PETCO Park was the site of the Coronado Islanders vs. Madison War Hawks Baseball game Saturday and the couple of thousand people rattling around in the home stadium of the San Diego Padres seemed to enjoy the concept of prep baseball in a Major League setting. As CHS Head Coach Sam Ceci phrased it, “The kids enjoyed the experience. It was pretty special. It’s awe inspiring to see the structure from the field side of things. It was an experience they will remember forever.”

The CIF San Diego Section held two days of prep games at PETCO, with the 4 pm start Saturday for the Islanders and War Hawks being the last of the seven games played. Through a rotational basis it was the Western League’s turn to provide two teams for the series and the Islanders gave up one of their home games to make the contest possible.

Unfortunately from a competition perspective, the game was one-sided with Madison winning 6-0 or 7-0 depending on which side of the field your favorite team occupied. A controversial umpiring decision on a run-down play in the sixth inning was ruled a double play, with the run scoring. The original call of interference at second base was correct and on the continuation play the resulting run should not have counted. A couple of days later it’s a moot point, but let’s just say that high school umpiring has not a model of consistency this season.

Credit Madison starting pitcher Ian Clarkin with a fine outing, as he pitched a complete game three-hitter. Coronado’s three hits equaled the number of errors they had in the field. For bragging rights that can be passed on to their later generations, Austin Denson, Jack Mikesell and Andrew Toomey all had hits on a beautiful spring day in April at PETCO Park.

On a side note, I can personally attest to the fact that 20 Islander players entered the game, as I was the public address announcer for the event. The radio, television, and pa announcer booths are all on the fifth level of the park, which provides a great overview of the facility, but the perch doesn’t provide an overly intimate view of the game. On the other hand, you don’t have the opportunity to obsess over the umpire’s strike zone from five stories up. All in all, it was quite an experience.

Ceci and his staff tried to plan last week to give the Islanders a chance at winning all three of their games. At the high school level, a pitcher is allowed to throw only 10 innings in any given week. The first game of the week was an away contest at University City and Jake Meloche got the start and went four innings. He left the game with a 4-0 lead and earned the victory. Ceci’s idea was to bring back Meloche to start in Saturday’s game vs. Madison. Coronado went on to win 4-1 with the Islander RBIs provided by Toomey, Luke Gillingham, Tyler Brownell and Garrett Smerdon.

In the return game the next day, Gillingham started and pitched brilliantly at home through six innings before the Islander defense got wobbly. In fact, none of the eight runs Gillingham gave up in the 6.2 innings he pitched were earned. The Islanders committed four costly fielding errors in the contest. Coronado had a 2-1 lead entering the top of the seventh inning and lost the game 9-2. Meloche and Gillingham accounted for the two Islander RBIs.

“I wish we had played better Saturday,” Ceci said of the PETCO outing. “But all it amounts to is one league loss. Madison played well and they were very motivated. Hopefully Gillingham will give us a good outing when we play them Tuesday at Madison. That is our only game next week. After that, we’ll give the kids a couple of days off. We don’t play again until the following Monday at Mission Bay. They are struggling just like we are.”

CHS Softball Program Wins Twice in Central League

The ‘Tale of Two Halves’ play on words referencing a “Tale of Two Cities” (by Charles Dickens, published in 1859) works better in football when there are actually two halves to a game. But the Coronado vs. Kearny softball game played at Green Field last Tuesday had a distinct change in approach for the Islanders midway through the contest. Through four innings Kearny held a 5-0 lead and it looked pretty grim for Coronado in the Central League contest.

But in the bottom of the fifth, Nicole Aguilar led off with a single, followed by a single from Alanna Pompa. Brooke Gensler then added a single. The Komets thoughtfully added a three-base error to the Gensler’s sharp single and suddenly Coronado had narrowed the scoring gap to 5-3.

In the sixth inning, Kayla Englehart led off with a single and reached second base on a wild pitch. Aguilar laced a triple to the outfield, scoring Englehart. The score was now 5-4 and Kearny was feeling some pressure.

