Coronado Sports

Islander Boys Tennis Head Coach Mackenzie White believes in challenging her team with a competitive schedule, a fact that was born out last week. The Islanders began the week with a 12-6 loss to Westview Monday; Tuesday they dominated San Dieguito Academy 16-2; and Thursday Coronado lost to Bishop’s 15-3.

Islander Girls Lacrosse Head Coach Caroline Dineen-Carlson earned her first victory at the helm of the Coronado program last week, as her team defeated Helix 18-7. “It was a big win,” she said. “I hope we keep that going tonight (Monday) against Cathedral. Our goal scorers included freshman Abby Bryan who had four goals which was awesome; Makena Armstrong, Ryan Brophy and Allie White all had three goals; Ella Ackerly and Lily Roughneen scored twice each; plus, Abby Fabiszak and Josie Morrissey had one goal each. Kendall Chapko had eight saves in goal and played the whole game. Bryan and Morrissey had two assists each.”

A nod for the quickest start during the Islander 2020 Spring Sports season goes to the Boys Volleyball Team which stands at 8-2. Several of the Coronado High School teams have played a game or two and the Islander Volleyball squad, by virtue of their competing in a major early-season tournament already have played 10 matches. Ironically, both losses have come to the same opponent, the Knights from The Bishop’s School.

Islander Head Coach George Cavaco said when we talked by phone Monday, “We ended the curse of not being able to beat the Saints.” In their game played March 4, it took the Islanders five games to defeat St. Augustine and the scores were 16-25, 25-23, 25-20, 22-25 and 15-12. A measure of how close the match was is total points scored, which the Saints won 105-103. But the number of sets won is the relevant score and Coronado prevailed where it counted.

The Islander Girls Basketball Team, which concluded their season with a Quarterfinal appearance in the CIF Division III Playoffs, and amassed an overall record of 19-11, held their annual awards banquet over the weekend as well. The awards as announced by Head Coach Toler Goodwin included the following JV awards; Most Improved-Anna Youngblood; Best Defender/Hustle Award-Kathleen Potter; and Team MVP-Pita Lopez.

The Varsity Awards were presented to: The ISF Award for Integrity, Sportsmanship and Friendship-Tamya Flenoy; Most Improved-Jenevieve Joseph; Best Defender-Gianna Spatafore; and Team MVP-Janie Ruttert.

The Islander Boys Tennis Team, led by Head Coach Mackenzie White, started their season Feb. 20 with a 12-6 loss to La Jolla Country Day. White said, “My lineup included Jorge Yanez playing No. 1 singles; Isaac Del Rincon at No. 2; and Nicolas Rios at No. 3. Mauricio Rivero/Andres de la Lama played No. 1 doubles; two new players Evan Toms/Luis Madrid-Safa at No. 2; and Nathaniel Nelson/Carlos Solloa at No. 3. Two other JV players will see varsity action this season including Noah Parr and Ethan Ortiz.”

Caroline Dineen-Carlson (CHS ’13) is the new head coach of the Islander Girls Lacrosse Team this season. Kirstyn Atkinson, last year’s head coach and her husband moved at the end of 2019 to Virginia due to a new Navy assignment. Dineen-Carlson starred for the Islanders during her high school career, continued her lacrosse career at Fresno State, and was an assistant coach last year for the team. She takes the helm of a talented team which is in Division I, with very realistic aspirations of qualifying for the CIF Open Division Playoffs.

If you are a devotee of prep Boys Basketball, then last Thursday evening at Montgomery High School was a must-see game for you. The game featured a showdown between Coronado junior Wayne McKinney and San Ysidro freshman Mikey Williams, two of the best, or perhaps the two best guards currently playing in San Diego County. Apparently 1,800 people agreed with me, as the Montgomery High School gym was sold out and the main parking lot was filled up at 5:30 p.m.

For much of the first half of the CIF Division III Championship game, McKinney and Williams guarded each other in a battle that was at times physical and riveting to watch. The players exchanged words on occasion and Williams complained to the referees about McKinney’s defense on a couple of occasions, but the battle brought out the best in both players. Williams was in foul trouble much of the game and suffered in the second half from leg cramps, so McKinney won the statistical battle handily. Hopefully the two will face each other again next year.

