Nado Natterings Back to Islandersports
A weekly column by David Axelson

Nado Natterings
by David Axelson, Chief Executive Officer
The Islander Sports Foundation

7 May 2008 Issue No. 18

A year ago the Coronado High School Softball Team made an important step in their development, landing a spot in the CIF Division IV playoffs after an absence of several years. However, the regular season was tough and Coronado was only able to win a total of seven games, including just two in the Western League.

But 2008 has proven to be a strong season for the Islanders, under the direction of Head Coach Marti Bonelli. Last week with a Western League win over Mission Bay by the score of 3-0 and non-league victory over Serra by the score of 11-1, the Islanders are now 11-9 overall and a very respectable 5-5 in conference play. As has been noted before in this column, the Western League in the sport of softball is deep and talented.

Last week started with the Mission Bay victory, with the Islanders being paced by a one-hitter from staff pitching ace Briana Feist. “Bree pitched a great game,” said Bonelli. “She attacked the hitters, was consistently ahead in the count and had hitters swinging at her pitches. She finished with 11 strikeouts, and walked only one Mission Bay hitter in addition to the one hit.”

“Coronado scored two runs in the first inning,” added Bonelli.  “Thanks to a walk to lead-off hitter Rosie Harris, a nice sacrifice bunt by Alexis Wright and an RBI single from Kayla Englehart. Kayla managed to get all the way to third base on a throw to the plate. Sandra Cepin then added an RBI sacrifice fly, scoring Kayla.”

Bonelli discussed her team’s third run, coincidentally scored in the third frame. “The Islanders scratched out another run on a one-out single from Brandi Bible, who then stole second base with a nice head-first dive. Olivia Nebo delivered a nice single to center to score Bible.”

The Coronado hitting attack in this one is fairly simple to summarize. The first seven batters in the Islander lineup all had one hit each.

“The team made a couple of errors on easy ground balls,” Bonelli added. “But they worked hard to maintain focus and bounce back. Bree pitched a great game and richly deserved the shutout win. This was her second shutout in a row, following her 6-0 shutout of Holtville the previous Saturday.”

Then it was onto Serra Saturday and the Islanders put this one away early, exploding for nine runs in the first inning. “Harris started with a double and later tripled in the same inning,” Bonelli said. “In addition to Harris, first inning hits were earned by Wright, Englehart, Cepin, Nebo, Feist and Nicole Aguilar who was making her first start on the varsity level. The offense was also aided by a well hit fielder’s choice by Nora Kaminski, an error on a grounder to short hit by Jessica Adair and a walk to Wright.”

In the top of the seventh, Brittany Penn reached on a fielder’s choice, Feist doubled, which was followed in turn by a Bible double which drove in both runners. Harris, Wright and Bible all had two-hit games and Feist, helping her own cause, was 3-4 with two runs scored.

Feist, a sophomore, improved her record to 11-4 on the season. “This was another fine pitching performance from Briana,” Bonelli said. “She held some very good hitters in check, had a great day at the plate and made a couple of sparkling defensive plays.”

This week Coronado completes league play with their final regular season home game against Cathedral Catholic Wednesday. Their final Western League game is at Clairemont Friday, with both games scheduled to begin at 3 pm.

CHS Baseball Posts Another 2-1 Week

Much like the Islander Softball Team, the CHS Baseball Team has cranked it up a notch this season, as they are now 19-7 overall and 7-3 in Western League play. The total of seven wins is the most ever by a Coronado team in a single season in the Western League. Last week Coronado lost to a hot pitcher and his La Jolla teammates 3-0 on Monday, before rebounding and taking Clairemont twice by the scores of 4-0 at home Wednesday and 7-2 on the road Friday.

Islander Head Coach Sam Ceci looked back on the successful week. “The best thing that happened was Kyle Couture pitching Wednesday and doing very well. He had command like he had at times last year. We need a third starter we are comfortable with when we put him out there. He was throwing first pitch strikes to about 80 percent of their hitters.”