While the Islanders were chipping away on offense, they were also tightening up their defense, which was a little on the lax side in the early going. Coronado hurler Lakota Abdalla-Kane didn’t give up any runs in the final three innings, and struck out 10 Komet hitters in the contest.

Trailing by a run entering the seventh and final inning, Coronado went to work right away. Hali Danna led off with a single and Olivia Nebo reached base on an error. Lauren Curtis laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, moving Danna and Nebo into scoring position. Englehart ended the suspense with a single and for good measure a Kearny error on the hit guaranteed that the tying and winning runs were able to cross home plate. The final score was 6-5.

“It was a complete team effort from the third inning on,” said Head Coach Tony Isabella. “I told the girls that if they played every game like we played in the last half of the Kearny game, we could go undefeated. We played exciting softball.” Coronado now owns victories by the scores of 10-9 and 6-5 over Kearny this season.

Curtis, who normally plays third base, took to the mound against the Islanders second opponent of the week Crawford on Thursday. The sophomore hurler proceeded to throw a no-hitter against the Colts, while walking only two batters. “Everybody played and everybody hit,” said Isabella of the contest, won by Coronado 18-0. “The team’s intensity carried over from the Kearny game. We also played well defensively.”

Hitting stars including Abdalla-Kane, who was 3-3. Englehart contributed a homer and a triple, while Aguilar was 2-5. Danna was 4-5 with a triple and three singles. Pompa had four singles in five trips to the plate.

With just two weeks left in Central League play, the Islanders play at Hoover Tuesday and they host the Academy of Our Lady of Peace Thursday in Coronado. The first pitch for both games is 3 pm.

Coronado Girls Lacrosse Wins Three Games Last Week

What looked like a potentially tough week for the CHS Girls Lacrosse Team, turned instead into three victories for the Islanders. Head Coach Jessica Battle thought the combination of City Conference rival Scripps Ranch and Holy Cross High School from Maryland would challenge her club.

Coronado defeated Scripps Ranch 11-6 on four goals each from Lauren Maack and Michaela Guerrera. Alex Reidy, Caroline Carlson and Kaitlyn Couture added one goal each. Goalie Meganne Weissenfels was credited with five saves in the game.

Another huge factor was that Couture also won 12 draws in the contest, a fact not lost on Coach Battle. “Kaitlyn was amazing. She deserves special recognition and she is such a great player. It might not always show in goals and assists, but she comes up with the draw control, which is huge in determining who is going to win or lose the game. She came up with 60-70 percent of the balls herself. She is just that type of athlete who wants to get the ball on her stick and will do everything she can to get it there.”

In the Scripps Ranch game, Battle also credited defender Cory De Marco with a fine effort. “Cory played really well. She helped shut down their key scorer and held her to three goals.”

The second game of the week was against The Academy of the Holy Cross from Kensington, Maryland. In prep lacrosse whenever you hear ‘from Maryland’ you immediately assume you are in for a battle. Coronado won this contest 11-7 and Weissenfels had a very nice game in goal with 14 saves.

The Islanders scored the first three goals of the game, and three of the next five to take a 6-2 halftime lead. The Tartans from Holy Cross scored the first two goals of the second half, which was countered by five straight scores from Coronado. Up 11-4 at that point, the Islanders coasted home for the victory. Frankly the game wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate.

Couture led Coronado with three goals, while Maack, Guerrera, and Carlson added two tallies each.  Mollie Privett and Reidy had one goal each. Couture won 10 draws (the lacrosse equivalent to a faceoff in hockey) and in addition, won eight ground balls.

Then it was on to La Jolla, which for years was the sworn enemy of the Coronado Girls Lacrosse program. The Islanders dominated the Vikings by the score of 12-3. The normal suspects plus Brianne Clifford and Martha Byrne scored goals. Weissenfels had eight saves in goal.

This week the Islanders have three more games. Tuesday they host Cathedral Catholic at 7 pm and Friday they travel to La Costa Canyon for a 5:30 pm game against one of the county’s better programs. Saturday Coronado hosts Santa Fe Christian at 11 am. Both Cathedral and SFC are potential Division II opponents for Coronado in the CIF playoffs. 