By the time this newspaper has landed on your front stoop, the Islander Baseball Team will have played their season opener against Helix Monday and are preparing to face Eastlake Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. Head Coach Morgan Cummins believes in getting into competition early, as Coronado is competing in the Aztec-Foothiller Tournament. Helix is ranked No. 5 in the CIF San Diego Section; Eastlake is ranked No. 1; and Friday’s road opponent Grossmont is ranked No. 6.

Before you feel sorry for Coach Cummins, it should be noted that All-CIF First Team pitcher from two years ago Raden Perry has returned from knee surgery and is the ace of the staff. Perry is followed closely in ability by pitcher-shortstop Heath Miller, who had a fine season in 2019. Seniors Nico Sanchez and Kyle Phin will pitch for Coronado as will junior Caden Sutherland and sophomore Dylan Noble. Cummins is hoping Luke Meloche will be able to overcome his arm soreness and be able to contribute on the mound later in the year.

Cummins said, “Phin is a senior captain, who plays center field and pitches for us. He’s our one returning All-Eastern League player from last year. Kyle has a fastball in the mid-80’s and a good curveball. Perry is fully recovered and has been throwing on the mound since October. He’s been running the bases, sliding and throwing for multiple innings. He’s the ace of our staff and we’ll turn him loose.”

A fine season turned in by the Islander Girls Basketball Team (19-11 overall), under the direction of Head Coach Toler Goodwin concluded Saturday with a 61-34 loss to No. 3 seed Foothills Christian. The Islanders entered the CIF Division III Playoffs as the No. 6 seed. The game was played at Mt. Miguel High School.

One of the unfortunate parts of taking a week of vacation in February is Your Natterer missed the first round of the CIF Open Division Girls Water Polo Playoffs. The No. 7 seeded Islander Girls Water Polo Team lost to No. 2 seed The Bishop’s School by the score of 13-7, thus concluding the Islanders season. The team under the direction of Head Coach Dave Throop made significant strides this season, with a very young player roster. They should be a force to contend with next season… On a final note, Islander Alumna Alysah Hickey (CHS ’19) officially began her University of Oregon track career at the last week when her team competed at the Don Kirby Elie Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico. On her fifth attempt in the long jump, Hickey unleashed a personal best jump of 20 feet, 4.25 inches. With that jump, Hickey became the No. 6 performer in that event in University of Oregon history, which moved her into the National Top 20 in the event this season.

The Islander Girls Soccer Team (14-5-1 overall, 9-0-1 in the City League), under the direction of Head Coach Mike Costaglio, has had a fine season. From their league record, you could assume correctly they were the champions of the City League. They are also entering the CIF Division III Playoffs on a roll, the winners of four straight games. The Islanders defeated High Tech San Diego 3-0 at home; defeated Hoover 5-0 at home; beat University City 1-0 on the road; and concluded their regular season with a 2-0 win at Clairemont.

One thing you need to be aware of as a prep sports fan in San Diego, is that almost every CIF sport has a different playoff system, which can also vary by the divisions within each sport. In addition to driving sports columnists crazy, the changing formats make the sports hard to follow for fans. That thought aside, the Islanders with their strong record earned the No. 4 seed in the CIF Division III Playoffs, and a first-round bye. Their first game will be Saturday at home against the winner of the game between No. 5 seed Sage Creek and No. 12 seed Pacific Ridge. That game will be played at 5 p.m.

The Islander Boys Soccer Team (8-4-5 overall, 4-2-2 in the Eastern League concluded their regular season with a 2-1 road loss to San Diego, a 1-1 tie with Westview, and a hard-fought 3-2 road win at Crawford. Playing a very competitive non-conference schedule allowed the Islanders to claim the No. 5 seed in CIF Division I. They were scheduled to host the No. 12 seed from Mission Hills Tuesday evening at 5 p.m.

Islander Head Coach Aaron Brooks assessed his team’s regular season. “Honestly, our team had some good performances this season. On any given night we might play really well and on other nights we might be a little off. Our last win against Crawford was a very good one. It makes me optimistic for Tuesday. I think the No. 5 seed was fair and the draw works out fine. We just had some inconsistent performances. We beat some good teams and tied others that weren’t as good. But the goal is to get hot as you reach the playoffs. We played last Wednesday and got to rest Friday. We’re missing some players, but the Boys are ready to play.”

