Tars itching to start

NEWPORT BEACH — In the background, a siren went off as the Newport Harbor High football program rehearsed.

No one was in trouble.

No ambulance roared by.

Two men worked on the scoreboard near the practice field.

Jeff Brinkley stood at the other end. Brinkley, in his 23rd year as the head coach, looked healthy.

He just wasn’t satisfied with the Sailors two days before opening the season.

“Today wasn’t really good,” Brinkley said. “I didn’t like our focus today too much in practice. The way we usually practice [is focused], and that’s why I think it’s time to play a game.”

Newport Harbor gets its chance tonight at 7 in front of the home crowd at Davidson Field. The Sailors play Aliso Niguel, a school Brinkley is more than familiar with.

He nods his head, almost as many times as the two teams have faced each other the last 10 years.

This will be the 10th meeting during that time. As for which has been the most memorable one for Brinkley, that goes back to last year’s opener.

He didn’t even stick around to see the Sailors win, 16-3. At halftime, an ambulance took him away. An irregular heartbeat forced him to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.

In this opener, Brinkley plans to be on the sideline for four quarters.

The Sailors probably won’t need him against a team that won just one game in 2007.

Newport Harbor comes into the game ranked No. 39 in the CalHiSports.com state preseason poll.

The only advantage the Wolverines have is they opened the season in Week Zero. They enter Week 1 searching for a win after losing at home, 30-14, to Charter Oak of Covina.

Aliso Niguel set itself up with a robust early nonleague schedule. Charter Oak, Newport Harbor, Fountain Valley and Trabuco Hills are teams combining to go 35-13-1 last season.

The Sailors’ true test will come next week against the state’s No. 2-ranked team in Long Beach Poly at Veterans Stadium.

Last year, the Jackrabbits won at Newport Harbor, 34-7, en route to claiming the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division title, their 17th section overall crown.

To Brinkley that Long Beach Poly game isn’t the one Newport Harbor is looking forward to. Not yet.

“It’s always been our philosophy [to] play it one at a time,” said Brinkley, whose team last lost to Aliso Niguel in 2005, the same year Newport Harbor went on to win the CIF Southern Section Division VI championship. “We got to get them on the field.”

Brinkley can’t wait to let the Sailors loose so they can hit someone other than themselves.

They’re tired of each other. The defense gets a perfect target: an Aliso Niguel offense that averaged 7.1 points per game last year.

The Wolverines will find it hard to move the ball against Newport Harbor’s new 3-4 defense. Linebackers Cecil Whiteside and Brandon Kula hit lights out and Brinkley feels its time to turn them on.

“I think we’re kind of at that [boiling] point,” said Brinkley, who will try to win his sixth straight opener. “That’s why I schedule [a] Thursday [game], so we’re already ready to play by the time Thursday comes.”

For the Sailors, the siren has long been blaring.

DAVID CARRILLO PEÑALOZA may be reached at (714) 966-4612 or at [email protected].