jaicey Tyler, started in the field along with senior goalie Brooke Bernardy. The underclassmen played hard and while they made some mistakes that affected the scoreboard, but it wasn’t for lack of effort.  
Tyler was the lone starter to score a goal, while Alfano had an assist and Jones was credited with a steal.  Coming off the bench can be difficult role for someone used to starting in the flow of the game. However, we gained traction from the contributions of Hannah Green (two goals, two steals), Shelby Couture (four goals, two assists, three steals), Kendall Hoshko (one goal, three exclusions drawn), and Candyce Day (one goal, one field block).  For the day Brooke Bernardy had two steals and five saves in the game.  We lost the game by the score of 12-8. Thursday, we played La Jolla on the road. If there was ever a classic “trap” game for a team that is struggling, this was it.  Coming off a tough weekend at Santa Barbara and mixed in with the game this past Monday against Irvine, as well as the drain of CHS finals week, is always a fear for a coach to play a team and conference opponent such as La Jolla. Most likely La Jolla believed that our first meeting in December, which CHS won 6-4, was a fluke game.
We came out flat, drained and passive, and found ourselves in a sink hole that grew quarter by quarter.  We were down 4-1 in the first quarter and 8-3 at half time.  The momentum was entirely with La Jolla, and to their credit, they looked good and were playing well.  In the third quarter, La Jolla outscored Coronado 3-0, making their dominant effort entirely one-sided. In the fourth quarter we outscored La Jolla 3-1 to make the final a 12-6 loss.  Kendall Martin, Hoshko and Green had solo goals, while Couture had three goals, a steal, a field block and four exclusions drawn.
Then we began play in the America’s Finest Tournament Friday. To their credit, the girls fought all weekend of the AFC tournament.  In the first game, we played an injury-depleted Tesoro and came out victorious 11-7 in a game that wasn’t as close as the score indicated. Couture had four goals, while Martin and Green had three apiece. Day scored a goal as well.   Martin had five assists to go along with her efforts.  Brooke Bernardy had five saves and one steal, while Emma Renly had four saves playing in the second half of the game.  
Friday evening we played El Toro and having broken our losing streak, we played the second game in our assigned bracket. At the conclusion of the first quarter it was 5-3 in favor of El Toro and 6-3 at half.  We were playing hard and determined for the game, which against a team like El Toro was a nice thing to see.  After three quarters the score was 8-4 in favor of El Toro and we had lost our leading scorer to foul trouble.  
The final frame saw El Toro go on a six-goal run, but we had already started to substitute to earn our younger players some experience, once the coaches felt the game was out of hand at 10-4.   Green, Lauren Carroll, Day and Couture all scored a goal, while Bernardy had eight saves, an assist and a steal.
Saturday morning we played Warren High School. To see the character of a team, of a competitor, is to see how they handle success and how they overcome adversity. Against a well-coached and aggressive Warren team, we came out strong scoring twice in the first quarter, and then we went up 6-1 at halftime.  
But just as it Dickens wrote in “A Tale of Two Cities,” we had a tale of two halves.  We settled to old habits and efforts in the second half and saw our 6-1 lead squandered to an 8-5 lead at the end of the third quarter. Warren scored two more goals in the fourth to climb back into the contest and Coronado held on for the 8-7 victory.   Green led our scoring with four goals, while Couture had two, and Martin and Tyler had a goal apiece.  Martin also contributed four assists, two steals and a field block to round out her efforts.  Brooke Bernardy had 10 saves, a steal and an assist.  For the power play, we were 2-5, but held Warren to 3-11.  
Our next tournament game was a rematch from earlier in the week against Irvine. We mentioned a couple tendencies we saw in the first game Monday and wanted to focus our defense on those.  For the game, Green led all scorers again with four goals, while Martin, Couture and Hoshko had two goals apiece and Tyler added one.  Martin led all of the players in the game in assists with five.  We were 3-6 on our power plays and held Irvine to 1-6. Bernardy was again very solid in goal with 10 saves and the Islanders held on to win 10-8.  
