MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK:Hospital releases Brinkley

The euphoria of Newport Harbor’s season-opening win over Aliso Niguel was sweet, but brief, since it was overshadowed by the news of coach Jeff Brinkley’s hospitalization.

Brinkley was released after a three-night, four-day stay at Hoag Hospital, where he was treated for a heart arrhythmia.

Athletes visited Brinkley with cards and balloons after a Saturday morning team meeting, but coaches have been cautious about not letting Brinkley’s condition seep too much into the minds of his players.

“They way they’ve been taught, we’ve got to get ready for Long Beach Poly,” said defensive coordinator Tony Ciarelli, who had been running the team in Brinkley’s absence. “I’m sure he’s the first to tell them to concentrate on the task at hand.”

Newport Harbor defeated Aliso Niguel 16-3 Thursday night, and during the game, Brinkley complained he wasn’t feeling well. He was taken to Hoag Hospital in an ambulance at halftime when his heart wouldn’t stop racing.

Brinkley said Sunday that he wasn’t sure if he would be at football practice this week.

“I’m going to try,” said Brinkley, who is now in his 22nd as Newport Harbor’s head football coach. “Right now, it’s day-by-day. I’m still taking medicine, and I’m going back to the doctor Tuesday.”

Estancia Head Coach Mike Bargas was a longtime assistant with Brinkley before he left to succeed Brian Barnes this year at Estancia. He spoke with Brinkley Friday afternoon and said the coach sounded a little weaker than usual.

“Usually, he’s a pretty stubborn guy,” Bargas said. “For him to actually leave a game at halftime, it must have been pretty serious. He’s had some episodes like that before in the past, but this one must have really shook him up.”

Ciarelli took over after Brinkley left, and offensive line coach Zach Biehl ran the offense Thursday. It’s unclear if the Sailors will have the same setup this week at home against Long Beach Poly.

Ciarelli was pleased with the defense, which sacked Aliso quarterback Casey Pray six times, with four sacks coming from senior defensive tackle Chase Obenauer.

“It was our first game with a lot of new starters,” Ciarelli said. “We were very limited with mistakes, and we tackled pretty well. The pass coverage was good. We got six or seven sacks and chased the quarterback around all night long.”

Offensively, Ciarelli wanted to limit the number of turnovers, but felt the team moved the ball fairly well.

“We ran the ball well, we just a little bit more timing on the passing part of the game. But that will improve,” Ciarelli said. “I think Andrew McDonald played a pretty good game.”

Even if he’s not at full strength this week, Bargas said he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that his old boss left his hospital bed for his desk in the Newport Harbor football office.

“I’m sure he’ll be on the practice field tomorrow,” Bargas said. “It might be with a satellite TV, or a camera, but I’m sure he’ll be out there somehow.”

Now 0-2 in his first year as head coach at Estancia, Bargas has continued to look for answers on film after the Eagles were stunned Friday by a 13-6 loss to Bolsa Grande.

This week’s examination revealed fatigue, so he has decided to switch a few players around who weren’t getting much rest, if any at all, playing both ways.

Seniors Conner McKendry and Sean Ulrich were starting on both defense and offense. Now the two lineman will both play offense, but share a spot on the defensive line. Senior Ryan Esfahani will take over the remaining hole in the defensive lineup.

“We need less guys going both ways,” Bargas said. “I think that hurts that a little bit. We’ve got some kids that are on the bubble of being starters, and we need to just bite the bullet. We’re going to try to get some fresh bodies in there.”

Bargas also plans on shuffling another person into the rotation at offensive guard. Junior Freddy Garcia will now also be fighting to start at guard this week.

Senior starting tight end Eli Diego is expected to return this week after injuring his ankle in Estancia’s Week Zero game against Aquinas. Senior Eddy Tomasek, who normally plays wide receiver, filled in at tight end in Diego’s absence. Tomasek, who also plays linebacker, was never leaving the field, so Bargas is planning to bring up Brian Linares from junior varsity to play linebacker.

