And then it was over. The 2010-11 Coronado High School sports season concluded Tuesday of last week when the Islander Baseball Team was eliminated from the Division IV Playoffs. The same day, CHS Golf No. 1 Andrew Lister lost out in a playoff to advance to the State meet despite shooting a two-under par round of 70.

Entering last week the Islanders had a tough task ahead of them, having to defeat No. 1 seed Francis Parker twice on their home field at Alliant University to stay alive in the playoffs. The Division IV field was narrowed down to Coronado and Parker in the top half of the double-elimination bracket, with La Jolla Country Day and Christian competing to come out of the lower half.

Tuesday Head Coach Sam Ceci sent junior lefty Luke Gillingham to the mound with the assignment of keeping the Parker bats under control. Gillingham battled out of trouble in the first after giving up two hits, by striking out the fourth and fifth hitters in the Lancer lineup. A leadoff single in the second inning didn’t lead to anything for Parker.

In the third inning the Islanders strung together three hits and scored two runs. Austin Denson led off the inning with a double and was sacrificed to third by Kyle Teachout. Then a suicide squeeze attempt by Mason Copp and the Islanders almost worked. The Parker pitcher made a nice fielding play and caught Denson with a backhand throw to the catcher that lead to the out on a bang-bang play at the plate.

In the meantime, Copp who laid down the bunt, wound up at first base and promptly stole second. Andrew Toomey singled in his leadoff spot, which was followed by a double by Garrett Smerdon. Toomey running on the play with two outs, scored from first, while Copp easily scored from third base.

Parker answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the third inning on a single and a two-run homer. The score remained tied until the seventh. The islanders loaded the bases in the top half of the seventh on a single by Denson, pinch hitter Jack Mikesell was hit by a pitch, and Toomey loaded the bases when he was hit by a pitch. Unfortunately the Islanders couldn’t get a clutch hit to drive home any runs.

Parker won the game in the bottom of the seventh on a triple down the right field line, followed by a sharp single up the middle. Gillingham had a fine outing on the mound, but the Lancers had a little too much offensive firepower. With the 3-2 win Parker advanced to Saturday’s Division IV championship game, which they lost 7-0 to LJCD.

All season the Islanders had trouble with their fielding, committing a total of 82 errors in 34 games. In the five playoff games they played, Coronado was charged with only a total of three errors and none in the last two contests. Centerfielder Copp made a nice running catch to end the Parker third inning. First baseman Jake Meloche made a nice play getting the lead runner on a play in the first inning that saved the Islanders a run. The defense came together when they needed it most.

Coronado (15-19) wasn’t able to defend their Division IV title, but they did reach the semi-finals and played better than their No.5 seed during the playoffs.

Sunday the program held its post season banquet. The Freshman team posted a record of 8-8 and the JV squad under the direction of Head Coach Morgan Cummins posted a record of 18-7. Cummins ascribed the team’s success to a variety of factors, including the fact that the team hit .325 this season, which was 66 points higher than the varsity. I added that last part.

Cummins honored four of his players with Coach’s Awards to reflect their improvement over the course of the season. The award winners included Copp, Luke Kullberg, Kody Kessell and Ryan Sanders.

On the Varsity level, Ceci and his coaching staff of Jerry Brown, Chris Blanton and Bill Seager announced their award winners as follows: Coaches’ Award – Jack Mikesell; Pitcher of the Year – Jake Meloche; Gamer Award – Andrew Toomey; ISF Awards – Hank Taylor and Devin Vaage; and MVP – Luke Gillingham.

Meloche and Gillingham were named to the All-Western League Second Team, while Mikesell, Toomey and Tyler Brownell earned Honorable Mention recognition on the All-Western League Team.

Lister Plays Well in Southern Golf Regional

For those of you who have been following ‘Nado Natterings’ this past school year, you may recall that Your Natterer has railed against the CIF on a few occasions on a couple of different issues. Relegating the Coronado lacrosse teams to Division II when they were both among the best in the state is one issue that is hard to fathom. Higher seeded teams having to go on the road to play inferior teams who are champions of weak leagues is another. The Islander Baseball Team traveling to Mountain Empire is one example of that bit of frivolity.

My new issue is the format of the CIF Southern Regional Golf Tournament, which features some of the best prep golfers in the United States and is an 18-hole event. To be a true test of golf for players this good, the event should be formatted to include a minimum of 36 holes.

Backtracking a few weeks, the City Conference Match Play Tournament was a 32-person event, which ran for a week and had the final round of play held at Torrey Pines South. Coronado’s Andrew Lister won that event 3-and-1 over Ben Doyle a freshman from La Jolla High School.