CHS Boys Lacrosse Vanquishes Vikings before Tough Loss to St. Ignatius

The toughest element about sports is the roller coaster nature of the endeavor. About as soon as you think you and your team are world beaters, a harsh reality can come unexpectedly.

Last week the Islander Boys Lacrosse Team experienced some of that with a 13-3 victory over La Jolla, paced by four goals each from Kyle Runyon and Jack Perkins. “The La Jolla game was great,” said Head Coach Alex Cade. “I think La Jolla is a little bit hurt by injuries and they are playing a lot of young players. We got a chance to see what some of our young guys can do. Like Emmet Gormican and Jake Shepherd on defense, plus Jack Perkins on offense. The young players really stepped up and played the entire game after the first quarter. They showed they are going to be great players and leaders if they continue to work like they have.”

Saturday the Islanders took their talents to Santa Barbara, which in theory is halfway between Coronado and San Francisco, the home of their weekend opponent from St. Ignatius College Prep. The contest featured Coronado, the No. 1 ranked team in California against the No. 2 team from St. Ignatius. Somewhat ironically about one week before, the girls lacrosse teams from the two schools, then both ranked No. 1 and 2, played each other. With a bit of foreshadowing, the Wildcats won that game as well.

Saturday’s boys’ lacrosse game was a 9-8 victory by St. Ignatius, a contest that Cade thought his team could have won. “It was a tough game and hard-fought. It came down to one play or one goal. We couldn’t muster a goal in the fourth quarter. We had the lead the entire game, from the opening whistle. When the fourth quarter came around, the boys needed to come up with a goal or a stop. That is a lesson every team has to learn. It matters what you do at the end of a game. It was certainly a game we could have won.”

When asked who had good games for the Islanders, Cade responded, “Runyon, Alex Bookout and Shepherd had nice games. Sergio Flores was an absolute soldier. He is such an emotional leader and he gave everything he had out there. He hurt his shoulder and refused to be taken out. He left the game after a couple more quarters. It was Herculean. If everyone had his heart and motor, there isn’t a team in the country who would beat us. Andrew Woolf, our face off guy, played well. We need to try and find a few more of those guys.”

The Islander’s season has five games remaining and the team is currently 12-3. This week on Tuesday the team travels to Cathedral Catholic for a 7 pm game, Friday evening at 7 pm the team travels to Scripps Ranch and Saturday evening Coronado hosts Poway at 7 pm.

Islander Swim Teams Rapidly Approach Post-Season Meets

Islander Head Swim Coach Dave Throop provides his insights into the progress being made by the CHS Boys and Girls Swim Teams. “As we move into May, the teams are preparing for our upcoming Championship Season.  

We've had some good training at this point, but with spring break being as close to the end of the season as it was, that has put a little wrinkle into what we're trying to do with our remaining time.  We have one dual meet left Thursday at La Jolla and then a quick turnaround with the City Conference Championships the following week.  Our goal is to prepare to race our best in the prelims of the City Conference Meet Tuesday and Wednesday and then try to re-qualify as many swimmers as we can on the Friday in the Championships.   

Last Thursday we hosted Point Loma at the BBMAC.  It had been two weeks since our last meet and the coaching staff was looking forward to seeing how the athletes would race. The majority of the races were good ones and the guys and girls who had a chance to train over the spring break saw some nice improvements in their times.  

Van Burgess swam a nice 100 free time of 49.42, which is an automatic qualifying time for CIFs while Garrett Sabesky was under the consideration time with his swim of 52.44.  John Hill swam a nice 200 free in a time of 1:56.09 which is four seconds under CIF consideration time. Braydon Hummeldorf (23.63) and Patrick Geer (23.93) are both under the consideration CIF qualifying time in the 50 free.  In the 200 individual medley Garrett Eyer is well under the consideration time with a 2:12.93, while Nick Wiley was close to a consideration opportunity with a 2:18.09. Wiley helped pace Andrew Morris to a time of 2:19.50.  

