Coronado Sports

The Islander Boys Volleyball Team, under the direction of Head Coach George Cavaco, went 22-15 this season. Their First Round opponent in the Division II Playoffs was No. 10 seed Helix and the No. 7 seeded Islanders lost a closely contested match 18-25, 30-28, 23-25, 25-18 and 15-9 to conclude their season… The Islander Boys Tennis Team, coached by Mackenzie White, drew Francis Parker in the First Round of the Division I Team Finals. Coronado’s starting lineup of No. 1 singles Jorge Yanez, No. 2 Isaac Del Rincon, No. 3 singles Tye Murree and the doubles lineup of No. 1 Jake Lamb/Andres de la Lama; No. 2 Santi Gonzalez/Ryan Wood and No. 3 doubles Mauricio Rivero/Nathaniel Nelson fought their way to a 9-9 victory, which was decided by the tiebreaker of total number of

Over the past 10 days, the Islander Boys Lacrosse Team played games Friday April 26, Monday April 29, Wednesday May 1, and Friday May 3. In order, they defeated Scripps Ranch 10-2; lost to La Costa Canyon 14-5; defeated St. Augustine 14-8; and lost to Torrey Pines 19-2. Reviewing those scores, it is pretty easy to figure out that the Falcons are the No. 1 seed in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division Playoffs and the LCC Mavericks are the No. 3 seed. Coronado emerged as the No. 4 seed and will host No. 5 seed Santa Fe Christian, at 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening, May 11 in the Open Division Quarter-Finals, a game that will be played at Niedermeyer Field. Santa Fe Christian requested an earlier start time for the game, originally scheduled for 7 p.m. At press time, the revised starting time was still being confirmed.

As a rule of thumb, if you are undefeated on the season, with just three regular season games remaining, your team gets to lead off Nado Natterings. That is the case with the Islander Softball Team, which enters this week with an overall record of 18-0-1, and 6-0 in the Central League. In addition, they are atop the CIF Division III Power Rankings, where they should remain if they win out this week.

But first, we’ll recap last week, as the Islanders defeated Serra 12-1 and then two days later, defeated Escondido Charter 6-0. Islander Head Coach Jay Kruer takes us through both games, starting with City League rival Serra. “They have an interesting team, with a leadoff slap hitter, who is really good. The last time we played Serra, she went 3-3. This time we put in a slap defense and she didn’t get a hit. Our shortstop Jenna Roulan made a really good play on a short hop and threw her out at first. The second time she was up, Courtney Williams who was playing third base, lunged for a soft liner and caught the ball in the tip of her glove, and almost got a double play at first. Then our pitcher Cassidy Zolla went for

Jerry Ruiz is a native son of Rosarito Beach, Mexico and a soccer lifer. Playing the game since he was old enough to walk, Ruiz admitted, “You don’t have a choice over there. We played soccer during school as much as we could and then after school. I stayed at the fields all day Saturday. If there was a baptism in the family, I couldn’t go because I had a game. By the age of 14 or 15, I was already playing soccer with adults. My soccer career was mostly in Mexico, and it’s different over there.”

At the age of 22, Ruiz started coaching in Coronado. He coached with former Coronado High School Boys Soccer Coach Brian Hiatt-Aleu and then got his big break, unfortunately in this case literally. “I turned pro when I was older, at 24,” Ruiz recalled. “Previously I played roller hockey and had a chance to play on the Mexican National Team. Then I got a chance to play professional soccer with Tatabanya FC, a first division team in Hungary. My ankles were always prone to injury, and I had a strong tackle to my right ankle that shattered it. I was getting older and it was getting harder and harder to get back into it. So I decided I had my shot, took it and it was fun. I played either right or left forward, mainly because I was able to unbalance players with my moves and a lot of speed. I would get deep to the end line quickly and cross the ball. I assisted on a lot of goals.”

Islander Track & Field Head Coach George Green provides a report on the happenings in Boys and Girls Track. “The Islander Track schedule last week consisted of two popular Pre-City League Finals events, the Escondido Invite Friday, and the Frosh/Soph meet Saturday.

It’s been a good year for the Islander Boys Volleyball Team (22-14 overall, 4-4 in the Eastern League) under the direction of Head Coach George Cavaco. The team concluded their regular season with a straight-set victory over Clairemont by the scores of 25-16, 25-21, and 28-26. Cavaco said of the scores, “We played everybody, and the final set was close. Brayden Austin played well and then he sprained his ankle. Griffin Book, Danny Hopkins and Evan Grim all played really well this season. One of the reasons we were so much better this season is seniors like Jared Viola who played well all season long. We finished third in the Eastern League behind St. Augustine and Scripps Ranch.”