The following week, the CIF San Diego Section Boys Golf Tournament was held at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course, was played May 24 and 26 and was a 36-hole event. The top finishers qualified for the SoCal Regionals played last Tuesday at Brookside Country Club in Pasadena. This is an 18-hole event, which is not a true test of golf for players of this caliber.

“The Southern Regionals include teams from San Diego all the way to Fresno,” said Coronado Head Golf Coach Randy Coutts. “The region also includes Santa Barbara. Four kids from the City Conference went to state.”

As noted above, Lister shot a 70, which was two under par and placed him into an eight-way tie for seventh place. After a playoff Lister lost out on the chance to go to the state meet. Ben Doyle, who Lister dominated in the City Conference Match Play Tournament, won the Regional, with Anthony Paolucci of La Jolla Country Day finishing in second place. Kameron Kubis of Scripps Ranch was fourth and Alexander Schauffele of Scripps Ranch tied with Lister but advanced to the state meet due to the playoff. All of those players competed in the City Conference in 2011.

“The Regional tournament doesn’t determine a true champion,” said Coutts of the event’s 18-hole format. “They should play 36 holes in one day. Andrew shot a 33 on the back nine holes and it could easily have been a 31. He played from tee to green as well as I’ve ever seen. For the last seven holes he was five strokes under par. He caught fire. Lister taught me a lot about high-level golf this year.”

The State Meet is at Poppy Hills in San Francisco and that is a one-day event also. It seems a waste of time, effort and money to send that much talent to Pebble Beach and limit the competition to a mere 18 holes.

Boys Lacrosse Honors and Awards

The Boys Lacrosse Team held their post season banquet recently and head Coach Alex Cade presented the following Varsity Awards: Coaches’ Award – Tyler Smith; Most Improved – Colton Morris; Defensive MVP – Dane Farguson; Midfielder MVP – Sergio Flores; Offensive MVP – Alex Bookout; Team MVP – Kyle Runyon; SOB Ironman – Jacob Lujan; and Alumni Award – Andrew Woolf.

The Junior Varsity Awards were presented to: MVP – John McCaull; Offensive MVP – Ryan Dowling; Midfield MVP – Trent Schulte; Defensive MVP – Joe Lee; Most Improved – Matt Halvorson; and Coaches Award – Nick Castellanos.

CMS Boys Lacrosse Wins Division I Title

CHS Head Coach Alex Cade recently said that winning the middle school Division I lacrosse title was, “Possibly the hardest title to win in San Diego.”

Armed with that information, it probably doesn’t surprise you that the CMS Islander Boys Lacrosse Team, under the direction of Head Coach John Gagnon, defeated Scripps Ranch 7-6 last weekend to win the title. “It was a close game,” said Gagnon. “They scored first. Then Coronado took the lead. We had the lead by one goal pretty much the whole game. We weren’t moving the ball well, but our defense was fantastic and just filthy. I have kids who are 6-feet, one-inch tall and could probably take down a few high school guys if they wanted to.”

“Eric Thorliefson who plays defense was ridiculous,” Gagnon added as he assessed some of the contributions of his players. “Conner Schulte caused a bunch of turnovers. He takes our face offs as well. Tanner Caldwell had a great game. Jake Griffin made some big saves at the end. We didn’t play the most fundamentally sound game, but we showed heart and determination to win the game.”

Other important contributors were Anthony Demaio who scored four goals, Caldwell who scored twice and Matt Shirey who had one goal and three assists. Schulte won eight groundballs, while Michael Rodriguez had five and Caldwell four. Griffin was credited with 18 saves in goal.

Coronado entered the competition as the No. 2 seed in the eight-team field. They had to defeat the No. 7, No. 4 and No. 1 seeds to win the event. Coronado almost didn’t reach the Finals according to Gagnon. “We trailed Donny Lax (a feeder team to Cathedral Catholic) 6-1 midway through the third quarter and we won 7-6 to advance.”

To the victors go the spoils and five members of the Coronado Islander team were named to the San Diego Lacrosse Association Middle School Division I All-Star Team. They included Attack Demaio, Middie Kyle Anderson, Defenders Thorliefson and Schulte and Goalie Griffin. Demaio, who scored the winning goal in the championship game, was named 2011 Attack man of the Year, while Griffin was named 2011 Goalie of the Year.

Demaio, a left-handed seventh grader, may have a couple of unfair advantages, hailing from Massachusetts and having access to in-home coaching. “He comes from a good lacrosse family,” said Gagnon, who is also from The Bay State. “His dad is a coach and he coached a club team at Northeastern University.”

The roster of the CMS Islander championship team also included: Jacob Asher, Dylan Furseth, Anthony Ricketts, Jack Tobin, Jack Hart, Matt Lovering, Jonluke Vido, Santiago Andujo, Zach Mishky, and Michael Hardy.