Probably the last high water mark for Islander Boys Tennis came in the spring of 2001 when brothers Jonathan Hopkins and Thomas Hopkins combined to win the CIF San Diego Section doubles title under the tutelage of Head Coach Robbin Adair. In the intervening decade, Adair retired and though the team has been competitive, they have hovered around the .500 mark most of the seasons since.

Now in 2011 the Islanders are 8-3 and last week pulled off a milestone of sorts when they defeated St. Augustine 11-7 in their Western League match. “That was the first win in a long time against St. Augustine,” said CHS Head Coach Leslie Koshland.

The week started with a 16-2 domination of University City, which was accomplished without No. 1 singles player Greg Lyon. That wasn’t a problem in this particular match as the team’s No. 2 Sean Lee stepped up and won all three of his singles matches at the No. 1 slot. Weston Breay won two singles matches and with the new substitution rules now in force in prep tennis, Drew Maracle and Jake Finley both subbed in and captured a singles set each.

Luke Hoffmann continues to set the pace as half of the Islanders No. 1 doubles duo, combining with Kyle Koshland to win two sets, then winning a third set with Michael Whalen. The doubles duo of Shaun Koshland/Grey Halpin won three sets. Cort Dalton/Brad Mathews won two sets and then Mathews combined with Luke McCue to win one set.

But the big news was the 11-7 triumph over the Saints. Most of the Islander results came in ‘twos,’ with Breay, Lee, Hoffmann/Kyle Koshland and Halpin/Shaun Koshland all winning two sets each. Mathews and Ricardo Gonzalez-Diaz, who played doubles together for the first time, won three sets.

This week the Islanders take on perennial Western League power La Jolla for the second time this season and Coach Koshland is going to mix her lineup up a little to combat the Vikings. “It’s been a good season so far,” Koshland concluded.

Islander Girls Lacrosse Rolls Over Three Opponents Last Week

Islander Girls Lacrosse cemented their hold on the No. 1 ranking in California last week with three convincing victories won by an aggregate score of 50-9. The victories included scores of 18-2 over Point Loma, 15-5 against The Bishop’s School and a 17-2 win against Patrick Henry. Meganne Weissenfels and Alexis Perez shared time on goal over the three contests.

To my knowledge there isn’t a scoring race among the Coronado players, but if there was, last week’s Top 10 would have looked like this: Lauren Maack with 13 goals; Michaela Guerrera with eight tallies; Kaitlyn Couture with seven goals; tied for fourth place were Martha Byrne and Caroline Carlson with five goals each; in sixth place was Alex Reidy with four; Mollie Privett scored three goals; eighth place was shared between Sarah Andersen and Erica Keamy; and Anna Coumes rounded out the Top 10 with one score. The 21 team assists for the week were sprinkled among those mentioned above.

“We played really great as a team,” said Head Coach Jessica Battle of her club’s three games last week. “Against Bishop’s we played very well, like a nice flowing unit, with beautiful transitions down the field. We got all but two draws during the game.” Couture was the Islander tasked with taking the draws for Coronado.

We noted in last week’s column that Tuesday the Islanders host the No. 2 ranked team in California, St. Ignatius at 3:30 pm. After that contest, Coronado doesn’t play until next week on Tuesday when they travel to Scripps Ranch for what is essentially the City Conference title game. That game starts at 6 pm. Thursday Holy Cross from Maryland comes to town for a 3:30 pm game. Friday the Islanders travel to La Jolla for a 5:30 pm contest. Traditionally there is no love lost between the Vikings and Islanders in girls lacrosse.

On a related lacrosse note, according to Coach Battle, Mollie Privett, Sarah Andersen and Caroline Carlson have all been named to the San Diego team that will travel to play in the Women’s Division National Tournament, May 28-29, 2011 at Sony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. The event has been held since 1933 is considered to be a showcase for women’s lacrosse at all age levels.

