Prep column: The clock is ticking

Barry Faulkner

There are no holdouts in high school football. For this, coaches,

fans, sportswriters and even some players are thankful. But even the most

enthusiastic participant is likely to spend the next two days, this final

weekend of freedom, with a festering knot in the pit of his stomach.

It is now hours -- less than 48 for those smart enough to have seized

the suddenly fleeting opportunity to ignore today’s alarm clock -- before

fall football practice will commence.

Come Monday, the blessings of exhaustion, muscle aches and mental

fatigue will replace the sweet summer pleasures of sleeping in, hanging

out and generally taking life at one’s own pace.

Soon, that pace will be controlled by a shrieking whistle or blaring

blow horn, which, per precisely prepared practice plans, carves the

misery into frenetic fractions, the sum of which is predictable pain.

That the passageway to Friday night lights is illuminated by days of

scorching late-summer sunshine, merely amplifies the rewards the game

often gives those who display the will to endure.

But for coaches, the final days of the designated three-week “dead

period,” bring anticipation lacking such ambiguity.

“Once I get back from vacation, I’m ready to go,” Corona del Mar Coach

Dick Freeman said. “Just the fact that games are on TV this time of year

gets me excited. It’s not like I’m going to sit through an entire NFL

preseason game, but just to be able to watch a little football on TV

helps get me ready. And, I actually have something to read about on the

sports page.”

Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley, who believes he is as excited

about this year as any other in his 23-year head-coaching career, said

attempts to cleanse football from his mind the last three weeks have

largely been unsuccessful.

“You try to relax as much as you can, but I don’t know how relaxing it

is,” Brinkley said. “You’re still anticipating what’s coming up and

there’s always something to do. I like to read a lot of journals and talk

to people about football. Looking for ways to improve is a never-ending

process and, like I tell our players, you need to be on the prowl for

knowledge.”

First-year Estancia High Coach Jay Noonan, who got the job after

spring practice was completed, said the summer has been an endless and

energetic procession toward Monday’s debut.

“I’m just as enthusiastic now as the day I first got the job,” Noonan

said. “I didn’t get out to the beach as much as I like to and I haven’t

taken much time to hang out with my family in Lake Tahoe. But I can’t

wait to hit the field.”

The Corona del Mar coaches did indeed get away for some of their final

few days before practice, but it was not away from football. The staff

repaired to a home near Lake Arrowhead for some concentrated strategic

planning for the upcoming season.

“A lot of times you have distractions at the (campus) office,” Freeman

said. “And, if I ask our guys to meet for three days, six hours a day,

before practice starts, they would look at me a little funny. This way,

we get away from all the distractions and have two eight-hour days

(Friday and today) to get it all done.”

More preseason news involves Newport Harbor High senior offensive

tackle Robert Chai, who was recognized in SuperPrep magazine as the No.

60 college prospect among players from California, Arizona, Nevada,

Oregon, Washington and Hawaii in its Aug. 5 edition.

The 6-foot-4, 270-pound Chai, who earned All-CIF Southern Section,

All-Newport-Mesa District and All-Sea View League recognition for helping

the Sailors reach the CIF Division VI title game last fall, is being

heavily recruited and has already fielded scholarship offers.

Cal and Washington State have made scholarship offers, according to

Brinkley, while Chai said Nebraska, LSU, and Wisconsin are all in the

picture.

Chai said he is leaning toward Cal and he could commit before the end

of the upcoming season.

SuperPrep, for which Newport Harbor alumnus Allen Wallace is the

publisher, also mentioned Harbor senior receiver-cornerback Brian Gaeta

is garnering recruiting interest from a handful of Pac-10 schools.

Included in the SuperPrep prospects from its Far West region (the

aforementioned six states), is Marina High fullback-linebacker Adam

Hayward at No. 48. Listed at 6-0, 200 pounds, Hayward will lead the

Vikings into a Week 2 nonleague game against Newport Harbor, Sept. 13 at

Westminster High.