David Carroll was close to consideration in the 100 back in a time of 1:07.70 and Drew Findley was well under the consideration time for the 100 breast with his time of 1:08.97.  Alex Rose swam a 500 free time of 5:31, which was fast enough to get under the consideration time for the CIF meet. 

On the girls’ side, the qualifying times or just off qualifying times were:  Kathy White swam a nice 2:12 in the 200 freestyle, while Katy Gauvin was under the CIF consideration time in the 200 individual medley with her swim of 2:30.78.  Morgan Karney was under the consideration time in the 100 fly with a 1:09.58 and Madeline Hoshko led all swimmers in the 50 free with a time of 28.74.   

On the diving front, Tyler Roth led all divers with a score of 208.35, followed closely by Ashley Dettman posted a 206.40 and Miranda Marsten finished with a score of 148.95.  For the boys, Blaze LaRoe scored a 64.20, while fellow newcomer Adam Weiss scored a 58.20.”

CHS Track and Field Report

Head Coach George Green checks in with his progress report on the CHS Track Team. “At the San Diego Frosh/Soph track meet held at El Capitan High School last Saturday, the Islander freshmen girls validated the marks they've been hitting in dual meets this season.

With only a handful of girls participating, we placed third in the county in the Frosh Girls division behind Del Norte and Rancho Bernardo. The most impressive performances were turned in by Maddy Hopkins in the horizontal jumps.

She won the frosh girls long jump with a leap of 17 feet, 2 inches, a high school mark that would rank her high on any prep list, in any state. In the triple jump she had some competition from Del Norte's Catlin Cole who bested her on the last jump. Maddy's mark of 35 feet, 2 inches added four inches to her own school record.  Cole and Hopkins are now the top two freshman jumpers in both San Diego and the state. Hopkins' long jump mark is the best frosh mark in San Diego and currently ranks as the No. 2 freshman mark in the state. 

In the vertical jumps both Lauren Bartsch and Sierra Smith won their events, with Bartsch winning the frosh pole vault at a height of 9 feet, 6 inches. Smith won the high jump with a mark of 5 feet even. Visit our website, IslanderTrack.com, for full results and stop-action photographs of all four jumping events.

In the frosh sprints Ale Bruyere placed fifth in the 100 meters and fourth in the 200 meters. Ashley Engelman placed 10th in the Frosh girls 1,600-meter run. Our only male qualifier was Logan Lister who placed second in the freshman boys’ discus and 10th in the shot put.”

Islander Boys Tennis Wins Twice and Adds Scripps Ranch to Win List

With a very nifty 10-4 record compiled thus far this season, the Islander Boys Tennis Team has clinched a winning record, are guaranteed to finish no worse than .500 in the tough Western League and last week they added Scripps Ranch to the list of teams they have defeated this season.

“We finally beat Scripps Ranch, which was very exciting,” said Head Coach Leslie Koshland. “This year we beat Point Loma, Cathedral Catholic, St. Augustine and now Scripps. It’s been really great for these kids.”

The 11-7 victory over Scripps Ranch started with a solid contribution from the singles players as both Greg Lyon and Sean Lee won all three of their sets. Brad Mathews won two sets on the doubles side, the second one with Weston Breay. The doubles combos of Luke Hoffman/Kyle Koshland won two sets, while Shaun Koshland/Grey Halpin won one set.

Then it was on to University City and Coronado triumphed 14-4. Lyon, Breay and Cort Dalton all played singles and all won all three of their sets. Hoffman/Mathews won three sets and Shaun Koshland/Halpin won two sets.

This week Coronado concludes their regular season with a Tuesday road match against St. Augustine at 3 pm. The Islanders should easily qualify for the CIF Division III Team Playoffs which begin play May 10th. That event is followed by the Western League Individual competition and then the CIF Individuals.

Islander Boys Volleyball Splits Pair of Games

We’ve noted that the improvement shown during the course of the relatively short spring season by the CHS Boys Volleyball Team has been dramatic. Unfortunately, other teams in the Central League are improving as well.

Last Tuesday the Islanders hosted Lincoln High School and came away with a three-set (varsity matches are best of five sets) victory, but by scores of 25-8, 25-23 and 26-24. The first time the two teams played Coronado won decisively. “Everybody is catching up,” said Islander Head Coach Shawn Patchell. “Lincoln played well and they are really improved. They really competed.”

