Coronado Sports

As we noted last week, the 16-team SoCal Water Polo Invitational is one of the elite prep water polo events in the country and the Islander Water Polo Team (7-9 overall record, 0-1 in the Western League) drew a series of tough teams in the four games they played in the event. The first game, which was played against Corona Del Mar Friday at 12 noon, found the Islanders on the short end of the 17-7 final score. Islander Head Coach Sean Castillo said, “It was close in the first half, and then it started opening up on us. Teddy Oliver had eight saves and four steals. Our top scorers were Matthew Wastila with three goals, and Calvin Peckham with two.”

Later that day the Islanders faced The Menlo School, which is coached by Islander Alumnus Jack Bowen. Coronado lost 10-8, with Peckham scoring three times, Wastila and Peter Olson scored twice, and Carlos Morales scored one goal. Oliver had the same stat line he had against CDM with eight saves and four steals.

Islander Head Football Coach Kurt Hines said before the season began that Serra was the team to beat in the Central League. After losing to the Conquistadores on the road Friday night by the score of 35-7, Hines said, “They are without a doubt the best team we will see in the regular season. Serra played fast, physical football. Our guys didn’t quit, we just didn’t execute well. we weren’t playing with a good pad level. Our ends and linebackers were taking bad angles to the ball carrier. Serra is too fast to do that.”

At the outset of the Islander Girls Tennis season, Your Natterer was speaking with Head Coach Rob Moore, and toward the end of our conversation, I asked how his team was going to be this year. What Moore said next was surprising, which was the Islanders, who are the defending Western League Champions, were picked to finish last in the conference. Moore has his whole team back with the exception of No. 1 singles player Summer Vu. In recent years, the strength of the team has been their depth in doubles, which when combined with solid play in singles, makes for a very competitive team.

Well, fast forward about a month and a half, and last week Coronado defeated the Academy of Our Lady of Peace 15-3 and followed that up with a 14-4 win over La Jolla. That marked the end of the first half of conference play, with the Islanders posting a perfect 5-0 record in the first round. The Islanders currently are 9-1 overall.

The Cathedral Catholic Dons are generally considered to be the No. 1 water polo team in San Diego, at least for now, and last Thursday afternoon they came to Coronado for the first Western League game of the season for both teams. The Dons emerged with a 9-7 victory. Islander Head Coach Sean Castillo said, “It was an extremely good game for us. The score was close for the entire game. It was 2-2 at the end of the first quarter and they were up 5-4 at the half. They went up in the third quarter and held on for the 9-7 final.”

Scoring for Coronado included two goals each from Calvin Peckham, Carlos Morales and Matthew Wastila. Fernando Morales scored once, while Teddy Oliver had 10 saves in goal.

Saturday morning at 9 a.m., the Islanders hosted Canyon Crest Academy for a game that was postponed due to lightening from earlier in the season. Coronado, better prepared than most teams for an early morning game, due to their pre-dawn practice schedule, won 9-4. According to Coach Castillo, “Canyon Crest is a good team and is on the bubble between Division I and the Open Division for the CIF Playoffs. We had Calvin Peckham, Carolos Morales and Matthew Wastila score twice each, and single goals from Peter Olson, Fernando Morales and Cole Ackerly.”

At the beginning of the season, Islander Football Head Coach Kurt Hines thought the Serra Conquistadors (3-2 overall) would give Coronado (also 3-2 overall) the most trouble among the teams in the Central League. The Central League circuit includes Coronado, Serra, Clairemont, Crawford and Hoover.

Much like the Coronado Girls Tennis Team, the Islander Girls Golf Team wasn’t challenged last week as they won 224-291 over Point Loma in a match played at Torrey Pines North and 235-273 against La Jolla at Coronado Municipal. Technically the Point Loma match was a forfeit win, but regardless, the two wins ran Coronado’s record to 7-2, including six straight victories.

Coronado Lacrosse Club (CLC) and Islander Sports Foundation (ISF) are co-hosting the Third Annual Charity Casino Night & Luau Lounge on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019, and are seeking sponsors and participants for this event. Proceeds benefit girls youth lacrosse, and Coronado’s middle and high school sports teams.

