Eagles starting over

Barry Faulkner

COSTA MESA - Estancia High football coach Dave Perkins could have

burned the video, buried the jerseys and banished all memories of last

fall’s season on the blink.

Instead, the 17-year head coaching veteran seems to have done the

pathology on his debut campaign with the Eagles, disassembling the

components which conspired against success with the notion of

revitalizing a program which has not won a playoff game since 1980.

Injuries, illness and inexperience were the most abundant ingredients of

the calamitous cocktail that poured over the 1998 Eagles like torrential

rain. Perkins could do little to combat any of those.

But he did go about wielding whatever influence he had to ensure no such

debacle would occur in 1999.

Concerned by last year’s lack of conditioning, he placed an off-season

emphasis on strength and fitness, and maintaining that foundation into

fall practice.

To accentuate his players’ experience, he took the team to a full-contact

camp at Fresno State in June, an all-but-unheard-of excursion within the

Orange County ranks.

He almost completely disbanded his nearly all-rookie staff, assembling in

its place a brain trust with nearly as many seasons on the sidelines as

his former colleagues had birthdays.

He pestered on-campus athletes to give football a try and was fortunate

enough to pick up some talented transfers, including the return of the

6-foot-5, 220-pound Valbuena twins, who had left last spring for Fountain

Valley High.

He did, in fact, jettison those nondistinctive red (home) and white

(away) jerseys with Estancia printed across the front, and recently

shipped their replacements off to have the players’ names affixed across

the back.

An altered Pacific Coast League and a shift in CIF Southern Section

playoff divisions (from VI to IX), further fueled the off-season optimism

that continues to flow toward the Sept. 10 season opener.

Perkins, however, isn’t about to jinx his run of good luck.

“We’re going to be a lot better football team,” Perkins said. “But

whether we win more games or not will depend on whether we stay healthy.”

Depth is a justifiable concern, but with seven returning starters on both

sides of the ball, experience is suddenly a definitive plus.

“Our young kids went through it last year,” Perkins said. “We’re a year

older and a year stronger and the attitude is really good.”

The offensive line returns intact, with senior tackles Kyle Westman,

second-team All-PCL last fall, and Josh Veach bookending juniors Cesar

Romero, Tim Valdes and David Rodriguez.

Marshall Hendricks, who started on both sides of the ball at Edison as a

junior, will be the featured ballcarrier in the newly installed wing T.

He was clocked at 4.45 in the 40-yard dash over the summer, according to

Perkins, and is being recruited by some Pac-10 schools, as well as San

Jose State, Nevada and Utah State.

Sean Freeman, who played tailback on the 1996 freshmen team, has returned

to football for his senior season and will start at the other wingback.

Junior quarterback Kenny Valbuena threw for 1,154 yards en route to

second-team all-league honors last fall, but had some catching up to do

after joining the team for the fourth day of practice.

Junior quarterback Jeremy Valdes had earned Perkins’ praise for his work

in the spring and summer, but he will be hard-pressed to keep Valbuena

from continuing his assault on the school’s career passing records.

Receivers John Alderete (nine catches for 146 yards as a junior) and Andy

Romo (six for 88 last fall) headline the receiving corps, which could

also include tight end candidate Danny Valbuena, Kenny’s twin. But

Perkins said the plan is to throw only about 10-15 times per game.

Though Hendricks and Freeman have yet to gain a yard for the Estancia

varsity, they are actually ahead of last year’s returning ballcarriers in

the department. Including 37 quarterback sacks, backfield returners

combined for o7 minus-96 yardsf7 on the ground.

Fullbacks Matt Mueller (39 carries for 111 yards last fall) and Fahad

Jahid (15 for minus-2) will attempt to keep defenses honest.

“The basic idea of the wing T is to attack the middle and the flanks with

three or four ballcarriers,” Perkins said. “There’s a lot of

misdirection, but you have to establish the midline dive play.”

The Eagles’ offense must overcome the loss of Newport-Mesa District and

PCL MVP Manu Tanielu, who produced more than 1,800 all-purpose yards and

scored 75% of the team’s touchdowns.

Perkins, however, has said Hendricks has a chance to be better than

Tanielu, whom he termed the best player he’d ever coached.

Mueller is the only returner to have scored a touchdown (one) for a team

which posted the fifth-fewest points (114) in the county.The Eagles have

committed to playing their best personnel on defense, where they have

installed the flex scheme employed by CIF Division VI champion Woodbridge

last fall.

Defensive Coordinator Bob Brockie, a 25-year coaching veteran who worked

previously with Perkins at San Bernardino and Corona, also figures to

help improve a unit which was scorched for 318 points last year. Only

three county schools allowed more.

“Teams seem to have a difficult time figuring out how to block this

defense,” Perkins said of alignment, which may include as many as five

linebackers. “And I really like our team speed on defense.”

The reconfigured PCL -- Laguna Hills and Aliso Niguel left for the Sea

View League, which sent Corona del Mar in return -- will award three

guaranteed playoff berths among five teams (Irvine-based Northwood opens

this year and won’t have a varsity squad until at least 2000).

“I think the kids sense their opportunity,” Perkins said of pursuing the

school’s second postseason bid in the 1990s, its first since 1995.

“Making the playoffs is our primary goal.”