Going back to the first game of the week, Coronado could only collect five hits against La Jolla’s ace Patrick Christiansen. Islanders Alex Rowan and Bryan Crabb turned in two-hit games, while Justin Parsons added a double and two walks. However, that was about the extent of Coronado’s offense.

Things opened up against Clairemont as Rowan and Parsons had two-hit games and runs were scored by Kyle Pokorny, Mason Mills, Tim Leary and Todd Kelleher. In the second Clairemont game Blake Malkemus homered and went 2-4, while Mills was 3-4 with two runs scored. Patrick Twomey and Leary were both 2-4. Parsons was credited with the pitching victory. Ceci said of his mound staff in general, “We were trying to get some guys some innings and some work. It felt like we were in control the whole way.”

Ceci knows his team’s final two remaining Western League games are big. They include a road affair against Mission Bay Wednesday and a home contest Friday. Both games are scheduled to start at 3 pm. “If we can beat Mission Bay in two games, we have a chance to be part of it (the league championship). “We’ll see both of Mission Bay’s best pitchers. We play to throw Crabb Wednesday and Leary on Friday. I’m optimistic. If we win two games, it would be fun to see how it unfolds next week.” Due to a bye in their league schedule, Coronado will be the only Western League member to have completed their season after Friday.

Talented Coronado Boys Lacrosse Squad Wins Three Times

It was an unusual week for the CHS Boys Lacrosse Team, as they had three games scheduled and were only able to play two. The first contest was played Tuesday and resulted in an 11-1 pasting of Cathedral Catholic, a game with the underpinnings of a future rivalry.

“A lot of the Coronado and Cathedral kids play together in the off season,” said CHS Head Coach Alex Cade. “We wore them down throughout the game and put it to them at the end. Goalie Peter Zeller had a great game and our defense has been playing well. In the last three games, we have only allowed two goals and we have scored 49.”

Cade continued his description of the Cathedral contest. “We had a lot of shots on the cage and their goalie must have had 18 saves. These last few games we are giving a lot of our younger guys a chance to develop.”

The next night the Islanders hosted Mira Mesa and mauled the Marauders 18-1. This one was over quickly, according to Cade. “We played our starters for one quarter. The way things seem to be clicking so far, it allows us the luxury of getting the freshmen up to speed.  Eddie Vita, Kyle Runyon and Sergio Flores had nice games against Mira Mesa. Curtis Nixon is a freshman who will be great for us, as will Dane Farguson. We have an outstanding freshman class and early indications point to this being the best class to come through Coronado in quite some time. Runyon, Nixon and Farguson could be starters on any number of teams throughout the county right now.”

But the youngsters have plenty of company in the talent department, Cade said. “Bobby Braun has been playing really well and Cory Couture continues to be an offensive leader out there. Our midfielders including Jack Christiansen, Cole McLean and Curtis Perkins are dominating and running the other teams into the ground. We’re pretty deep.”

The most talented squad Coronado faced last week may have been Friday night when Serra pulled a no-show because they couldn’t field enough players and the Islanders held an inter-squad scrimmage instead.

This week Coronado plays at Patrick Henry Wednesday hosts La Jolla Friday night at 7 pm. “We have a good rivalry with La Jolla,” Cade said. “I’d like to get a real good crowd for that game. At halftime, we will have some of the Coronado youth teams playing each other. These are the little guys in grades 1-4.”

Girls Lacrosse Experiences Scheduling Oddity and Wins Twice

Last week was a relatively easy one for the CHS Girls Lacrosse Team, as they defeated arch rival La Jolla 18-7 and then defeated Serra 17-3. Hannah Sebenaler was a one woman wrecking crew against La Jolla, scoring six goals and dishing out four assists. “Hannah had a great game,” said CHS Head Coach Jessica Battle. “Greer Goebels and Bria Phillips had great games and pretty much everyone else played well. This team is so good that we don’t have one standout player. Everyone does exceptionally well.”

The Serra game provided a pair of nice moments as Becka Runyon and Allyson Wolfe both scored goals for Coronado. “Every single person on our team has scored a goal this season,” Battle said. “That was pretty nice for us. Defensively, Lainey Mebust and Jena Harrison had great games and Jena scored a couple of goals.”

