Daily Pilot High School Male Athlete of the Week: Barela put team first for Newport Harbor

Sam Barela has a high-profile position as the quarterback of the Newport Harbor High football team, but the junior said he’s always considered himself a basketball player.

That’s the sport he has played since kindergarten. As a big Los Angeles Lakers fan, he follows the professional game closely as well.

One player who has gotten a lot of publicity this season for the Lakers is rookie point guard Lonzo Ball, who plays the same position as Barela.

“It’s fun to watch how he styles his game,” Barela said. “He can tailor his game any way he wants to, day in and day out, and that’s cool to watch. Your shots aren’t always going to fall, but he makes up for it in the assists and the rebound categories. His plus-minus is really good for a rookie.”

The little things matter to Barela, the Daily Pilot High School Male Athlete of the Week. Like Ball, he wants to do whatever he can to help the Sailors win.

At the end of the Sunset League finale against Los Alamitos on Feb. 8, Barela felt he needed to create offense for himself. His jumper with 15 seconds left was the difference as the Sailors earned a 48-47 win. Barela was fouled on the play and missed the free throw, but the Sailors hung on.

The victory gave Newport Harbor (21-7, 8-2 in league) a share of the league title with Edison, the Sailors’ first Sunset League title since the 1979-80 season and their first league title since winning the Sea View in 2001-02.

The season ended unceremoniously for the Sailors, who were upset 48-39 by Walnut on Wednesday in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 2A playoffs. But to Barela, that can’t erase a magical year that included the 21 wins, the league title and the first Battle of the Bay win over rival Corona del Mar since the 2005-06 season.

Barela averaged 10 points and 5.6 assists per game for the Sailors in his second year as a varsity starter. He learned on the job last year as a sophomore from then-senior Collin Pipkin, who Barela called the Sailors’ “everything man.”

“Collin was our primary guard, but if teams tried to take the ball out of Colin’s hands, Sam was perfectly capable of moving the ball up the floor and running our offense for us,” Newport Harbor coach Bob Torribio said. “He spent a lot of time with the ball in his hands last year as a sophomore, and did a great job. He was obviously on a team with two great seniors [Pipkin and senior guard Zach Blaine], so I don’t know if people didn’t know about him or what, but he did a great job getting better every game. I think he was ready to go this year, and he’s been playing at a high level all season for us.

“He’s a very bright young man, very coachable, very unselfish. He wants to be at practice, he wants to make his teammates better. He makes coaching a lot easier with his commitment to the team and how unselfish he is.”

Senior forwards Jake Bashore and Brad Siegel were also returning starters for the Sailors this year, along with a pair of juniors in Barela and forward Dayne Chalmers. Like Barela, Chalmers also excels in another sport as a standout volleyball player.

Barela said he stepped up his scoring as the year went on, but as a long-time point guard, he also relishes the assist. He dished out a season-high 16 in a 65-36 win over Fountain Valley on Jan. 31, a victory that started the Sailors’ three-game winning streak to end Sunset League play.

Barela could start at quarterback for the football team for the third straight year next fall. He will have a new head coach as a senior. Jeff Brinkley resigned after 32 years at the helm on Jan. 23, and Barela said Brinkley gave him the heads-up before basketball practice that day.

“News travels fast,” Barela said. “I got out of practice, looked at my Twitter and it was just page after page of Brinkley. … We’ll see what we make of it. It’s a new thing, and you just have to adapt. It’s going to be exciting to see what happens.”

Adapting has become a specialty for Barela.

Sam Barela

Born: Sept. 20, 2000

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 6 foot 3

Weight: 180 pounds

Sport: Basketball

Year: Junior

Coach: Bob Torribio

Favorite food: Enchiladas

Favorite movie: “Caddyshack”

Favorite athletic moment: Helping Newport Harbor boys’ basketball beat rival Corona del Mar in the Battle of the Bay game this season.

Week in review: Barela had 11 points, including the game-winning jumper with 15 seconds to play, as the Sailors beat Los Alamitos 48-47 in their Sunset League finale Feb. 8 to clinch a share of their first Sunset League title since 1979-80.

matthew.szabo@latimes.com

Twitter: @mjszabo