Bravehearts
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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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