“Tuesday, Feb. 4, we traveled to University City to start our second round through league play. University City (UC) started the game hitting six threes in the first quarter en route to a 24-17 lead. UC would increase that lead to 38-27 at half. Both teams traded scoring runs in the third quarter and ultimately the lead was still 11 going into the final frame.

“The bright spot was that UC picked up seven fouls in the quarter which meant we were shooting bonus free throws the rest of the way. We traded baskets with UC for the first two minutes, then our scoring picked up tremendously while getting key stops on defense. With two minutes to go Wayne McKinney III hit a 3 to pull us within two points and after a Kieran Ashley block, Mike Cunningham hit a 25 footer to give us our first lead of the game. A couple more stops and layups by McKinney and Ashley gave us a five point cushion. UC hit a three at the buzzer to make the final score 74-72. It was a signature win for us coming back from what looked like a night that wasn’t going to go our way. Scoring 30 points in an eight minute high school quarter is quite a feat.

Spring Co-ed Adult Softball League needs another team.

The primary story line heading into Super Bowl LIV was the stalwart defense of the San Francisco 49ers vs. the offense of the Kansas City Chiefs, notably headlined by quarterback Pat Mahomes. There were two consistent themes Monday morning among the Television Talking Heads. The first was that 49er Head Coach Kyle Shanahan blew the game with his play calling, after having a 10-point lead with eight minutes left in the game. The second theme is that Mahomes had a bad game, except for the final eight minutes of the game. Just in case you missed it, the Chiefs rallied to win going away 31-20.

Coronado Lacrosse Club (CLC) is open for registration and is looking for girls in third, fourth, seventh, and eighth grades to sign up to play in the spring 2020 season. Lacrosse is the fastest growing girls sport, and provides great exercise, teamwork building skills, discipline and more, all while having fun.

CLC offers youth girls teams from kindergarten through eighth grade and currently has spots still available in the 3/4 grade and 7/8 grade teams. There is a wait list for girls in K-2, 5/6 grades. Practices start the week of Feb. 17, with Saturday games beginning March 7 and a season-ending jamboree in May. The 7/8 grade teams practice three evenings a week, times to be determined, with assessments the week of Feb. 11. The 3/4 grade practices in the Coronado Cays on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4 to 5:30 p.m. All games are within San Diego County, with home games at either Coronado Middle School or Coronado High School.

Both Islander Soccer Teams fared well last week. The Girls Soccer Team began their week with a 0-0 tie with Mira Mesa. This season and last, Coronado and Mira Mesa have played four times and the aggregate score among the contests favors Coronado 1-0. In their second game Coronado dominated High Tech San Diego 3-0. The Islanders are now 11-5-1 overall, and 6-0-1 in the City League. This week Coronado hosts Hoover Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and they travel to University City Thursday for a 5 p.m. game.

The Islander Boys Soccer Team played twice last week, losing on the road to Del Norte 2-1 in a non-league match. They hosted Crawford Friday night and won 5-0 in an Eastern League game.

It turns out Del Norte is quite good. The team includes senior Rhys Gourdie, who hails originally from Scotland. Islander Head Coach Aaron Brooks knows the family well and thinks Gourdie is probably the best prep soccer player in San Diego. Armed with that information, it should come as no surprise that Gourdie scored both Del Norte goals against Coronado.

Last week found the Islander Boys Basketball Team (13-9 overall record, 4-0 in the City League), victorious in their two conference outings, which included a 69-59 home win over Mira Mesa, followed by a Friday night road victory over Patrick Henry by the score of 57-48. After their first lap through the five-team City League, the Islanders hold a two-game lead over University City, with Hoover, Patrick Henry and Mira Mesa following in that order.

Islander Girls Soccer Head Coach Mike Costaglio penned this week’s report on his team. “This week we start the second round of play in the City League. We are away at Mira Mesa Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. and home Thursday night, also at 5:30 p.m., against High Tech High San Diego. It’s Senior Night for our Girls. We have seven seniors and three of our seniors have younger sisters on the JV. So we’re going to let the sisters play together for about a half. It’s more for the Moms and Dads. The sisters probably have enough competition at home.

