It’s Not Hawaii, but for Islanders . . . : IT’S A PARADISE FOR WATER POLO : Two-Time Champion Coronado Is 11-0

Vern Heimbigner is really an easygoing guy, but at 5 in the morning, Monday through Friday, and at 7 on Saturday, a cold streak in the personality of Coronado High School water polo coach becomes evident.

An even colder feeling greets his players.

Nearly two hours before the sun rises, Heimbigner’s players sleepwalk their way to the edge of the Coronado municipal pool. The air is cold, a stiff wind is blowing off Glorietta Bay and the water in the pool is like ice. Only 13 hours before, the players had finished their afternoon workout. “The hardest thing is to get them in the water,” Heimbigner said. “I’ll tell you, I didn’t start this tradition.”

The first-year coach has maintained the rigorous training schedule of former coach Randy Burgess--and the Islanders’ winning ways.

The team swims 2,000 yards, six mornings a week, and then swims another 1,500 yards, five afternoons a week.

“I think we’re the only team that has two-a-days all season,” Heimbigner said. “But since they won two years in a row, I figured, why change things?”

Winning is what the players say makes this demanding life style bearable. Winning is definitely the incentive needed to rise hours before even the sun rises.

Coronado is off to an 11-0 start in 1985 after winning two straight CIF San Diego Section 2-A championships. In title matches, they defeated Crawford, 14-13, in 1983 and 12-9 last year.

The Islanders have outscored their opponents, 180-60, going into today’s match against Valhalla. Three-year starter Patrick McInerney has 35 goals and 30 assists, Eric Kerley has 45 goals and 29 assists and David Hovland has 36 goals and 13 assists.

The Islanders are a perennial power in part because water polo is considered a major sport at Coronado. Student body interest in water polo is high, and fan attendance at matches is good.

The Islander football team moved from the 2-A division to 1-A when it did not have enough players to adequately field a team last season. Coronado was barely able to dress 20 players for its varsity football games last year. In contrast, there are 45 players on the varsity and junior varsity (9-0) water polo teams.

Coronado finally won a football game a couple of weeks ago, but it will take a while before Friday night football games are as popular as Tuesday afternoon water polo matches.

Football, after all, is played on land, and this is an aquatic town. It is a city surrounded by the bay on one side and the ocean on the other. There are swimming pools everywhere you look.

“Kids in Coronado spend their free time at the beach and in the water,” Ernie Dickerson, Coronado athletic director, said. “They’ve been swimming all their life.”

Or at least since they are 3 or 4 years old.

Dry skin and bloodshot eyes are hardships nearly everyone in the community seems willing to endure. And uncombed wet hair is actually fashionable among Coronado High swimmers and water polo players.

“The water polo team has their own clique in the school,” Elizabeth Lewis, senior team manager, said. “They walk around the school together and they go out and party together.”

They party when they can, which means only on Saturday nights during the season. The players say they try to get to sleep by 8:30 or 9 p.m., six nights a week.

“I go home right after practice, do homework and get to bed as soon as possible,” senior Patrick McInerney said.

From September through November, the water polo season is in full gear. The players get a respite in December and January. All but two members of the water polo team are members of the swim team, which begins practicing in January and competes until the end of May.

Aren’t the high school years supposed to fun?

“Winning makes it all worth while,” said a number of players in unison. “We swim for water polo. This is definitely more fun.”

More fun than what?

Than just doing the crawl. Swimming demands as torturous a training schedule as water polo and doesn’t allow players to rifle balls into the net. The Coronado swimming team is competitive, but isn’t as successful as the water polo team.

Under the direction of Burgess, who is now an assistant water polo coach at Mesa College, the Islanders were a star-oriented team. Roger Higdon was the San Diego Section Player of the Year in 1983 and Jon Reichardt was the Section’s co-Player of the Year with Devin Breise of Crawford last year.

But things are different with Heimbigner as coach.

“This year we have more of a team effort,” McInerney said. “And we’re scoring more. I was never really a shooter until this year.”

Scoring makes swimming more enjoyable. Particularly for McInerney and Kerly, who play the hole. Playing the hole is similar to playing the pivot in basketball. These players take a lot of elbows, but they also get numerous scoring opportunities.

“I think it’s more fun this year,” Kerley said. “I’ve already doubled my scoring from last year and we’ve only played 11 games.”

Heimbigner said the 6-foot 1-inch, 180-pound Kerley is a “model water polo player. He is really strong. I’ve seen him get a good shot off with guys hanging on both arms.”

The third member of the Islanders’ offensive nucleus is Dave Hovland, the main driver on the team.

“Dave has a quick shot and quick moves,” Heimbigner said. “One, two strokes and he is by his man.”

Thank Heimbigner, a former player at Crawford, for the team’s more wide-open offense.

“I was not trying to change too much,” Heimbigner said, “because the seniors are used to what Randy did. But I have let them go a little more and score more.”

In addition to their firepower, the Islanders have two talented goalkeepers, who each play half the game.

“I tend to think Eric (Kleymann) and Lambert (Devoe) are two of the top three or four goalkeepers in the county,” Heimbigner said.

This year’s team has talent and the spirit of tradition on their side.

“We’ve won in past years,” McInerney said, “and our 5-4 loss last summer to a really good high school all-star team from Los Angeles gave us confidence.”

That game was part of the Hawaiian Invitational Water Polo tournament played at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu.

Maybe it is the memory of Hawaii that keeps the Islanders going during those cold, dark fall mornings at the Coronado municipal pool.