High Schools:

Corona del Mar High boys’ soccer coach George Larsen hoped for showers this week. The rain has come at a good time for the injured Sea Kings.

The team ranked No. 7 in the nation by ESPN RISE is trying to get healthy after dropping its first match of the season Friday, a 1-0 loss in double overtime at home to defending Pacific Coast League champion University. If the rain continues, CdM (12-1-1, 1-1-1 in league) might have to cancel its league match at San Juan Hills Wednesday and the one at home against Beckman Friday due to poor field conditions.

“We’re hoping for a little rain to give us a week of rest,” said Larsen, whose team played without UCLA-bound senior striker Reed Williams for the fifth straight game because of a right hamstring injury and saw midfielders Brian Ford (ankle) and Chris Burke (Achilles) go down with injuries against University.

“Reed, obviously being a competitor, wanted to [play], but his leg’s not quite ready. I’m not going to risk a kid’s health either for the sake of a soccer game.”

 The Costa Mesa boys’ basketball team is back to its losing ways.

Twenty games into the season, Costa Mesa has only two wins. The record is a major setback to the success last season, when the Mustangs earned the Orange Coast League’s No. 2 entry into the CIF Southern Section Division IV-A playoffs.

Coach Bryan Rice turned the program around in his first year last season. The team improved nine games in the win column after just winning once during the 2007-08 season, which turned out to be the school’s worst season.

The Mustangs aren’t playing much better than that season.

“Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect [this season],” said Rice, who lost eight players to graduation, including guard Mikey Molina, a Daily Pilot Newport-Mesa Dream Team selection. “I thought we’d be a little better record-wise.

“The last time we won was around Christmas.”

The Mustangs haven’t received any gifts in league. Laguna Beach, Godinez and Calvary Chapel have each beaten Costa Mesa, the first two teams by double digits.

Costa Mesa has one more game left before heading into the second half of league play. The contest will be an intense one as is always the case when Costa Mesa and Estancia meet during the Battle for the Bell.

The Mustangs are at Estancia (1-1 in league) Friday at 7 p.m. Last season, Costa Mesa defeated the Eagles twice in three games.

“Making the playoffs is still the goal of ours,” said Rice, whose team has to finish in the top three in league to claim one of the automatic berths into the postseason. “We are at the bottom, but teams are beating each other that we didn’t expect to beat each other.”

The Mustangs want to pull off the unexpected and that’s winning again.

 Depending on the recruiting site, Newport Harbor linebacker Cecil Whiteside is the 38th best high school football senior in the country or No. 116.

Rivals.com rates the Dream Team Player of the Year higher than ESPNU. Whiteside said he expects to sign a letter of intent with UC Berkeley on Feb. 4, which is National Signing Day.

 The Corona del Mar baseball program has Ty Harper coaching its frosh-soph team. He’s just not any former player returning to his roots.

“He was one of the most intense competitors that we have ever had,” said John Emme, the varsity skipper, who coached Harper during the Sea Kings’ 1999 CIF Southern Section Division IV championship season. “He knows the game inside and out.”

Harper takes over for John Elliott, who coached on the lower level for 13 seasons. Emme said Elliott decided to step down after he moved his business to south Orange County and his work schedule conflicted with coaching at CdM.

“One of the things with John Elliott, it’s hard to find a freshman coach with the great baseball knowledge that he had,” Emme said. “With Ty, we’re not going to miss a beat.”

Harper, who shared the CIF Southern Section Division IV Player of the Year award in 1999, played at Golden West College, then transferred to the University of Alabama before finishing his college career at Pepperdine.

Joining Harper on the staff is Taylor Alston, a 2005 CdM graduate and Dream Team pick.

 Coach Larry Hirst is coaching again at Newport Harbor and the boys’ basketball team is winning again in the Sunset League.

The Sailors have started league play at 2-1, a huge improvement after going winless in league last season. Newport Harbor is trying to return to the postseason after missing it last season, while Hirst was on sabbatical.

Under Hirst, the Sailors qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs 12 straight seasons.