Prep column: Summer reruns
Barry Faulkner
The caps and gowns have returned to their hangers and the summer
session began Monday for those sports that had not already begun working
toward next fall and beyond.
But this prep sportswriter hasn’t quite finished with 2000-01 yet.
There are still some Athlete of the Year honors to be handed out,
including the Daily Pilot’s choices for the top boys and girls athletes
in the Newport-Mesa District.
Beyond that, images created over the last several months remain vivid
in my reflective eye. Here are, in no particular order, a few of things
I’ll remember most about 2000-01.
Newport Harbor High running back Chris Manderino carrying tacklers
like grocery bags.
The typically methodical Corona del Mar High boys basketball team
beating Pacific Coast League co-champion University at its own up-tempo
game.
Costa Mesa High senior catcher Daniel Hunter floating around the bases
after a game-winning walk-off three-run homer to beat Mayfair in the CIF
Southern Section Division IV baseball playoffs.
Estancia High football players failing to contain their tears after
erasing a 20-0 deficit to beat crosstown rival Costa Mesa and retain the
perpetual Bell trophy.
Newport Harbor’s Amber Steen running circles around the competition,
then displaying genuine wide-eyed wonder and humility at the impressive
scope of her accomplishments.
CdM’s girls basketball standout Kristin McCoy competing relentlessly,
all the while maintaining the cheerful expression of a flight attendant.
Mesa boys basketball leader Steve Whittaker expending so much effort
on the floor, Mustangs Coach Bob Serven had to find someone else to, er,
encourage.
Estancia boys basketball coach Chris Sorce getting emotional and
swelling with pride when talking about how his players nearly swept into
the playoffs with a late-season surge.
The Newport Harbor student section rising to its feet as boys
basketball standout Tony Melum headed toward a breakaway dunk.
Paul Orris wiping his brow, kissing his wife, Betsy, and taking a deep
breath before trying to share his wisdom with a reporter after yet
another of his 229 wins.
Costa Mesa diamond rat Carlos Franco “working” the home plate umpire
with equal parts grin and smirk, whether in the batter’s box or the
pitcher’s mound.
Zuyin Barrera languishing on the bench most of the game, due to
illness, then burying the game-winning three-pointer at Costa Mesa to
give the Eagles’ girls basketball team the perpetual Bell trophy.
Gargantuan Newport Harbor linebacker Alan Saenz leveling opposing
running backs before they could sniff the line of scrimmage.
CdM’s supremely talented girls soccer team dominating itscompetition.
Costa Mesa football defenders Louis Day and Alvin Nguyen generating
more destruction with their undersized bodies than anyone that thin or
small has a right to.
Estancia’s Eliasar Maldonado trying without success to convince his
boys basketball teammates he no longer deserved to be their captain,
after an inadvertent collision with an official earned him an ejection
that also required him to miss the Eagles Pacific Coast League opener
against Costa Mesa.
Newport Harbor defensive end Garrett Troncale mauling his way to the
quarterback, even though a damaged ankle relegated him to the use of one
good leg.
CdM’s 5-foot-6, 170-pound running back Blake Hacker making something
out of nothing by willing himself through would-be tacklers.
Costa Mesa ballcarrier Nick Cabico negating a pursuing Saddleback
football defender merely by gesturing to a make-believe blocker with his
index finger. It may be the single best move I’ve seen in a high school
game.
The Estancia baseball team beating crosstown rival Costa Mesa twice in
four days to virtually take the Mustangs out of the PCL title chase.
The Newport Harbor boys volleyball team winning the Orange County
championships, despite the absence of, arguably, their two best players
due to injuries.
CdM’s girls runners being too eager to cheer for their teammates to
worry about whatever residual pain they may be experiencing at the end of
a race.
Costa Mesa’s Mike Payne blossoming from the focal point of the
coaching staff’s ire, into a force at both ends of the court for the
school’s first boys basketball league champions. By the playoffs, he’d
even mixed in a little swagger.
Watching Estancia track and field stars Hanni and Jasmine Geider,
identical twin sisters, sprint side by side to the finish.
Newport Harbor football coach Jeff Brinkley embracing Mike White after
the Tars knocked off top-seeded La Mirada in the CIF Division VI
semifinals.
CdM track and field sensation Julie Allen, unfazed by an 800-meter
qualifying sprint and seemingly endless subsequent cool-down jog around
the infield, darted and dashed during a one-on-one soccer display that
lasted nearly 30 minutes.
Costa Mesa’s Charlie Amburgey, a three-sport performer, generating
wild cheers from student admirers for doing just about anything on the
basketball court or baseball diamond.
Veteran Estancia coaches Art Perry, John Liebengood and Chuck Perry
stepping up to run spring football practice, an act of loyalty for which
there may not be appropriate adjectives.
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