CHS Sailing Earns Pacific Coach Title

First year Head Coach Rob Hallawell had his CHS Sailing Team peaking at the right time of the season and provides the following report on his squad’s success. “It was deja vu all over again for the Coronado High School Sailing Team at the Pacific Coast Championships (PCCs). Repeating last year's stunning upset, the Islander's followed a steady but unspectacular regular season with a convincing victory in Long Beach April 9-10. Coronado sailors consistently finished between fourth and eighth place at regular season events, but dominated in Long Beach from start to finish.  Taking the first place trophy at the PCCs qualifies the team for a trip to the National Championships to be held on Lake Travis in Austin, Texas in May.

We've been struggling all year to reach our potential and I really pushed the sailors hard in practice the past couple of months.  The entire team responded well to the pressure I put on them. Every team made mistakes at the PCCs, but our team could make up for our mistakes quickly.  The difference in sailing techniques between pretty fast and super-fast is so tiny.  We practice those techniques much more than other teams do.

Seniors Hans Henken and Kaitlin Dunphey, plus junior Katie Dowling sailed the CHS ’A’ boat, tying for first in their division.  Junior Esteban Forrer steered the ‘B’ boat with freshman Paris Henken, sophomore Greg Coumes and senior Jenny Melnick to an easy first place in Division B.  Sophomore Chuckie Eaton and senior Brittany Hallawell were also at the event but did not sail. 

"It's that time of year" said Forrer.  “We knew we hadn't sailed well enough all year, but this event is intense.  The pressure is incredible.  Everyone knows that only five of the 20 teams get to go to Nationals.  Hans and I love that pressure.”

The Islanders were in first after Saturday's racing, with rival Point Loma High in second.  "We wanted to win" said Hans Henken. “But qualifying for Nationals was our first goal.  We knew that on Sunday, all we had to do was stick to the plan.” 

The team started strong on Sunday as well and jumped to a huge lead when the Point Loma ‘B’ boat was disqualified from a race for an incident at one of the turning marks.  Coronado could then relax and coast to victory as Point Loma, Newport, Branson, Corona del Mar and Cathedral Catholic battled for the four remaining berths to nationals.  In a thrilling finish, Branson High School from San Francisco dropped out of contention due to disqualification.

Last year's coach, long time Coronado Yacht Club mainstay Jon Rogers has watched his old team with pride.  “I hated to step down as the coach, but I needed to concentrate on my job here at the club.  I picked Rob as my replacement.  I knew he would continue the work we were doing last year.  After winning the PCCs last year, we finished sixth at Nationals.  I really think this year's team can improve on that result.  Wait until Rob sees the next generation of sailors we are training for him.”

Track and Field Update

The CHS Girls and Boys Track Teams both won their dual meets over Clairemont last week and Head Coach George Green provides the details. “The Girls Track Team got past one of the biggest hurdles in their quest for the league championship last Wednesday with a win over Clairemont by the score of 78-58. They are now 4-0, with dual meets against Crawford and Lincoln remaining on the schedule.

About three-quarters of the way into the meet, a roar was heard from the small crowd watching the girls' pole vault competition that was triggered when the Chieftain's McKenzie Johnson cleared a San Diego Section-leading height of 12 feet, 3 inches. Among those cheering the loudest was USA, World, and Olympic women's pole vault champion Stacy Dragila. Dragila works out of the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista where she also trains a small number of local pole vaulters including Johnson and Islanders Will Bartsch and Lauren Bartsch.

While Lauren is not yet at Johnson's level, she set a personal record of 9 feet, 6 inches which ranks her as the top freshman vaulter in San Diego County, and fourth among the frosh ranks in the state. Johnson's mark at this meet places her fifth in the state among all grade levels.

Last week I reported an impressive result turned in by freshman Maddy Hopson, who broke the CHS triple jump record by one inch. I also mentioned that once she learns the event she'd get a lot better. Well, our jumps coach Karla Martinez must have taught her something since last week, because Hopson added another 15 inches to the record.  Her mark of 34 feet, 10 inches is currently the best freshman mark in both San Diego and the state.

Nearly as impressive was her long jump mark of 16 feet, 10 inches, which is among the Top 5 frosh marks statewide and the top frosh mark in San Diego. Teta Murphy's school long jump record of 17 feet, 6 inches set in 1980 could be within Maddy’s reach this season.