The Charity Casino Night & Luau Lounge is held in the Nautilus Room within the Coronado Recreation Center, with an open bar and light finger foods. Players of all abilities come together to play Texas Hold ’em style poker, with prizes awarded to top 10 poker players. Additionally offered are black jack, roulette and craps tables,

Unlike one week ago when Coronado won their match with The Bishop’s School on the third tiebreaker, last week was pretty routine for Head Coach Rob Moore and his team. The team is now three games into their Western League schedule, defeating Cathedral Catholic one week ago. Last week Coronado ‘routined’ Scripps Ranch 13-5 and Patrick Henry 14-4 on their way to two more league wins. According to Moore, the highlights of the Scripps Ranch match were victories by the doubles teams of Alejandra Gonzalez/Marla Steel and Samantha Russell/Kate Perley over a strong Falcons No. 1 doubles tandem.

George Green, Islander Cross Country head coach provides the details of his team’s competition weekend. “Last Saturday, the bulk of the Cross Country team traveled to the Silver Lakes Sports Complex in Norco to run under the lights in the Woodbridge Classic. Woodbridge is one of the largest High School Cross Country meets in the country, with races starting about every 20 minutes from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday. With around 200 runners per race, that’s quite a spectacle.

The City of Coronado is hosting a USTA Junior Tournament for top level players ages 10-18, Sept. 20-22, 2019. Matches will begin at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon at the Cays, Library, High School and Tennis Center Courts. Saturday matches will be held at the Coronado Tennis Center and Robbin Adair Tennis Complex courts with the finals being played at the Coronado Tennis Center on Sunday.

Islander Girls Volleyball Head Coach Adeile Ahmu files a report on her team, which stands at 7-5, playing against some tough competition. “The Coronado Girl’s continued their non-conference games last week. We went 1-1, with a loss to Mater Dei High School and a much-needed win against Grossmont High School. We had a tough tournament the week prior, with a 1-4 record with losses against Santa Fe Christian, La Jolla, OLP, and a visiting school from Arizona Cienega. The Girls may have been defeated on the scoreboard, but they learned what we collectively can do better, to continue moving upward and onward the remainder of the year.

It took a while for Friday night’s football game between Mar Vista and host Coronado to get rolling, but the game picked up pace in the second half and finished strong. There were several lead changes and key plays made by both teams. The Islanders won the game on a key defensive play in the second overtime to pull out the 42-41 victory.

The teams battled the entire first quarter before the scoreboard flickered. Both clubs committed turnovers in the early going and were called for major penalties which helped the opposition maintain possession. Coronado scored first, finding the end zone on their fourth rushing attempt from the Mar Vista one-yard line. Ash Bibbes scored on a quarterback rollout, followed by a two-point conversion on a pass play from holder John Shoemaker to receiver Brady Roulier to make the score 8-0.

Boys and Girls Cross Country Head Coach George Green provides the results and updates for his team from last week. “We took nearly the full Boys and Girls Cross Country teams to the Bronco Round-Up, hosted by Rancho Bernardo High School at Kit Carson Park last Saturday.

“The Round-Up is the last of the short cross-country races of the season and is used by most of the top teams to assess the fitness of their runners. The distance is only two miles, but there isn’t a flat stretch anywhere on the course. After the first rolling mile, the course rises nearly 90 feet over the next quarter of a mile in a series of ups and downs with a grade of 15 per cent in some places. Our first Boy finisher was Cole Mullins, who completed the course with a time of 10:34. Casey Harris was next with 11:03 followed by Landon Mullins (11:08), Aiden Baumann (11:52), Gio Navarro (12:03), Cole Hutcherson (12:12), Nolan Reuter (12:16), Micah Arnott (12:20), Tim Shumaker (12:22), Will Leonard (12:30), Conor Youngblood, and Soren Donahue. I’m looking forward to seeing who will be on the Varsity seven-runner team at CIF, as there are several contenders after the first five runners.

It’s a relatively small sample size, just five matches, but the Islander Girls Golf Team, under the direction of Stuart Gordon, is currently ranked No. 8 in San Diego County. Gordon’s mixture of four upperclassmen including Crista Izuzquiza, Samantha Lorr, Annie Holland and Madeline Dietrick combined with six freshmen is working in the early going.

Another team playing well in the early throes of the fall season is the Islander Girls Volleyball Team. Last week they were busy, as the week started with a three sets to one win over Montgomery, followed by a 3-2 win over Patrick Henry. That pushed their record to 4-0 entering the September Classic, a major tournament held at three sites throughout the county including Canyon Crest Academy, Westview, and Mt. Carmel. Among their matches in the Classic were losses to eventual champion La Jolla and Santa Fe Christian, while Coronado defeated Granite Hills 2-1, by the scores of 25-24, 22-25, and 15-9. 