This week Coronado was supposed to play Poway, always one of the power clubs in San Diego County, but Coronado will win by forfeit instead. The Titans scheduled more than the allowable number of games for the season and were forced to forfeit their two remaining contests this season. “I’m really bummed,” Battle said. “We really wanted to play them.”

The answer to losing the Poway game from the schedule is that Coronado will play Rancho Bernardo Tuesday instead. Wednesday they host Patrick Henry at 7 pm and then travel to La Jolla for their second game in two weeks Friday. The Friday night face-off is scheduled for 6 pm.

CHS Track Team Splits With Hoover

The final regular season track meet of the season was held last week CHS Head Track Coach George Green provides the report. “The Girls and Boys Track Teams split with Hoover Thursday, with the girls winning easily by the score of 88-44 and the boys playing the Cardinals tough but losing 74-57.

“The Girls' distance events were dominated by Coronado with Sallie Privett winning the 1600, 800 and 3200 meter runs, followed by Annie Lovering and Adie Davies in the 1600 and Lovering in the 800.  The girls' hurdle crew was equally dominant with Danielle Gillberg, Rishina Mancillas and Madison Rutherford taking all the points in the 100 high hurdles and Maddie Danielson and Danielle Swanson going 1-2 in the 300 low hurdles.

“Swanson placed second in the pole vault behind Briana Giorgione, who also picked up third place points in the high jump. The top spot in the sprints went to the Cardinal's CIF San Diego Section leader Vanessa Houston with great times of 12.3 in the 100 and 25.4 in the 200. Neisha Scales and Ali Colora were second and third in the 100 and Danielson third in the 200.

“Hoover's De'Nisha Spruill won the 400 meters, but Islander sophomores Stephanie Pietkiewicz and Grace Laukaitis were right behind her in second and third.  Cassie Callahan picked-up her share of jumping points with wins in both the long jump and triple jump to go along with second place in the high jump. Cassie's mark of 15-8 in the long jump was a personal record and an excellent jump for a freshman. Colora, also a freshman, had an excellent long jump as well placing second with 15-2 with Scales picking up the third place points. Brigid Twomey was third in the triple jump.

“Houston's not only a great sprinter but she's also pretty strong as evidenced by her winning the discus throw. Natalie Brooks and Bethany Bucklew placed third and fourth in both the discus and shot put with Ana Estrada sixth in the discus.

“The Boys Team had their work cut-out for them. It's tough to beat a sprint-oriented team like Hoover, but we gave them a run for their money. We anticipated that there would be good match-ups in both the 100-meter dash and the 1600-meter run, but neither materialized.  In the 100 meters, the race between Kyle Brown and Hoover's Deontray Johnson promised to be a barnburner. At first it seemed that Brown had demolished our school record by running 10.7. Kyle, however, had "jumped the gun" and had a full stride over Johnson before he was out of the blocks. Normally the starter recalls a false start like this with a second shot but his gun misfired.  Johnson's official time was 11.1 and Kyle was disqualified.

Michael Gasparro and Ricardo Oberwager were fourth and fifth for the Islanders and later switched places in the 200 for third and fourth places.  Brown and Johnson went head-to-head again in the triple jump with Brown winning with a mark of 43 feet 4.5 inches to Johnson's second place effort of 41 feet 2.5 inches. Kyle also won the long jump with 22-1.

“The other promising match-up was in the 1600-meter run with Coronado's Ben Enowitz and the Cardinal's Dahir Mohamed the featured players. Mohamed, however, didn't enter because he was just getting over a touch of stomach flu so Ben went out on his own and set a personal best time of 4:34.1 followed by Andrew Centeno, Sean O'Brien, Michael Davies, and Gabe Salvatierra in spots two through five. Mohamed apparently recovered enough to run the 800 which he won in 2:04.9 with Coronado's David Grimes in close pursuit in second place.  Grimes also placed second in a close 400-meter dash with a time of 54.4.  In the 3200, Enowitz and Davies ran together for the top two spots. Freshman Will Bartsch won the pole vault uncontested with a mark of 11 feet 2 inches.  The throwing team came away with a pair of wins with Philip Scott taking the shot put with 36-1.5 and Robert Schneider the discus with 98-8.”

