Whiteside Tars’ bright side

Jeff Brinkley enters his 24th season at Newport Harbor High four wins shy of No. 200.

Despite being close to the milestone, expectations are the same as in years past.

Compete for a league championship. Enter the playoffs. Make a run at the title.

The Sailors accomplished one of the three last season. Their reward for claiming a share of the Sunset League title prevented them from pursuing the other two goals.

Five teams went 3-2 and shared the league crown. Only three advanced to the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division playoffs. Newport Harbor stayed home after a sportswriter randomly picked three schools out of a wooden bucket.

Newport Harbor was not one of the three.

The road back to contending for another league championship will be daunting. The Sailors lost one of their better teams during Brinkley’s tenure.

This year’s squad is young. Four starters return on offense and three on defense.

Newport Harbor arguably has the best player in Orange County in UC Berkeley-bound inside linebacker Cecil Whiteside. Brinkley plans to use the 6-foot-2, 222-pound senior in a variety of positions, wide receiver, running back and kick returner.

As to where the team is before the season, the Sailors are no longer senior-laden.

“We have to get some quick maturity out of our younger guys,” Brinkley said. “They’re going to have to figure varsity football out in a hurry.

“They’ve proved they can play at a lower level, but the game just becomes faster and more complex each level that you go [up].”

Newport Harbor starts the season with a nonleague game at Aliso Niguel on Sept. 11.

Here’s a position-by-position look at the Sailors.

Quarterback: Junior Austin Rios and sophomore Cole Blower are competing for the starting job in which Andrew McDonald excelled last season.

McDonald led the Sailors to a 7-3 record and three straight league victories down the stretch. McDonald threw for 3,207 career yards, ranking him fourth all-time at Newport Harbor.

“We believe in competition and the best guy is going to play,” said Brinkley, who’s confident in either Rios or Blower, even though Rios rarely played last year on varsity and Blower was a lower-level player. “They’re system guys. We run the same [West Coast] system all the way up. By the time you get your chance to be the quarterback, you’re pretty well-schooled in what we’re doing.”

Brinkley said Rios, a 6-3, 175-pounder, holds a slight edge over Blower.

“Mentally, he might,” Brinkley said. “Blower is a little more athletic, a little more [of a] pure athlete.”

Whoever starts, look for the quarterback to throw to Whiteside often and hand him the ball occasionally.

Running backs: Whiteside will see some time in the backfield because Brinkley said he’s the team’s playmaker this year.

Senior Gabe Gomez will start and share carries with junior Drew Diller. The two are different, the 5-11, 194-pound Gomez is more physical and the 6-1, 190-pound Diller is a slasher.

Blocking at fullback will be Ryan Andrews, a 6-1, 224-pound junior. He started last year after Brandon Kula tore his hamstring as a senior.

“It was a really good thing in terms of him getting playing time and experience,” Brinkley said. “Kula would’ve been more talented at fullback. On the bright side of it, it gave Andrews that year of experience.”

Receivers: Whiteside takes over as the top threat after JB Green graduated. Green shared the league’s co-offensive back of the year honor.

Whiteside might wind up with a better season because he’s the No. 1 option. He finished with 33 catches for 429 yards and seven touchdowns last year.

Joining Whiteside at receiver are junior Parker Norton, sophomore Buzzy Yokoyama and junior Kellon Truxton.

“[Yokoyama] is probably the most elusive guy we have,” Brinkley said. “If you give him the ball in open space, he’s probably the toughest guy to bring down.

“All these guys are young, with the exception of Cecil.”

Tight end: Ryan Iverson is the starter and backing up the senior is sophomore Vince Aqueveque.

“He’s going to be a good one someday,” Brinkley said of the 6-foot, 200-pound Aqueveque.

Offensive line: The left side features experience with senior tackle Jake Taylor (6-0, 261) and senior guard Brandon Coffey (6-1, 220).

Sophomore Conner Miki (5-9, 230) is the center.

“He’s a little bit undersized in terms of length,” Brinkley said. “He’s a good center, who has some leverage and good feet.”

Senior Jake Palanjian (5-11, 224) is the right guard and junior Dillon Gillette (6-2, 220) the right tackle.

Defensive line: The line is stacked with senior Zack Moghaddam and junior JB Salem.

“[Moghaddam] is our strongest kid,” Brinkley said. “[Salem’s] got a big upside to him because he played all last year as a 10th grader.”

Gillette and Coffey will see action on the line as well.

Linebackers: Last year’s linebacker group in the 3-4 defense proved to be one of the toughest in the county.

Three of the four graduated after playing a vital role in limiting opponents to 14.4 points per game in league play.

The one player returning is Whiteside, the Newport-Mesa Dream Team Defensive Player of the Year the past two seasons. He moves from outside to inside ’backer.

Whiteside recorded 55 tackles and led the team with six sacks and eight hurries last year.

Andrews starts inside while Iverson and sophomore Grant Frazier are the outside linebackers.

Secondary: The cornerbacks last year turned into two of the finest Brinkley’s coached in a long time. Green and Danny Miller are gone.

Gomez and Norton take their spots.

At free safety, senior Cody Campbell moves up from junior varsity, where he led the team in interceptions. Yokoyama is the strong safety, a new position for the hard-hitting tackler.

Yokoyama played outside linebacker on the lower-level team. This is a big question mark for the Sailors after Michael Helfrich performed well last year at the position.

Special teams: Senior Dillan Freiberg will try to remain perfect kicking extra points.

Freiberg has converted 54 straight extra-point kicks, four shy of tying the county record. He made 38 of 38 last year, and was five for six on field-goal tries.

“He’s the guy who will kick beyond this level,” Brinkley said of Freiberg, who is getting interest from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. “The good selling point for him is whoever gets him gets two for one because he can punt and kick.”

Freiberg averaged 37.8 yards per punt last year and pinned opponents inside their 20-yard line 10 times.

On kick returns, Whiteside is going to get a shot. Gomez will be back there as well, and returning punts is Norton.

The Sailors’ special teams are look strong again. Iverson is the long-snapper.

“He’s probably the best long-snapper I’ve ever had,” Brinkley said.