Good, better, best, never let it rest

Rick Devereux

An elementary school grammar saying goes: Good, better, best, never

let them rest until your good is better and your better, best.

While it is used to instill the proper superlatives, it is also

applicable to the work ethic of Newport Harbor High football player

Spencer Link.

Link has been playing on the varsity squad three years, earning

first-team All-Sea View League honors both as a sophomore and junior.

After a junior campaign in which he caught 53 passes for 945 yards

and 13 touchdowns and was named the Newport-Mesa Player of the Year,

Link apparently, as the rhyme suggests, did not want to rest until

his good was better and his better, best.

“I was going to a trainer on the weekends to get my speed up,”

Link said. “I didn’t feel I was fast enough and wanted to have that

extra boost after I caught the ball.”

The summer workouts apparently worked, because in his first game

of the season after sitting out the opening two contests with a

shoulder injury, Link caught six passes for 99 yards, including the

47-yard game winner with 1:07 left, and returned a fourth-quarter

punt 63 yards for a touchdown. His performance helped the Sailors

(3-0) stage a come-from-behind victory over crosstown rival Corona

del Mar and earned him Daily Pilot Athlete of the Week honors.

“Obviously when you have a guy that has been all league for two

years, you know he is a special player,” Coach Jeff Brinkley said.

“[His performance in the Battle of the Bay] exemplified what he’s all

about. He finds ways to make plays at crucial times.”

Link does have a tendency to raise his level of play to meet the

occasion. He earned Athlete of the Week laurels following a

two-touchdown performance against Corona in last year’s Battle of the

Bay. Link said he was relaxed heading into Thursday’s contest despite

seeing his first action of the season.

“Before the game, didn’t think anything of it,” Link said “I

wasn’t nervous. But once you get out there and see all the people in

the stands, I started thinking about it. The Battle of the Bay has so

much hype around it, and there were, like, 7,000 people there. That’s

a lot of people. Not to mention a lot of the people you know from

around the community.”

Link said he was trying hard to make a big play, which resulted in

some mistakes that he would like to forget.

“When I caught the hitch and fumbled (in the second quarter), I

was trying to do too much,” Link said. “When I dropped that fourth

down pass (in the fourth quarter), I didn’t want to go to school and

I didn’t want to go (injured captain) Trevor (Theriot) and tell him

what I had done.”

That dropped pass gave CdM the ball with 5:41 left and holding

onto a 17-7 lead. The Newport defense only allowed five yards on the

ensuing drive, forcing a punt.

The Sea Kings kicked away from Link the whole game, but this one

went right to him. The senior dodged a few would-be tacklers, then

sprinted 63 yards for a touchdown to make it a, 17-14, game.

“That brought us back, but I wasn’t done yet,” he said.

Following another defensive stand, the Sailors got the ball back

on their own 35 with 1:45 remaining. Link caught a 15-yard out

pattern for a first down and stopped the clocked by heading out of

bounds. Following a 21-yard catch by James Coder, quarterback Kasey

Peters called an X-in Post, the same play Peters and Link used for a

58-yard touchdown the year before. Although the yardage was different

(47 yards), the result was the same: a Newport Harbor touchdown.

“Kasey, if it wasn’t for that kid calling that play, it wouldn’t

have happened,” Link said. “Kasey called it at the right time. He was

poised enough to make it happen.”

For a player who doesn’t let it rest until his good is better and

his better, best, Link will hard pressed to improve on his

performance from the Battle of the Bay.