Not only is Clairemont's Johnson a top pole vaulter, she's an excellent all-around athlete and broke-up an Islander sweep in both the 100 meter dash and long jump by placing second in both events. The 100 meters was won by our freshman rocket Ale Bruyere in 12.8 followed by Johnson in 13 flat and Samantha Kirk in 13.3. Both Katie Brooks and Kendall Cromartie also dipped under 14 seconds in fourth and fifth places respectively, with times of 13.6 and 13.9. 

Bruyere also won the 200 meters with a blistering time of 26.6, followed by Clairemont's Betsy Armitage in 27.4, Cromartie in 28.6, Megan Galloway in 29.3, Kirk in 29.3, and Sierra Smith in 29.5. 

In the long jump, Hopson's 16-8 was nearly a foot better than Johnson's 15-9. Abigail Callahan took third place with a jump of 14-10. Cassie Callahan and Smith also posted jumps of 14 feet or over for fourth and fifth place. Abigail and Sierra also took the top two places in the high jump with leaps of 5-2 and 5-0 respectively. In the triple jump Cassie and Stephanie Hamilton completed the sweep in second and third with jumps of 31 feet, 9.5 inches and 30 feet, 9.5 inches.

The distance events worried me going into this meet because Clairemont won the Division III Cross Country Championships and bested us at the league finals last season. However, Meg Sweeny was up for the challenge and won both the 1,600 and 3,200 meter runs with Ashley Engelman picking up the third place point in the latter event. In the 800 meters, Nicole Davies won going away in 2:23.2, with Hamilton second in 2:35.9.  The only individual running event the Clairemont girls won was the 400 meters, with Armitage winning in 60.6 followed by Islanders Elise Umansky and Sadie Gimber. Cassie Callahan won both the 100 and 300 meter hurdles with Maddy Danielson placing third in the 100 and second in the 300. Gimber, Umansky, Danielson, and Davies  posted a nice time of 4:18.3 while winning the 4x400 meter relay.

In the Boys meet, Logan Lister won both the shot put and discus, with a personal best throw in the discus of 114 feet, 8 inches to advance to third among freshman throwers in the county. Our top point scorer was Jack Gold who won the 100 meter dash and the 300 meter hurdles, placed second in the 200 meter dash, and placed second in the pole vault to amass 16 points for the day. Bobby Mansueto placed second in the 100 meters, Nate Ferraco placed second in the 300 hurdles, and Carlos Montes won the pole vault with Josh Blore placing third.  Ferraco also won the 110 hurdles and placed second in the high jump for a total of 11 points.

Aryan Shay paced Will Funk to a personal best time in the 1,600 meters, then came back to win the 800 meters in a quick time of 2:02.4.  Funk, in addition to his 4:51 time in the 1,600 meters, placed second in the 3,200 in 10:47. Ryan Keeney had a hard day's work first chasing Clairemont's Manny Alvarez in the 400 and later Clairemont's Christian Lopez in the 3,200 meters. He came out of both matchups in second place but with decent times (55.3 and 10:34). The Coronado Boys won their portion of the dual meet by the score of 60-51.”

Islander Boys Volleyball Wins Twice

Another spring sports team assembling a nice season is the CHS Boys Volleyball Team under the direction of Head Coach Shawn Patchell. Last week the Islanders defeated Madison in three straight sets to win the match. Thursday afternoon Coronado bested Crawford 25-13, 25-14 and 25-19 to improve their Central League record to 6-1.

Patchell assessed his team’s play against Madison. “We got some steady play from our seniors. Tyler Webb is doing a nice job on the right side passing well. Jake Nicholson continues to do a nice job. Those guys are playing well. It was a nice week for Nate Hoffmann who played libero in both matches. He is a kid who covers a lot of ground. He is playing and learning his position well. The guys are still talking about winning the league.”

Thursday, although the set scores weren’t overly lopsided, Coronado dominated Crawford. To begin the match, the Islanders earned a sideout on a kill shot from Jason Fielder, followed by six straight serves from Nicholson to give the Islanders a 7-0 lead. Crawford rallied for a sideout and then the Islanders John Nettleton served for three points. A brief rally from the Colts made the score 11-5, but Webb essentially ended the first game by serving for nine straight points and a 21-5 lead.