The Islander Boys Lacrosse Team (10-6 Overall, 1-1 Western League) began last week with a trek to La Jolla, where Coronado lost to the Vikings 13-5. Islander Head Coach Alex Cade said, “They’re ranked No. 3 and we’re No. 4 in the Open Division. And the game was closer than the score would indicate. We’ve been playing a little tight, which happens with a young offense and a young team. They can forget they are a talented team. When you graduate a bunch of kids and you have a young team, you never stop adjusting. We were nicked up and not 100 percent. We were fighting a little bit uphill against a good opponent.”

Last week the Islander Softball Team (16-0-1, 5-0 City League) continued their winning ways with a 7-3 win over Morse and an 8-1 victory over San Diego. Head Coach Jay Kruer said over the weekend, “The kids are playing really well. San Diego is strong, and if they had won, it’s likely we would have been Co-City League titlists. It was a must-win against San Diego and the team realized that. We haven’t won a league title since 1996. They really performed.”

Kruer discussed the Morse game. “Morse has a lot of good hitters and they aren’t afraid to attack the ball. And their outfielders are good defensively. This was the second time we played them, and they came in with an Islander shift. They had their outfielders on the warning track, their corner infielders playing at the bag, and their middle infielders at short and second playing on the grass. That was the second team to have done that to us. Serra does that too. Our kids can powder the ball. The game was tied 3-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, with Cassidy Zolla on the mound. She gave up 11 hits, three runs, struck out eight and walked just one hitter. We scored three runs in the fifth, with two of the runs driven home on a single by Pita Lopez. Shelby Linde, Jenna Roulan, Courtney Williams, Zolla and Janessa Hudson all had multiple hit games and Sydney Dull had a hit as well. We cleared the bench because we have a depth of talent, and we’re not reluctant to bring someone into the game.”

One week ago Monday, the Islander Boys Lacrosse Team hosted the Granite Bay Grizzlies and the Islanders (9-4 overall record) lost the game 9-5. The goal scoring for Coronado came from Devin Schulte with three, and single goals from James Witthoft and Reese Packard. Joe Walsh had a great game in goal with 18 saves. Leaders in groundballs recovered include Casey Harris with six, four from Schulte, and three each from Neil Capin, and Andrew Bell; and one each from Dominic Friedly, Walsh, Alex Arvizu, Sean O’Connor and Luke Sandie.

It was a busy week for the Islander Track and Field Team in general, and senior Alysah Hickey in particular. Head Coach George Green supplies a report, providing all the details. “There were three meets last week starting with a double dual meet with Clairemont and Kearny on Thursday, followed by the Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) relays held at El Camino College, and the Viking Relays at La Jolla High School Saturday.

The Islander Boys Tennis Team avenged a 13-5 loss earlier in the season to St. Augustine, with a nice turnaround, a 13-5 win of their own over the Saints last week. Head Coach Mackenzie White sent out a singles lineup of No. 1 Ryan Wood, No. 2 Jorge Yanez and No. 3 Isaac Del Rincon. White said of the trio, “All three of them took care of business and Jorge didn’t lose a game in his three sets. Then our doubles lineup of Jake Lamb/Santi Gonzalez at No. 1, Alan Corrales/Chris Fisher at No. 2 and Mauricio Rivero/Nathaniel Nelson at No. 3, played well. In the last round, I substituted Nicolas Rios/Tye Murree into the No. 2 position. Lamb/Gonzalez won two of their three sets, with Corrales/Fisher and Rivero/Nelson both winning one set each. It was a very good end to the regular season.”

April 13-15, 2019 were the dates of the Finals of the Scholastic Surf Series (SSS) held at Oceanside South Jetty. The series serves as the state surfing championship and the competition includes Boys and Girls Longboard, Boys and Girls Shortboard competition and Co-ed Bodyboard events. Saturday April 13, the Coastal High School Teams competed, Sunday April 14 the Inland Teams held their competition, and Monday the Individual competitions were held.

The Coronado High School trio of seniors Liam Casey, Santiago ‘Santi’ Girault, and Cole Quinlan entered the water as both the defending State Longboard Champions and the underdogs to San Clemente to win the team title. CHS Surf Team Head Coach ‘Iron Mike’ Gillard (CHS ’80) explained, “We beat Santa Barbara in the first round, Carlsbad in the second round, and Torrey Pines in the third round. Then we defeated a tough San Clemente team in the finals. The surf conditions were a light wind, with three to five foot surf. There were good waves and good surf. They just kept advancing all the way through. It was impressive and a lot of fun. We are a small school competing in Division I against much larger schools.”

Islander Boys Volleyball Head Coach George Cavaco checks in with a report on his team. “This season has been a surprise. We had a successful Senior Night against Hoover beating them 3-2. Our seniors are Brayden Austin, Griffin Book, Danny Hopkins, Jerod Viola, Juleon Weimann. What a dramatic five-set match it was. After being down 14-11, we came back to win 16-14.