The final game of the tournament and of the week was against Temescal Canyon. With a gaudy two-game winning streak we faced a physical and scrappy Temescal Canyon team. The scoring was tied 2-2 after one quarter, 4-3 in favor of Coronado at the half, 6-5 Coronado after the third quarter and then we found ourselves down in the fourth quarter 7-6. We scratched back to tie the game 7-7 and sent it into overtime. Eventually we emerged victorious by the score of 8-7.  
Couture led the scoring with four goals, while Green had three, and Martin scored once.   Bernardy had 15 saves on the outing.  Our power play was 3-4, while holding Temescal to 2-5.  For the AFC tournament, our record was 4-1 and we finished in ninth place.  
We put together a three-game winning streak to conclude the tournament, and our body language and effort throughout tournament was much improved from the debacle we had with La Jolla on Thursday. I believe we can still do a lot with our remaining schedule, including playoffs, but we have to buy into doing things the correct way and doing them consistently..   
We play an important conference game Wednesday versus a tough and improved Cathedral Catholic team at 5pm at the BBMAC. Then we host another tough team, San Clemente, Saturday at 11 am at the BBMAC.” 
Water Polo Awards and Recognition
Patrick Geer and Van Burgess recently earned recognition as High School All-Americans in the sport of water polo. In addition, Geer was named to the First Team of the All-Academic Team for the CIF San Diego Section.
Currently there are four alumnae of the CHS Girls Water Polo program playing at UCLA. The really good news is that all four, including Katelyn Estrada, Kelly Ronimus, Morgan Ronimus and Hannah Sebenaler were named to the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll for the fall quarter. To make the honor roll, a student-athlete must earn a GPA of at least 3.0 and pass at least 12 quarter units.
Islander Surf Team Report
Lorton Mitchell provides a report on the doings of the Coronado High School Surf Team. “The squad was blessed with a picture perfect day to remember Sunday, as they surfed against Carlsbad High School on the south side of the Oceanside Pier. The conditions were as good as it gets, including crisp, clean 56 degree water, waves that the kid’s describe as “epic,” light offshore winds and a beautiful 77 degree January day.
The team competition started at 7 am, with boys short boarders winning each of their heats against a very good Carlsbad team. Senior Tyler Smith returned to the lineup after an injury that kept him out for the first half of the season. Tyler earned a first place in his heat with a great wave that went all the way to pier.
Sophomore Jack Alldredge turned in another solid performance with a second place. Nate Hoffmann and Luke Hoffmann surfed well with their perpetual stoke and love for the water. Because one team member was a no show, Sven Karlsson was asked to surf “both ways” again for the team and he stole the show with a first place finish in short board.  He then completely dominated his longboard heat and scored 8.0, 8.5 and 7.5 on his three waves. Sven’s last wave went from the pier to the sand, with the crowd of 200 spectators hooting and cheering. The team is looking forward to their annual camping trip to San Onofre on Super Bowl weekend.”
 Coronado Flavor to Farmers Insurance Open, Coronado to Host Boys Golf CIF Play
CHS Boys Golf Coach Randy Coutts called recently to spread some golf news. CHS grad Brian Smock has received an invitation to compete in this year’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club. Smock, who has made a very nice living on the Nationwide Tour, recently has been assisting Coutts with both the CMS Team and the CHS Team. “He called me and asked what he could do to help,” said Coutts of Smock. “He’s just a good guy. The people at the golf course love him.”
Coronado High School senior Andrew Lister played in two qualifying events for the Farmers event in the last few days. Last week he birdied his final hole at Madeira to make Monday’s final qualifying round at El Camino. There 105 golfers were playing for just four spots in the Farmers Insurance field. Lister shot a three-over round of 75 and finished in a tie for 90th. His round included a birdie on the fourth hole. Lister will play for CHS this spring before matriculating in the fall to Texas A&M on a golf scholarship.
Finally, the staff at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course, which includes Director of Golf Services Roger Miller and Host Professional Ron Yarbrough, landed the CIF Boys Golf Championships that will be played May 23-24. Coutts helped lobby with the county golf coaches for the event. Coutts said the competition will be tough. “To me, this is the best quality among high school golfers 1-20 in the county that I’ve ever seen.” Hopefully Lister and fellow Islander Brian Turley and others will qualify to play on their home course in late May.