Islander Swimming Competes Against Cathedral Catholic

CHS Head Swimming Coach Dave Throop discusses his team’s final meet of the season and the team’s preparation for the post-season. “For the past week, the guys and girls of CHS competed against Cathedral Catholic at CCHS.  We've experienced a bit of an injury bug the past week or so, and haven't been at full strength, but the attitudes have been tremendous.  Approaching the dual-meet, we've emphasized that it was to be a preparatory experience for the Conference and CIF swim meets, and we had some athletes respond really well.

“On the Girls Swim Team side, we were without the full services of Kelly Ronimus and Heather Ireland, but had some great performances.  In the 200 freestyle, Ashley Young swam a 1:59.96, which is the fastest dual meet time (as opposed to championship times in the City Conference or CIF meets) we've seen during my tenure as CHS coach.  When you take into account some of the good high school swimmers we've had over the years, such as Katie Hansen (2003), Heather Ireland (2008), Kelly Ronimus (2010) as well as sisters Lynn Zambrano

(2001) and Stacy Zambrano (2004), it's into rarified air that Ashley has ascended. 

“Hannah Green posted a personal best 2:25.46 in the 200 individual medley and continued with her 2008 season best time of 1:15.66 in the 100 breaststroke.  Maddie Murphy swam a personal best 57.64 in the 100 freestyle and split a team season best 25.96 on the 200 free relay. In addition to her fine time in the 200 free, Young split a team season best 55:43 in the 400 free relay, for her 100 meter leg in the event.

“The Boys Team saw some nice performances as well.  In the 200 freestyle, Andrew Ireland finished first with a time of 1:52.14, while Adam Ratcliffe swam a season best time of 1:52.38.  Michael Aguilar swam a nice time of 2:09.23 in the 200 individual medley, while Chris Barnard swam a decent 100 fly in 1:00.19.  The 500 freestyle saw Lex Aponte swim a personal best 5:13.44, outpacing teammate Sean Cook who swam in 5:14.17. 

“In preparation for the upcoming Championship stage of the season, I believe our groups are primed and ready.  At this point of the year, it's the mental preparation that is most critical and though it may be a Coach's cliché, I believe that we're prepared to compete at our best.  As I've said all along, this is one of the more talented groups of boys and girls combined that I've been involved and it'll be interesting and exciting to see how the groups perform.
 “As an aside, the following girls will be moving on to compete at the collegiate level: Alana Burgess in water polo at SDSU; Sabrina Anonas and Carly Hoshko in water polo at the University of Maryland; Heather Ireland in swimming at the U.S. Air Force Academy and Hannah Sebenaler in water polo at   UCLA.”

Boys Volleyball Splits Two Central League Contests

In what turned out to be a tale of two wildly different Coronado teams last week, the Islander Boys Volleyball Team opened their week with a straight set loss to Central League Conference member Clairemont by the scores of 25-20, 25-23 and 25-18. The contest essentially was for the league title, unless Lincoln can upset Clairemont in their game this week. “Nolan Woodhouse played a good game for us at Clairemont, but that was about it,” said Head Coach Steve Merrill.
But things turned around later in the week when the Islanders hosted Lincoln in the last regular season home game of the year. “We all showed up with our ‘A’ game,” said Merrill. “It was the final home game for Brett Clifford, Will Holder and Woodhouse. They played real well and came together on defense with a lot of balls dug. Junior Quintero hit the line (spikes aimed down the line as opposed to the middle of the court) real well and Cotter Stacy played two real good games at setter for us.”

The result of their collective ‘A’ game was a 25-21, 25-15 and 25-9 victory over the Hornets, which Merrill continued to discuss. “The serving was tough and there was lots of good defense going on. Cody O’Connell came up from the JV and had some instrumental putaways in the second and third games. Nick DeMarco played real well in the back row as our libero. Connor Martin ran the middle well and hit the quick set. Martin and Stacy combined to make a game point block.”