In the second set, Andrew Orozco had a kill for a side out and then had a nice serving run. Nettleton closed out the game on his serve. Dalton Martin played well in the third set with a couple of kill shots and another nice service run in the middle of the game.

Coronado will be off this week due to spring break. The Central League race will be decided May 2 when Coronado travels to Hoover for their second match of the season. The Islanders lone league loss is to Hoover. The match was re-scheduled as it was originally due to fall this week during spring break.

CHS Baseball Wins Two of Their Three Games Last Week

Given a choice, CHS Head Baseball Coach Sam Ceci probably would have preferred that his team’s two victories last week would both have been against Western League opponent La Jolla. Instead the Islanders split a pair with the Vikings on either side of a victory over San Dieguito High School. As Ceci said, “We were hoping for three wins and it was a doable week. La Jolla was a different club at their place than they were here.”

Tuesday the Islanders hosted La Jolla and from the home team’s perspective, the game got off to a shaky start. Starting pitcher Luke Gillingham had trouble locating the strike zone in the early going, walking the first and third hitters of the game, and yielding a single to the second hitter.

The Vikings cleanup hitter struck out, the fifth place hitter hit a sacrifice fly that brought in a run and the Islanders were relatively lucky to be down only run one at the end of the top half of the first frame.

La Jolla pushed across another run in the third on a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a single to take a 2-0 led. Coronado countered in the bottom of the third on a single from Andrew Toomey, a stolen base, a walk to Dylan Campbell, a single from Gillingham to load the bases. Austin Denson grounded into a double play, but Toomey scored. Tyler Brownell had a clutch two-out single to drive home Campbell and the score was tied at two. Colin Clark scored the game-winning run in the fourth inning, after he singled, stole second base, advanced to third on an infield out and scored on a La Jolla infield error.

For his part, Gillingham had located and was now pounding the strike zone. He held La Jolla scoreless for the final four innings and struck out 10 Vikings in the game. The left-handed junior also finished strong, striking out the side in the seventh inning after an error and a single allowed La Jolla to mount a brief two-out rally. Coronado prevailed 3-2.

Wednesday pitcher Freddy Schlictholz took the mound, pitched for five innings and yielded only two runs, neither of which were earned, as the Islanders defeated San Dieguito in another 3-2 victory. Kyle Teachout earned the save. Parker Elkins and Brownell had two-hit games. Clark, Schlictholz and Elkins scored the runs and RBIs were credited to Denson and Jack Mikesell.

“Freddy had a good solid effort,” said Ceci of the sophomore hurler. “He throws strikes and you can tell that early. He’s ready for the big time.”

Thursday the Islanders were on the short end of a 10-2 loss. The lone bit of good news was that junior Marcos Cepin pitched a scoreless sixth inning, plus Gillingham and Clark both had two hits in the contest.

This week the Islanders compete in the Premier Division of the Annual Lions Club Tournament. They play at home all three games. Monday they host Rocklin from the Sacramento area, Tuesday they play Marina from the Huntington Beach area and Wednesday they play Carlsbad from well, the Carlsbad area. Wednesday’s game time is 3:30 pm. Thursday at Coronado, one of the Premier Division semi-finals will be played at 9 am and the finals will be played at 1 pm. Hosting one of the prestigious Lions Club division finals is quite a compliment to the Coronado baseball program and to the work they have put into the playing field.

Support the Islander Baseball Team at PETCO Park

Another reminder, Saturday, April 30th at 4 pm, the Coronado Baseball Team will play Madison High School at PETCO Park. Tickets for the game are $15 each and there is open seating for the contest. As a bonus, you receive a ticket to the San Diego Padres game on May 7th, a 5:35 pm contest against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Tickets to the high school game are general admission, so great seats will be available. Parking in close proximity to PETCO Park is priced at $2.