Coleman Brown may see some time at the position as well.

“We played better defense and we did a good job defending the run,” Bargas said of the Eagles’ performance against Bolsa Grande.

Until Friday, Bolsa Grande hadn’t won a season opener in ten years. “From a bad standpoint, on special teams, we’ve got to shore that thing up. Offensively, we’ve got to get something going. We’ve got to establish something. We’ve only scored 2 touchdowns in two games.”

A week ago, it was better play on special teams that Jeremy Osso was trying to hammer into the heads of the boys on his football team.

This week, the 0-2 Mustangs coach plans to focus on preparation — for himself and his team.

Osso and the Mustangs entered a football field Friday night thinking they would see an odd-front defense.

It was what Rancho Alamitos ran last year.

But they were stunned to find an even front, and the inexperienced players struggled to catch up.

So this week the mantra is preparation.

“We had trouble adjusting our blocking schemes,” Osso said. “Because of that we’re leaving our defense on the field too long. Scheme-wise it was there, we just had a problem executing it. Plus, on top of it, they might have had fresher legs. They weren’t chains those Savanna guys around the week before.”

Still, the defense played better in this week’s 26-0 loss to Rancho Alamitos, than it did in Costa Mesa’s 55-7 loss to Savanna, the largest margin of defeat in school history.

Save for one score at the end of the first half, Rancho Alamitos scored all its points in the third quarter.

“So, for all but one quarter, we played really well,” Osso said.

Osso was also full of praise for newly minted varsity quarterback Brian Waldron, who played his first varsity game at the position Friday.

“He’s one of the smartest guys on the team,” Osso said. “For only having a week of quarterback under his belt he did a pretty good job. He did more than pretty good. I don’t see why we would go away from him.”

Still, Osso sounded as though he had a Sisyphean task ahead to prepare the team for league play.

“I don’t know if you’re ever going to get up to speed like you would like,” he said. “We’re making strides, not as fast as we’d like them to be, but we’re making strides.”

With two straight wins in his first year as head coach, Pete Anderson has a pretty good outlook on the rest of the season.

And Sunday, he was completely nonchalant about the fact that he had to start the second quarter of a Friday night game with the wrong quarterback.

Freshman Colton Gulay played the first series of the second half behind a freshman center, because starter Jamie McGee’s ankle was still getting taped when the third quarter started.

“His first varsity football play came with zero warning, so he had to jump right in there and run the first series of the second half,” Anderson said coolly. “So there was a freshman quarterback and a freshman center for the opening drive of the first half, and there weren’t any fumbled snaps. He’s very confident, especially for a freshman.”

Anderson was also pleased with McGee’s performance. McGee threw eight passes to three different receivers for 149 yards in just the first quarter of Sage Hill’s 41-6 win over Midway Baptist.

But even with such a successful game, Anderson was still obsessing over film, and he’ll continue to add layers to the playbook and blocking schemes.

“Playing a perfect football game is like playing a perfect golf match,” Anderson said. “It’s just not going to happen.”

All the mistakes from Friday’s loss at El Toro might be fixable, but the wheels are still turning in Dick Freeman’s head when it comes to his quarterback.

Hunter Alder had a banner performance in the Sea Kings’ season opener against Laguna Beach, but tried to accomplish too much Friday at El Toro, Freeman said.

The result?

CdM’s offense didn’t really get going until the second half, where the Sea Kings got in their own way on what could have been a game-winning series.

“Sometimes they just think a little too much,” Freeman said.

But Freeman also thought sophomore Mitch Sands did well in his first shot at varsity quarterback. Sands played the second half of the El Toro game.

“He threw the ball real well, and the running game picked up,” Freeman said. “We’re trying to find which one’s going to step up and do it.”

Hampered by penalties, Corona del Mar finished three points shy of tie, 20-17.

“We just need more repetitions and we have to focus on what it is we’re doing wrong,” Freeman said. “We still want to be able to get the ball up and run the ball a little bit quicker.”