Next up are the CIF Division IV playoffs, where Merrill expects to find the Islanders receiving a seed somewhere in the middle of the pack. “Hopefully we’ll get a good draw. We’re not playing too awfully bad. If we show up, we can put a world of hurt on some people. We just couldn’t hit the ball against Clairemont. We didn’t serve badly and we played pretty good defense, but we couldn’t put away anything on offense. The kids are starting to realize (hitting down) the line is golden. We’ll see what happens. I’m moving Colin Pewtress and Will Cumming to the varsity to give us some more depth.”

Boys Tennis Competes Well vs. St. Augustine

Coronado’s lone match in Boys Tennis last week was against St. Augustine, where the Islanders acquitted themselves well, but fell by the score of 11-7, according to Head Coach Jim Mashburn. “Krishna Samperio won his three sets at No. 1 singles by the scores of 6-2, 6-4 and 6-3,” Mashburn said. “Patrick Holman and Evan Wheeler won two of their sets (6-0, 6-1) as did Daniel Grazian and Frankie Harrison (6-2, 6-4).

Unfortunately the squad didn’t qualify for the CIF Team Tournament, however the Western League individual play starts next week and CIF individual play in singles and doubles is slated for the following week.

Boys Soccer Honors and Awards

Since they are the reigning two-time CIF Division IV champions, the CHS Soccer Team’s banquet was a fun and upbeat affair last week. The varsity honors as announced by Head Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu included: ISF Award for Integrity, Sportsmanship and Friendship to Charlie Wood; Coach’s Award to Peter Kittiyasawadi; Offensive Player of the Year – Arturo Valle; Most Improved – Kramer De Laurentis; Most Inspirational – Jeffery Bucklew; Team Captain – Austin Speer and Team MVP – Charlie Wood.

In addition to the team awards, Christian Herrera was named to the Central League First Team and the CIF Division IV Second Team. Valle earned First Team honors on both the Central League and the CIF Division IV teams. Clay Butner earned a place on the Second Team for Division IV and the Central League, as did Wood. Speer was the Central League Player of the Year; Division IV Player of the Year and was named to the All-CIF (all sections) First Team.

The JV awards presented by Head Coach Chico Romero included: Coach’s Award – Ruben Perez-Berton; Most Improved – Stuart Blair; Offensive Player of the Year – Sean Kennedy; Most Inspirational – Eddie Vita; Defensive Player of the Year – Sergio Flores and Captain and Team MVP – Bobby Braun.

Terry Leary on Board USS Mercy

Perhaps like many Coronado community members, Your Natterer was riveted to the television last week as I watched all 10 hours of the series “Carrier” which was about life aboard the “USS Nimitz.” The show, which was shot in 2005, once again brought home the important role of the Navy in the lives of all of us in Coronado.

The commanding officer of the “USS Nimitz” at the time of the taping of the show was Capt. (now Admiral) Ted Branch, whose daughter Kelsey Branch was a two-sport star at CHS. Son Austin Branch played multiple sports for the Islanders as well.

So it was perhaps fitting that the final 90 seconds of the series were shot at a Coronado High School home football game as Branch, accompanied by his wife Jodi Branch, detailed some of the future plans of the “USS Nimitz.”

At about the same time the show was being aired, I was reminded that CHS Football Booster Club President Terry Leary recently headed out to sea on board the “USS Mercy,” which is on a humanitarian mission throughout the Pacific Rim for approximately five months. The “USS Mercy” is essentially a floating hospital and will provide comprehensive health care to citizens of various countries. In real life Terry is a Navy captain and the senior dental officer on the ship.

The timing of his assignment from a personal perspective probably couldn’t have been worse for Terry and his wife Susan Leary, as son Tim Leary (baseball and football) graduates from Coronado High School this June. Their older son Chris Leary graduates next month from Loyola Marymount University.

The humanitarian side of the U.S. Navy is often overlooked and it takes trained and committed personnel like Terry Leary to deliver the services that can save and improve lives. Congratulations to Terry for his service and best wishes for a safe and speedy return.