No excuses

Patrick Laverty

Since Jeff Brinkley took over the Newport Harbor High football

program in 1986, the Sailors have had a losing season just twice.

They’ve reached the CIF Southern Section playoffs in all but four

years. They’ve won two CIF championships, appeared in three other CIF

championship games and reached the semifinals two other times.

It’s a strong tradition that Brinkley created, regardless of

whether he had 12 returning starters or two, a mammoth offensive line

or one dwarfed by opponents’ defensive fronts, a ton of talent or

barely enough bodies to go around.

So the fact that there are just 39 players on the 2003 Newport

Harbor roster, or that only four starters return at the position they

played last year, isn’t a concern for the longtime Sailors coach who

has compiled a 145-59-2 record entering his 18th season at the

school.

“We don’t make excuses,” Brinkley said. “These are the guys we

have and we need to find a way to get it done.”

It’s not as though the cupboard is bare either. Senior running

back Matt Encinias has been a varsity player since he was a freshman,

it’s just that he hasn’t been the primary running back before. Junior

wide receiver Spencer Link is a returning first-team All-Sea View

League performer, but opposing defenses know all about him this year.

Junior quarterback Kasey Peters has good size and an accurate arm,

but he has completed only four varsity passes.

The questions aren’t just at the skill positions, either.

After having a ton of size up front in the last few years, Newport

Harbor’s offensive and defensive lines are slightly undersized. A

talented linebacking trio provides some excitement for Brinkley and

his staff, but they have combined for zero starts at linebacker on

the varsity level.

There are other unknowns as well. Three of the five schools that

the Sailors play before Sea View League action begins have coaching

changes, including the opening opponent Trabuco Hills, which has

prevented Harbor’s coaching staff from formulating an early game

plan.

But whatever those other coaches plan to do, Brinkley knows

exactly what his team needs before it enters Sea View League play.

“We need to play well early on,” Brinkley said. “If you play well

early, it gives a lot of justification to the hard work in the

off-season and it makes the belief system go way up.”

If the play is measured simply by wins and losses, the Sailors

have their work cut out for them. Trabuco Hills is a Division II team

that made the playoffs last season and Marina plays in the Division I

Sunset League. The Sailors’ 39-man squad could look very small

against these two teams.

Newport Harbor concludes its nonleague schedule with its rivalry

game against Corona Del Mar -- “A huge game,” Brinkley said -- and

road contests against Dana Hills and Paramount, the two other schools

that have undergone coaching changes in the off-season.

There were no coaching changes among the five other Sea View

League teams, so Brinkley knows exactly what to expect in league

play: tough football games.

“They’re all pretty good this year,” Brinkley said. “It’s going to

be one of those leagues where I think everyone has the ability to

beat everybody.”

Judging from the CIF preseason polls, the Sailors, ranked No. 10

in Division VI, were picked to finish third in the league, behind

Foothill (No. 7) and Laguna Hills (No. 9). Foothill, which reached

the Division VI championship game last season, returns 33 players

from that team, including seven starters on defense. Laguna Hills

returns six starters on both sides of the ball after going 6-5 last

year.

The Sailors open league play with a home game against Foothill,

which should give one of the two schools an early upper hand in the

league race. They play at Laguna Hills in the regular-season finale.

Newport Harbor will also have home games against Irvine and

Woodbridge, while traveling to play Aliso Niguel.

The key will be how much the young team is able to grow during its

nonleague schedule. Encinias and Link are weapons and their

athleticism should allow the Sailors to put points on the board.

“Neither one of them are going to be a track star, but they both

have great football speed,” Brinkley said. “That quickness that makes

somebody miss.”

But there are plenty of other questions surrounding those two. Can

Peters handle the quarterback position? Can the undersized line open

holes for Encinias, protect Peters and provide a pass rush on

defense? Can the inexperienced linebackers become veterans by the

time Sea View League play begins?

The answers will begin becoming apparent over the next few weeks

and no matter what they are, Brinkley isn’t likely to use them as an

excuse.