“In our first game last week we defeated University City 2-1 at home. We were down 1-0 at half and we knew that against a real good University City team we had an uphill task ahead of us in the second half. We had a good half time strategy session and we decided to change field personnel and adjust our tactics.

Coronado resident and 20-year professional sailor Willem Van Waay is one of three sailing entries who have reached the Finals of the Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Award, which is the MVP Award of American Sailing. The other two entries include the tandems of Mike Martin/Adam Lowry and brothers David Askew/Peter Askew.

The Islander Girls Basketball Team continued their Road Warrior streak, as their City League season opened on the road last week. Tuesday, they lost to San Diego High 59-47 and Head Coach Toler Goodwin wasn’t happy with his team’s effort in what he considered to be a winnable game. “We didn’t have any energy and we didn’t play to the level we need to. We were fully capable of winning that game, but we didn’t take care of the ball and we were lazy on the boards. We trailed 28-14 at the half, but we came out in the second half and scored on our first three possessions to make it a six-point game. Then we turned the ball over the next five times down the floor.”

The City League portion of the Islander Boys Basketball Team’s (11-9 overall record, 2-0 in league) season began last week, and Coronado responded to the challenge with a 62-49 home win over University City (UC) Tuesday, followed by a 70-48 road win Friday night at Hoover. The UC game played Tuesday, Jan.14 came after the Islanders hadn’t played since Jan. 4 and they looked rusty for the first quarter, although they did lead the Centurions 16-15 at the end of the first frame. Team scoring leader Wayne McKinney went scoreless for the first 7:15 of the game, before scoring on a driving layup.

Some quick thoughts on sports outside of Coronado. If you combined the best players on the field from the FBS Championship game between Clemson and LSU, after a year or two you would have a very competitive NFL Team. LSU defeated the defending champions from Clemson 42-25 and there were pro prospects competing at nearly every position. And at the most important position in the sport, you would have two top-flight quarterbacks to choose from… An element that has changed in the NBA over the years is how and why players are selected in the annual player draft. As recently as 10 years ago, if a drafted player didn’t show some level of proficiency or upside in their first season, they were released. First round draft picks lingered a little longer, but not much. In an interesting article that ran Jan. 5, 2020, in the San Diego Union-Tribune, Dan Woike from the Los Angeles Times wrote, “The Dallas Mavericks develop undrafted and undervalued players such as Dorian Finney-Smith, Maxi Kleber and Dwight Powell. Once they lucked into acquiring Luka Doncic on Draft Day (in 2018), they had a ready-made group of contributors around him. ‘That was the most important thing, live reps at the NBA level,’ said Powell, a 6-foot-10 center from Toronto who prepped at the IMG Academy and played at Stanford. ‘There’s nothing that compares to that in development. To figure out the speed, to figure out the ways you can be successful in this league, you have to spend the time playing. You have to get used to the pace, you have to get used to the reads. And you have to get comfortable with making mistakes.’ With more money available to teams to spend on player development, and 15 roster spots available per team, players have longer to reach their potential… Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Pat Mahomes won’t repeat as NFL MVP, that honor will go to Lamar Jackson from the Baltimore Ravens, but when it counts, I’ll take Mahomes… Mahomes and his tight end Travis Kelce are a formidable pair and many think Kelce is currently the best at his position in the NFL. At 6-5, 260 pounds Kelce is almost impossible to defend near the goal line… Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry is one of the best running backs to hit the NFL in years. He reminds me in his style and ability of Hall of Famer Earl Campbell… In its 140-year history, Major League Baseball has looked at sign stealing and cheating with a wink and a nod, but no more. Via the use of technology, the Houston Astros were stealing signs in 2017 on their way to the franchise’s first World Series title. After first being suspended for a year by MLB, Astros General Manager Jeff Luhnow and Manager AJ Hinch, were fired by the team. In addition the Astros were fined the maximum dollar amount a franchise can be fined, $5 million. Long-term the biggest penalty levied against the franchise is the loss of their first and second round draft picks in both the 2020 and 2021 Baseball Amateur Drafts. It could take the Astros a decade to recover from that portion of their punishment. Waiting for the other shoe to drop is Boston Red Sox Manager Alex Cora, who was one of the ringleaders of the sign-stealing efforts while playing for the Astros. The Red Sox are under their own investigation for cheating and it appears MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred may be more harsh with Cora than he was with the Astros personnel.