Thursday the Islanders shuffled over to Christian High School to play the Patriots, with their sights firmly set on the Central League title. Unfortunately the Islanders were on the short side of the three-set sweep this time, losing 26-24, 25-18 and 25-23. “Christian put it on us,” said Patchell. “They’ve improved a ton. Jason Fielder had the match of his career for us and Andrew Orozco did the same. Jake Nicholson did a great job setting those two guys.”

The Islanders have three matches this week, with a 3 pm home affaur Tuesday against Clairemont, a road match Wednesday against league-leading Hoover at 7pm and Thursday the team travels to Madison for a 3 pm contest.

Boys Golf Concludes Regular Season

CHS Boys Golf Head Coach Randy Coutts prepared his team for the City Conference Playoffs this week by sending his team into play in a variety of formats last week. Monday the Islanders played St. Augustine at Riverwalk Country Club. Both schools sent their second units and St. Augustine showed their depth on this particular day and won the match.

Tuesday Coronado played Bishop’s at La Jolla Country Club and Islander Brian Turley was the medalist with a round of 35. Coronado won handily.

Wednesday Scripps Ranch, St. Augustine and Coronado played at Sea N Air, with Scripps Ranch shooting a 380 (18 hole format), Coronado shot a 390 and St. Augustine came in with a 405. In this match, Alton Lister shot a 70, Turley came in with a 74, Cole Summers shot a 78 and Nick Spear carded a round of 82. “As a team, that is right at the place we would like to be,” said Coutts of the outing.

Now it gets confusing. This week the Islanders have qualified eight golfers to participate in the City Conference Tournament. A player had to have a season average of 47 or better to qualify for the field of 88 players. All 88 players compete Wednesday at Balboa and play 18 holes. This first day of competition determines All-Conference honors and the team champion.

The top 64 players from Wednesday’s round play again Thursday at Balboa. The best 32 scores from this round of play qualify for the City Conference Match Play competition to be held next week at the Torrey Pines South course. Coronado has already qualified for the CIF Team competition, which conveniently will be held at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course May 24th and 26th.

CNSA Hosts Junior Olympics Event at BBMAC

Last weekend a total of 572 swimmers representing 11 swim clubs in the San Diego area competed at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex in Coronado in an AB long course event. And now we will list every one of the 572 athletes. Just kidding.

The event was hosted by the Coronado Navy Swim Association and the host club had several of its members do quite well. In the Girls Age 9-10 Division, Megan Weller finished in 10th place or better in six events, including a first in the 50 breast, two fourths in the 50 free and the 100 breast, a sixth in the 50 fly, eighth in the 100 fly and a 10th  place finish in the 200 free.

In the Girls 8 and Under, Jean Younce was third in the 50 fly and fourth in the 50 free, while on the Boys 8 and Under side, Mikey Frese was third in the 50 breast, fourth in the 50 free and fifth in the 100 free. Bryce Alexander competed in the Boys 9-10 Division and scored with a seventh in the 100 back and he was also 10th in the 50 free.

Moving up in the age divisions, Aaron Pena was seventh in the 50 free in the Boys 11-12. In the Boys 13-14 Jake Frese was first in the 100 breast and second in the 50 free.

Swimmers achieving Jr. Olympic time standards included: Aaron Pena, Jess Harris, Megan Weller, Bryce Alexander, George Farley, Jake Frese and Azja Czajkowski.

Other CNSA swimmers who participated in the event included: Allen Rory, Bella Black, Sami Black, Briana Barns, Aurora Czajkowski,  Ella Farley, Kort Grossman, Erin Hakes, Rachel Hanling,  Katie Krieger, Bill Kusters, Tamia Manosalvas, Ariana Martin, Lizzy Oliver, Danielle Pena, Rebecca Scott, Hannah Storum, Ella Sturm, Naya Tamariz, Olivia Troyer, Tara Vogel, Scott Williams, and Grace Yakutis.

Congratulations to all of the participants.