Doug Stuckey

Bryce Alderton

Doug Stuckey can finally take a sigh of relief.

After a year in which he got married, attended about 10 weddings

and moved into a new home in Irvine, the former Newport Harbor High

kicker who went on to play at Oregon State University is finally

starting to settle in at his new job as a regional marketing

consultant for a banking chain.

Stuckey, 28, and wife, Molly, celebrated their first wedding

anniversary two weeks ago and will welcome their second canine in

February. The couple, which has a five-month-old yellow Labrador

retriever named “Sunny,” plan on adding a Weimaraner to the mix.

“We are just trying to catch our breaths,” said Stuckey, the

public affairs director for the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce for

five years before leaving last March to take his new position.

“It’s fast paced and I’m learning a tremendous amount in a lot of

different areas,” Stuckey said.

He has also begun to pass on knowledge of a different variety --

that of a kicker.

Last year Stuckey coached two high school kickers on the

techniques of the trade and hopes to spend more time instructing

players this year.

“I like doing it for them,” he said.

Stuckey was a senior on the 1992 Newport team that played in the

CIF Southern Section Division IV championship game against Irvine at

Orange Coast College, Harbor’s first appearance in a CIF title game.

Irvine won, 30-8, but Stuckey -- the Orange County leader with 12

field goals that fall -- still has fond memories of the magical run.

“The game that stands out was when we beat CdM [28-21] in the

semifinals,” Stuckey said. “We were tied going into the last [1 1/2

minutes] and [Newport] was driving down the field. Coach [Jeff]

Brinkley asked me where I would like to kick the ball from. It got to

third down and he told me to go do it. But we ended up breaking the

run open [junior tailback Wade Tift scampers 30 yards] to score a

touchdown. It was so exciting, so intense.

“My senior year made it more special ... to end on a high note,”

Stuckey said. “It was just fun to say I was a part of that team,

which was able to achieve so much. The group of guys had chemistry

and no one expected that much from us.”

Stuckey earned the starting kicking job as a true freshman at

Oregon State and also punted for two years for the Beavers. The

transformation from playing in front of 500 fans in high school to

50,000 in college is an experience Stuckey won’t soon forget.

“I learned it takes a time commitment to [play college sports] and

manage time well to be involved with football and get decent grades,”

he said. “I couldn’t mess around. Getting things done was the key to

succeed.”

Stuckey graduated in four years from Oregon State with a speech

communication degree and began working for then-Assemblywoman Marilyn

Brewer before he was hired by Chamber President Richard Luehrs.

He lived in Costa Mesa for six years before he and Molly moved to

Irvine in October.

Stuckey recently spoke at the funeral of his late grandmother,

Judith Stuckey, who was 101 when she died Jan. 1 of pneumonia.

“It was more of an upbeat type of thing ... a celebration of

life,” Stuckey said. “To get to that age is special.”