This is a fundraiser for the San Diego Section CIF office and the Islanders are requested to sell 500 tickets to the game. If they can reach that ticket sales level, the Islander program will benefit financially as well. Madison and Coronado are two of the better teams in Division IV and both teams compete in the tough Western League.

Players from the Varsity, JV and Frosh Teams are out there selling tickets now. Contact your favorite player, go to www.islanderbaseball.com or e-mail Booster Club Vice President Cindy Kullberg at cindyk5@aol.com to get your seats. Ticket sales will officially end April 21.

CHS Girls Softball Loses Pair in Central League

The Islander Girls Softball Team had a tough week as they lost a pair of games, both of which were Central League contests. The first was a 6-4 loss to the Academy of Our Lady of Peace, and despite the loss there were some highlights for Coronado.

Nicole Aguilar was 3-4 at the plate and both Olivia Nebo and Lauren Curtis were 2-4. Kayla Englehart scored twice while Curtis and Holland Toomey scored once each. Englehart was the team’s starting pitcher and yielded only five hits. However the Islander defense coughed up four errors. “I told the girls, player for player we are better than OLP,” said Head Coach Tony Isabella. “We just didn’t show it.”

The second game of the week was an 11-0 loss to Madison, the team which Isabella thought would challenge Coronado for the Central League crown. Coronado yielded nine runs in the third inning. Alanna Pompa and Englehart each had one hit in the game, which was the Islander total for the game. “We were putting the bat on the ball,” said Isabella. “We just couldn’t find the holes. We hit the ball right at them.” Isabella noted the good pitching outing from Curtis. “She is a promising sophomore for the future.”

The loss leaves Coronado 4-5 on the season, 3-2 in the Central League. This week the Islanders play San Diego at home Tuesday, Wednesday the team travels to Mountain Empire for a 4 pm game and Thursday Coronado plays at Lincoln. The games Tuesday and Thursday are both Central League contests and will begin at 3 pm.

Islander Boys Golf Wins Central League Crown

Mixed among their five results last week, the Islander Boys Golf Team emerged with two victories over Crawford and won the Central League title. For the week by employing a couple of split squads, the Islanders went 4-1.

The week started with a loss to Westview by the score of 200-212. Alston Lister shot a 37 for Coronado and Jordan Summers shot a 39 on the par 36 Coronado Municipal Course. Tuesday the Islanders and Coach Randy Coutts got serious and with their starting lineup on the course the Islanders posted a 190 to Crawford’s 228. Both Lister and Nick Spear shot rounds of 35 for medalist honors. According to Coutts, it was the team’s lowest round of the year at Coronado.

Wednesday again deploying two split squads, the Islanders won both of their matches. Preston Segura, a transplant from Las Vegas, shot a 46 to lead Coronado over Bishop’s. “He likes the game and plays a lot,” said Coutts of the 6 foot, 2 inch sophomore. “He’s a nice kid and his game is moving in the right direction.” Meanwhile, the other split squad was at Sycuan and was defeating Grossmont High School 208-221. Lister was the medalist with a 39.

Thursday, having defeated Crawford once, the Islanders traveled to Rancho Bernardo Country Club to confront the Colts again. This time Coronado won 203-227 with Brian Turley shooting a 38 for medalist honors. The second win over Crawford gave Coronado the outright league title.

The Islanders are off this week due to spring break, but return to the links Monday, April 25th when they play St. Augustine at Riverwalk.  Tuesday, April 26th they play Bishop’s at La Jolla Country Club.

CHS Grad Josh Copp Runs Boston Marathon

Josh Copp (CHS ’03, Harvard University ‘07) competed in Monday’s Boston Marathon and finished 15,196 out of 24,338 runners, crossing the finish line in 3:56.17. But the larger point is that in running his second Boston Marathon, the first year MBA student at MIT’s Sloan School of Management raised more than $5,000 for the pediatric hematology-oncology program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“Beyond funding scientific research and patient care, this cause is important to me because I will be running in honor of my grandparents,” said Copp, who previously ran the event in 2007. “I’m excited to be involved in the cause once again.”

Copp is the son of Dr. Steve Copp and Linda Copp of Coronado.