Islander Girls Golf Head Coach Stuart Gordon is taking a unique approach to the current season, mostly because his nine-person roster consists of senior Crista Izuzquiza, juniors Samantha Lorr and Annie Holland and six freshmen. So, he is giving the freshman as much playing experience as he can, a group that includes twins Muriela Avanni and Natalia Avanni, Sophie Holland, Morgan Arendt, Tatum Ware and Jesse Hill.

So far this season, the Islander Girls Volleyball Team is undefeated, a series of victories which includes a four set win over Helix, another four set win over Serra and a three set win over Hilltop last Wednesday. All three contests are non-league matches. The Islander’s Eastern League schedule starts in late September.

The last Coronado High team in the pool this season, so to speak, is the Islander Boys Water Polo Team. After a series of exhibition games and a JV tournament last week in La Jolla, the Islanders host Canyon Crest Academy Wednesday at 5 pm at the Brian Bent Memorial Aquatics Complex. Their second game of the year will be Saturday when the team travels to Newport Harbor High School for an 11 a.m. game.

The upcoming 2019 IRONMAN 70.3 Superfrog triathlon will take place on Sunday, Sept. 15 in Imperial Beach and run up and back along the Silver Strand to the Silver Strand State Beach.

The Islanders home opener on their newly installed turf field versus Maranatha Christian on Friday, Aug. 23, was a resounding success with the final score of 42-6.

5k Results

The 29th Annual RADM James G. Prout III Memorial Golf Tournament will take place at 12:30 p.m. on Aug. 23 at Naval Air Station North Island’s Sea ‘N Air Golf Course.

Components of the CHS Blumenthal Sports Complex have been upgraded since the conclusion of the past school year, which prompted Islander Athletic Director Robin Nixon to create the idea of having an Athletic Department Open House Friday, Aug. 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. The event will be free to the public, and there will be no admission charges to the Islander Football game which kicks off at 7 p.m. that night.

I’ve decided that in my next life I want to return as Jay Bilas, the 6-foot, 8-inch former Duke star, holder of a law degree from Duke, practicing litigator in Charlotte, North Carolina and ESPN NCAA Men’s Basketball color commentator. Bilas, 55, a graduate of Peninsula High School in Palos Verdes, is far away the best college basketball analyst working currently. Recently he took a well-targeted shot at the governing body of collegiate sports, the NCAA for their most recent public relations misstep, requiring agents in the sport of basketball to have a college education. The edict was perceived by many as racially insensitive and was generally believed to be aimed at Rich Paul, the agent who represents LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Draymond Green, and John Wall among many others. Introduced last week, the concept was on the receiving end of an immediate broadside from Bilas, who isn’t afraid to take a stand. My only wish for the coming College Basketball season is that Bilas is behind the microphone and on ESPN sports coverage even more often than he was last year… I’ve watched the triple-double floor exercise move that Simone Biles accomplished during the U.S. Gymnastics Championships last weekend four or five times and it’s incredible. A similar dismount Biles makes from the balance beam makes two gymnastic moves that only she can accomplish… The NBA knows how to create a schedule and fans will get to see the Lakers vs. the Clippers on Opening Night slated for Tuesday, Oct. 22… For some reason, Major League Baseball and the NBA both released their schedules for next year on Monday, with MLB getting the shorter end of the publicity generated by the respective announcements… The recent protest staged by a male fencer and a female hammer thrower at the Pan American Games hasn’t exactly taken the country by storm. Lima, Peru, where the Pan Am Games were held isn’t exactly a media center; their sports aren’t followed except during the Olympic Games; and it’s all been done before… My reaction to Oakland and soon to be Las Vegas Raider, wide receiver Antonio Brown’s current plight is sadness. Between his feet being damaged in a cryogenic chamber accident resulting in frost bite and not practicing because he can’t wear his 10-year old helmet this season, his focus doesn’t seem to be on the upcoming NFL season. He’s in the process of shortening what could have been a Hall of Fame career… Free Melvin Gordon… It’s going to be an interesting off-season for the San Diego Padres. Ownership and management thought this was going to be a playoff team, but the ballclub is going to fall considerably short of that goal, despite a much larger player payroll than in past years. Though improving from their 2018 record of 66-96 (.407), to 55-63 (.466 through Monday) in 2019, major personnel changes may well be forthcoming… As an aside, Franmil Reyes, who was recently traded from the Padres to the Cleveland Indians, has played in 11 games since arriving in Northeast Ohio. In 36 at-bats he has four hits, three RBIs, is hitting .111 with 14 strikeouts and 1 walk. Moving Reyes and keeping Hunter Renfro who are both right fielders by trade was a smart move. Renfro who doesn’t hit for average either, he’s at .240 through the beginning of the week, has as much power as Reyes and is a superior defender.