Thanks to the numerous opportunities for playoff participation, Coronado, a third-place finisher in the Central League,  is celebrating its third San Diego Section championship today.
The Islanders topped Crawford of the Manzanita League, 21-7, at Southwestern College last night for the Division V title, their first since coach Dave Tupec’s team won back-to-back championships as members of the Mountain-Desert League in 1985 and ’86.
Coronado has made two other title-game appearances, in 1961 when the Roger Rigdon-coached squad dropped a 10-6 decision to Carlsbad in the small schools finale, and in 1918, when Clyde Cook’s eleven was beaten by Fullerton, 18-0, for the Southern California title.
The 1918 season concluded with the Islanders-Indians contest in March, 1919. Â Football had been suspended the previous fall when millions died in the worldwide Asian flu pandemic.
Coach Tony Isabella, who took over in 2011 after Bud Mayfield retired following a 9-3 season, guided the trans-bay club to an 8-5 record this year.
Isabella was 9-4 in his first season but the Islanders fell into a three-season, 8-24 slump.
YOU WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
Football has been an up-and-down experience at the 102-year-old school.
Research before 1923 isn’t complete, but the Islanders have won 12 league championships and tied for three others in the last 92 seasons and been members of 15 leagues, some more than once.
The alignment was known as the County league until 1927, followed by a stint in the new Southern Prep from 1928-33.  The Islanders then became  charter members of the Metropolitan League in 1933 and would have had their longest run at the same address until the World War II-influenced Victory League was formed in 1943.
The trans-bay team returned to the Metro in 1946 but switched to the new Avocado League in 1954, only to make another Metro League run from 1963-72.  The short-lived Coast League was Coronado’s home from 1973-75, followed by five more seasons in the Metro.
The South Bay League, part of a inagural Metropolitan “conference”, was home from 1981-84.
Seeking a place where  dwindling enrollment numbers ensured they could compete, Coronado was travel weary but successful in 1985-86 in the Mountain-Desert circuit.
Next up was another alignment with the South Bay League in 1987 and then two seasons as an independent.
The last  25 years have been marked by stability.  The Islanders were part of the Harbor League  from 1990-2004 and since then members of the Central loop.
