More than meets the eye

Patrick Laverty

Newport Harbor High’s boys basketball team has just four points

returning from its 74-73 double overtime loss in the first round of

the CIF Southern Section playoffs last season.

But that could be as misleading as any stat all season, because

what is returning will be key to the Sailors’ 2003-04 season.

Newport Harbor gets back two players who missed that game because

of anterior cruciate ligament injuries, 6-foot-8 senior Jamie

Diefenbach and 6-5 junior Brett Perrine, and another player who also

missed the game with a knee injury and was going to concentrate on

baseball this season before reversing course, 6-foot point guard

Andre Pinesett.

Those return of those three players, along with the arrival of 6-6

New Mexico transfer Ricky Green, should provide the groundwork for

Coach Larry Hirst’s ninth season with the Sailors.

Diefenbach and Pinesett, in particular, are being counted on the

be the leaders of the team.

“They’re senior returners,” Hirst said. “We expect senior

leadership. We expect them to be at practice early and to show the

other kids: this is how we play, this is how we practice, this is how

we work in the classroom.”

Diefenbach, who recently signed a letter of intent to play

volleyball at UCLA, missed all of last season after tearing his ACL

in the summer. He came back to play with the Sailors this summer and

is fully healthy, Hirst said.

Pinesett, who averaged 5.9 points last season, wasn’t expected to

return to the basketball team this season and did not play with the

team over the summer, but gives the Sailors experience at the guard

position.

“It was divine intervention I guess,” Hirst said. “I don’t know.

He came back on his own, which is what we wanted. We kind of left him

on his own and let him decide to come back.”

Perrine, who injured his knee against Aliso Niguel in the second

round of league play last season, provides another offensive option

after averaging 3.8 points as a sophomore last year, while Green, a

senior, provides the Sailors with more size inside.

Expected to eventually round out the starting lineup is 6-2 junior

Taylor Young, who along with Alex Orth, joined the team after the

football team was eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Young, who played on the junior varsity team last season, was called

up for the playoffs and scored the four points in the loss to Buena

that are returning this season.

Also expected to contribute heavily this season are 6-1 senior

returner Robert Hunter, a strong three-point shooter that will likely

be the sixth man, Orth, 5-10 junior Rafael Mouradyan and 6-3

sophomore Dennis Heenan.

With good size inside, including four expected starts 6-2 or

taller, Hirst expects a lot of teams to play zone against the

Sailors, Hunter and his three-point shooting can put an end to that.

“We want him to be our zone buster,” Hirst said.

In Sea View League play, Woodbridge, with 6-10 center David

Burgess, who has signed a letter of intent to play at BYU, is the

preseason favorite. But Hirst expects every league game to be a

battle.

“Once we get to league play, all the teams are so well coached,”

Hirst said.

Prior to league play, the Sailors open the season on Tues., Dec. 2

at Loma Linda and have a nonleague game against Corona del Mar on

Dec. 5. They also play in the Bill Reynolds Classic, where they are

the hosts, the Anaheim Convention Center tournament and the Capitol

City Classic in Juno, Alaska.

Those games will allow Hirst to get a good look at his club.

“My biggest concern is defense, that we’re better than we were in

the summer and offense, we get to know each other and learn how to

click with one another on the floor,” Hirst said.

Because of the injuries to Diefenbach and Perrine, the absence of

Pinesett in the summer and the transfer of Green, the Sailors haven’t

played together all that much. But by the time the Sailors make it to

Alaska, Hirst expects the players to be used to one another. With

what they have returning, that shouldn’t come as too much of a

surprise.