Whitaker finds home

A month away from his comeback in football, Cedric Whitaker worked out at Newport Harbor High and searched for a team to suit up for in his junior year.

The next school was going to be his third in as many years and his first playing football for in high school.

Whitaker said he moved to Newport Beach in July to live with Paul Simpson, a cousin. Simpson offered the teenager something Whitaker said he lost hope in while living in San Francisco.

Whitaker wanted to run with the football again.

A fractured collarbone Whitaker suffered playing Pop Warner forced him to sit out his first year of high school at Lincoln of San Francisco. When he transferred to a school in Emeryville, Whitaker sat out his sophomore year for another reason.

“It wasn’t like a football school,” Whitaker said. “I was just like, ‘Man, whatever.’ But I really wanted to play football.”

The last time Whitaker had competed in an organized football game was as an eighth-grader. For another chance to play, Whitaker decided moving 426 miles away from his parents might be his best.

“He was just telling me there’s more opportunity down here,” Whitaker said of his cousin. “He said, ‘Just come down here and be a part of something that’s good and try to be successful in what you do, whatever you want to do.’ ”

Whitaker arrived to a beach town almost as crazy about its high school football program as surfing. Whitaker had no idea of the team’s reputation when he said he trained by himself at Newport Harbor.

All he saw was an empty stadium and a chance for the 5-foot-8, 170-pounder to get in shape.

The school near Simpson’s house wasn’t Whitaker’s first choice.

“I was going to go to Orange Lutheran,” said Whitaker, enticed by the program’s rich tradition, 11 straight league championships since 1998. “I toured the school. It was nice. It felt good.”

The feeling wasn’t good enough to lure Whitaker to the private school.

Whitaker returned to the school where he said he ran up the steps in the stadium’s stands on a daily basis since arriving in Newport Beach.

While working out at Davidson Field before the start of school, Whitaker made a decision on his future.

“I just looked at the school,” Whitaker said. “I was like, ‘This would be a nice school to go to. I’m going to come to this school.’ ”

Coach Jeff Brinkley is glad Whitaker is at Newport Harbor.

For a player who never carried the ball in high school until this year, Whitaker has been a game-changer at running back for the Sailors.

After last week’s 138-yard rushing performance in Newport Harbor’s 49-0 victory against Marina, Whitaker is 84 yards shy of 1,000 on the ground for the season.

Whitaker has eight rushing touchdowns, he has caught two touchdown passes, and has scored on a 94-yard kickoff return and 72-yard fumble return.

With Whitaker’s speed and elusiveness, the Sailors are in contention for a runner-up finish in the Sunset League and a berth in the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division playoffs.

Some things have to fall in place tonight for Newport Harbor (5-4, 2-2 in league) to achieve both. The Sailors travel to play Esperanza (4-5, 1-3) at Valencia High in a regular-season finale starting at 7.

In order to prevail, Whitaker knows he’ll have to be effective. He’s averaging seven yards per carry, a lot of it stems from his ability to dodge would-be tacklers and the push up front by the offensive line.

Some of those linemen, left tackle Jake Taylor, left guard Brandon Coffey and right guard Jake Palanjian, Whitaker said reached out to him when he joined the team in August. In their senior years, they’re counting on the junior to deliver.

“They do not want to lose … because of last year,” said Whitaker, referring to how the Sailors missed the playoffs because they were eliminated in a random tiebreaker process after Newport Harbor finished tied for the Sunset League title with four other schools.

Whether the Sailors make the playoffs for the first time since 2007, Whitaker plans to make Newport Beach his home in his senior year.

“Next year I will be playing again for this school,” Whitaker said. “I’ve only been here for like four months, but it seems like I’m already [part] of a family.”