The Islander Boys Tennis Team (5-9 overall, 4-5 Western League) played three matches last week, winning two. Their week began with an 18-0 win over Point Loma, followed by an 11-7 win over Francis Parker, and a close 11-7 loss to La Jolla. “We had a decent week,” said Islander Head Coach Mackenzie White. “The last time we played La Jolla we lost 16-2. We had our best lineup on the court and our No. 2 singles player that day got ill. If he had been healthy, we might have won, but we had a good showing. And we had a nice win over Francis Parker.”

A couple of well-placed hits here or there and last week’s results for the Islander Baseball Team (11-7-1 overall record) might have been quite different. In their three games played, Coronado defeated Clairemont 5-1, lost to Point Loma 4-3 and then lost to Clairemont in the second game of their Eastern League series 3-2.

Last week the Islander Boys Golf Team lost 195-216 to Cathedral Catholic and 206-231 to St. Augustine. Despite the losses, the Islander freshman duo of Jake McLaughlin and Easton Phillips continued to score well. Against Cathedral, McLaughlin shot a 37, Phillips shot a 38, Javier Hernandez 41 and Gino Frederick shot a 49. The St. Augustine match featured McLaughlin with a 37, Phillips with a 39, Frederick shot a 48 and Matt Schnappauf shot a 49.

This week the Islanders play Scripps Ranch Monday at the Torrey Pines North Course and Wednesday they play La Jolla at the Coronado Municipal Golf Course. Currently Coronado is the No. 22 team by stroke average in San Diego County. According to Islander Head Coach Stuart Gordon, the Islanders Playoff Opponent in Division III will likely be either Pacific Ridge or Francis Parker.

Two long-time rivals of Coronado in Girls Lacrosse were on the schedule last week. The Islanders romped over Rancho Bernardo 19-3 to begin the week’s play and three nights later Coronado lost at La Jolla 14-6. The Islanders record is 7-3 on the season.

“The Rancho Bernardo game was great because everybody got in and played,”

The Islander Boys Volleyball Team ran into a bit of a competitive buzz saw last week, with seven games on their schedule. They started well, with a straight-set win over Santa Fe Christian High School by the scores of 25-15, 25-18 and 25-13. Then they hosted St. Augustine in an Eastern League match Wednesday and were on the short side of a 25-12, 25-9, 25-18 loss.

Coronado, under the direction of Head Coach George Cavaco, had a starting lineup of middle blockers Jerod Viola and Evan Grim, outside hitters Brayden

Spring Break didn’t alter the intensity level of the Islander Softball Team in the least, as they fired out and defeated Madison 10-1 on the road, in their only game last week. The Islanders used a five-run first inning to take the early lead, which they never relinquished.

Islander Track Head Coach George Green provides his report on the multiple events his team members participated in last week. “This week’s track team adventures included two Invitationals we took a few athletes to Saturday and a dual meet with Lincoln Thursday. The highlight of the Saturday competition was Alysha Hickey’s double win at the Arcadia Invite, held at Arcadia High School, in both the high jump and long jump. The Arcadia Invite is the premier high school track meet in the country with over 4,000 of the top athletes in the U.S. attending.

Last week was one of those up-and-down periods that sports teams experience on occasion. The first game the Islander Girls Lacrosse Team played was a 15-9 loss at La Costa Canyon. Game No. 2 was a 14-4 home win over Cathedral Catholic.

Former Islander Football player Chris Haas (CHS ’16) has been named a captain for the Carnegie Mellon University Football team for the 2019 season. Haas is one of four rising seniors named to the position by Head Coach Rich Lackner. Hass is pursuing a double major at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania school, in the fields of information systems and civil engineering. He led the Tartans with 593 yards rushing to go with five touchdowns last season, including a career-high effort of 218 yards on 36 carries and two touchdowns in Carnegie Mellon’s Academic Bowl victory over Case Western Reserve University.

Islander Boys Basketball Head Coach JD Laaperi has announced tryout dates for the Splash Basketball Club, a program open for Boys from grades 6-9. The open tryouts will be held at the outdoor basketball courts at Coronado Middle School. The dates and times are Sunday, April 7 from 9 to 10:30 a.m.; Wednesday April 10 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m.; and Friday April 12 from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m. To confirm your participation in the tryouts, or for more information about the Splash Basketball Club, please E-mail Laaperi at jlaaperi@gmail.com.

The clock was ticking. There were only seconds left. The entire gymnasium looked on in eager anticipation. Tam Hoang received the ball above the three-point line, and in a miraculous instant released his shot. The ball soared through the air. Everyone held their breath. As the clock wound down to zero, Hoang’s ball swished through the net, and the championship title belonged to Team Hoang!