CIF’s prized inline trophy to honor Cerone


T


eams in the CIF-Metro Conference will play for the renamed Kiwanis/Don Cerone Memorial Cup from now on to honor the memory of former Scripps Ranch coach Don Cerone, who was instrumental in the formation of roller hockey at the scholastic level in San Diego County. Cerone,


60, died in a single-car accident on Aug. 8, 2011. “When


I proposed renaming the trophy at our preseason meeting, I didn’t meet any resis- tance,” said Hilltop High School coach Dan Vacarro, who was a college classmate of Cerone’s at RIT. “It was a unanimous decision by all the coaches.”


Don Cerone


Cerone helped launch the still-extant San Diego County High School Roller Hock- ey Conference in 1995, serving as founder and commissioner, and was a strong advo- cate of making roller hockey a California Interscholastic Federation sport.


Vaccaro, Cerone and Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Dr. Ed Brand spearhead- ed the effort to help launch the CIF-Metro Conference in 2000.


“Dr. Brand was really the golden goose behind us going to CIF,” Vaccaro said. “But it was Don’s professionalism in dealing with the various schools that helped show every- one involved that roller hockey wasn’t just a hair-brained idea.”


Scripps Ranch finished 22-0 in 2003-04. Tentative plans, Vaccaro said, are to have Cerone’s widow, Debi Cerone, pres- ent the trophy to the winning team at the 2012 Kiwanis Cup championship game. Another longtime coach, Pam Wiser, who died during the offseason from a brain aneurysm, was remembered with a ceremonial faceoff to open the 2011-12 season between the Chula Vista Spartans and Southwest Raiders. Wiser, whose son played for Chula Vista High School, stepped in to coach the Spartans for half a decade when it appeared the team might fold. She served as an assistant with the Southwest the past two seasons.


“To be honest, if it wasn’t for Pam, Chula Vista High School probably wouldn¹t have a team today,” Southwest coach Jerry Nestlerode said.


- Phillip Brents 18


Bonita Vista’s Roller Program Alive and Well Short on early-season participation, the Barons are back competing in the CIF-Metro Conference


By Phillip Brents T


he Sweetwater Union High School District is the larg- est secondary school district in the state with 42,000 students who speak at least 33 lan- guages. It’s also home to the state’s lone high school inline hockey league sanctioned by the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF).


But when the 18-team CIF- Metro Conference rolled out its 12th season on Nov. 28, one of its founding teams was con- spicuously absent: head coach Keith Quigley’s Bonita Vista Barons.


In fact, the Barons had to postpone their opening four games.


It was something that Quigley had never before expe- rienced in his 14 years coach- ing the team. His dilemma? There weren’t enough players to fill out the roster.


Bonita Vista High School senior Nicole Tran returns as the Barons’ vocal on-court leader for the 2011-12 CIF-Metro Confer- ence season. Photo/Phillip Brents


“This season was really the first time in all my sea- sons I’ve been coaching Bonita that I had a lot of trouble recruiting enough players to form a team,” said Quigley, whose team can trace its origin to 1998 as a member of the club-based San Diego County High School Roller Hockey Conference.


“I’d held three team meetings on campus before the season had started and there was lots of interest at those meetings,” Quigley continued. “But when it came to get- ting the season started and actually coming out to play for the team, most of those who had attended my meet- ings pretty much disappeared.”


In recent seasons, the Barons had fielded teams with little bench depth, but this was beyond the BVHS coach’s worst nightmare. Would the Barons, with two Kiwanis Cup championship titles in their rich history, not field a team for the 2011-12 season? It proved to be a close call.


“I contacted the school’s athletic director to ask if I could attend the freshmen and sophomore P.E. classes to do a roller hockey presentation to recruit more players and it worked,” Quigley said. “I now have a team of 15 players, though a few of them are currently ineligible.” Bonita Vista rolled onto the playing surface at the Skate San Diego facility in National City for its first game on Dec. 12 - two weeks behind schedule - and came away with a lot of smiles after recording a come-from- behind, 10-8 victory against the Castle Park Trojans. BVHS’ Jonathan O’Brien paced all scorers with


seven goals.


“My gosh!” Quigley simply exclaimed after the game. Senior goaltender Nicole Tran remains one of the team’s most vocal leaders. In fact, the Barons roster includes eight girls - the most in the team’s long history, Quigley noted.


Among the promising newcomers is sophomore Mi- randa Peters.


“She seems to be really enjoying the sport,” Quigley said. “As the coach, what I like about her is her focus and intensity. She plays defense and she’s not afraid to mix it up.”


The BVHS coach said his squad was understandably excited to win its first game.


“With not that many practices under our belt as a team, I was very happy to see that my Barons never gave up,” Quigley said. “We battled until the end and found a way to win.”


The Barons finished 4-16 in 2010-11 and this season looks to be equally challenging. However, Quigley’s out- look remains simple.


“I want these players to have fun, improve in the sport of hockey and give 100 percent at every practice and every game,” he said. “I want them to just play to the best of their ability.”


That’s the core message of high school sports, and that’s what makes the CIF-Metro Conference not only unique, but special.


Who’s on Top?


Parity seems to rule in the CIF-Metro Conference this season, with championship titles in the Mesa League, South Bay League and North County League all up for grabs. Only the Kiwanis Cup finalist West Hills Wolf Pack appears to hold a decided advantage in the Central League.


The Westview Wolverines defeated West Hills, 2-0, to capture last year’s Kiwanis Cup championship and both teams, along with the Poway Titans, appear to be the frontrunners for the top prize in 2011-12. Westview entered the winter break sporting a 6-0 record, followed by both West Hills and Poway with 5-1 marks.


The Kiwanis Cup championship playoffs face off in late February following a 20-game regular season. “We’re very solid this year,” Wolf Pack coach Steve


Baldwin said. “We lost to Westview, 6-4, in our first game this season and I think we’ll be very competitive with Poway. Any of those three teams can go 1-2-3 in the playoffs.”


Poway coach Dale Ingram suggests the power struggle won’t be decided until the very last game of the season for whichever teams are in the final. “It’ll come down to which team gets the bounces, breaks and makes the fewest mistakes,” Ingram said.


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