NEWPORT HARBOR MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR:Beaudette means business

One more high school athletic event left for Brian Beaudette.

Sure he’s bushed. Senior year is over with at Newport Harbor High, where he excelled at football and wrestling. Next is the Orange County All-Star football game, pitting his South team against the North on July 13 at Orange Coast College.

Practice started a week ago at Santa Margarita High, taking an hour to reach the field because of rush-hour traffic. One hour to return, but that’s not the toughest part of the day for Beaudette.

“I haven’t really done any football-related stuff since football season ended in November, and because of that I’m all sore and my body hurts,” he said, adding that sitting in traffic doesn’t help alleviate the pain much. I’m just getting used to all the pounding again.”

At this time of the year, with summer approaching, no one really wants to dive into piles. The ocean? Yes. But Beaudette, a 6-foot, 259-pounder, he’s loving the collisions. He’s an offensive guard and heavyweight wrestler. What did you expect?

He’s carrying the same grit earning him the Newport Harbor Male Athlete of the Year award to the practice field every day. Someone told him he’s preparing for a showcase game. Beaudette ignored him.

“Yeah, right,” he said. “This is competition.”

Everything is business to Beaudette. How do you think he qualified for the CIF State wrestling championships, making him the first Sailor to advance to the tournament considered one of the top prep state championships in the country since 1998?

By taking short cuts? No way.

When Coach Dominic Bulone first met Beaudette it was in his algebra class and Beaudette was a freshman. Back then Bulone said Beaudette “wasn’t particularly a good athlete.”

What Bulone saw in Beaudette was a competitor.

“Very motivated to win,” he said.

The wins took some time to pile up. Bulone said Beaudette won “maybe like two matches” his first year.

See, it took a while. Then Beaudette followed up a junior year in which he made the Southern Section individual meet for the first time with a stellar senior year.

After what Beaudette said he endured, he had to end his last year on a positive note.

That he did, finishing 32-13, winning the 27th annual New Year Classic at Estancia, his first major tournament victory, finishing second at the Sunset League finals, placing eighth at the Masters Meet, taking the final berth to state and becoming the first wrestler in Bulone’s eight years to reach state.

Everything didn’t look so promising before Beaudette’s senior year.

He tore his meniscus in his right knee. He had arthroscopic surgery to repair it and made it back in time for football in the fall, only to be a part of a team missing the playoffs after winning a CIF Southern Section title the previous season.

Disappointed, despite earning All-Newport-Mesa honors as a lineman. But Beaudette knew he had wrestling within grasp.

Did he ever. Bulone said Beaudette set the tone for how the rest of the Sailors in the wrestling room should practice. Full speed.

That’s the only way Beaudette knows how. Expect the same during his last high school event representing Newport Harbor.

“It’s going to be an intense game because for some of these guys it might be their last football game,” said Beaudette, adding that he’ll try to walk on the Southern Methodist University football team next year. “Dallas here I come.”

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at david.carrillo@latimes.com.