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.