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Bravehearts

Barry Faulkner

This isn’t your father’s kickoff team.

Contrary to the days when kick coverage units were assembled by

psychological profiles as much as athletic ability, strategy has

overtaken special teams in the 21st Century.

So it is that Newport Harbor High football coach Jeff Brinkley can

reel off the finer points of each player’s responsibility when it

comes to containing opposing return efforts.

As coaches will openly admit, however, such scheming and chalk

board diagrams often come apart under the force of a closely aligned

blocking wedge, unless the players carrying out the orders are as

determined and as they are well-drilled.

The Sailors’ kickoff coverage team showed both sophistication and

savagery on seven of its eight assignments during Thursday’s 49-12

noleague victory over visiting Paramount.

Seven times the Tars tackled a Pirate returner inside their own

30-yard line, including stops at the 27 (twice), 25, 21, 20 (twice)

and 19. Newport’s other kickoff rolled out of bounds, allowing

Paramount, by rule, to start at its own 35.

With Bryce Sawyer, Taylor Young, Thomas Martin, Greg Miner, kicker

Brian Campos, Ben Soza, Jimmy Sanchez, Warren Junowich, Matt

Encinias, Fernando Castorena and Mike Toole on the case, Paramount

averaged just 12 yards per return, for an average starting position

just inside the 23.

“Our goal is to tackle them inside the 20,” Brinkley said, “but

that kind of depends on how deep your kicker kicks the ball. This

year, if we keep them inside the 25, we’re happy.”

Campos’ kicks, directed by coaches’ instructions to land between

the left hash mark and the sideline, carried, on average, just inside

the Paramount 11.

Three times the Harbor coverage squad held the returner to 10

yards or less, including a low of 8 yards.

Sawyer, a starting cornerback, as well as Young, Martin and Miner,

all backup linebackers, line up to Campos’ left and are in Newport

terminology “vice” guys.

“They’re all right-shoulder guys, meaning we want them to take

everything on (blockers and returners) with their right shoulder (the

one away from the sideline),” Brinkley said.

Soza, who lines up directly to the right of Campos, is the “hash

contain” man. Sanchez, a starting outside linebacker who lines up to

Soza’s right, is the “plugger” and Junowich, a starting safety, is

the “force” guy, charged with turning the ball carrier back toward

the vice squad, should he break hash containment.

Encinias, another starting outside linebacker, is the “knife”

trusted with slicing directly to the ball carrier. Castorena, the

starting middle linebacker, is another plugger and Toole, a starting

receiver who lines up on the far right, is the “feather contain,” who

must keep the ball carrier inside him at all times.

“It takes discipline,” Brinkley said. “Everyone has a role, so

it’s not just a free-for-all.”

In addition to kicking, Campos, who plays receiver and cornerback,

isn’t afraid to stick his nose in the play. He made at least one

tackle on a return Thursday. Brinkley also said Campos is becoming

more consistent with the difficult placement between the hash and the

sideline.

Linebackers coach Matt Burns is in charge of the coverage team,

which, like all Newport special teams, gets considerable attention

each week in practice.

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