Prep column: Big-game week has arrived

Barry Faulkner

It’s league play that begins this week for winter sports teams from

Newport-Mesa District high schools. But, in the case of the Newport

Harbor girls water polo team, Wednesday’s Sea View League opener may as

well encompass the first couple rounds of the CIF Southern Section

Division I playoffs.

“It’s the key to our whole season,” Sailors Co-Coach Bill Barnett said

of the 3 p.m. clash with Irvine High at Heritage Park.

Barnett, as usual, is not prone to exaggeration. Those who question

his assertion, merely need a recent-history refresher.

Two years ago, Newport Harbor defeated the Vaqueros en route to the

league championship. As the Sea View’s No. 1 playoff representative, the

Sailors earned the No. 2 seed. Following the more forgiving playoff path,

the Tars advanced to the finals, where they handled Irvine in a rematch,

9-5, to claim their first section crown.

Last year, a league setback to Irvine gave the Vaqs the No. 2 playoff

seed and cast the Tars back into a pack of uncoddled contenders. The

result was a first-round playoff loss for Harbor and a trip to the

Division I title game for Irvine, which fell to Foothill, 5-2.

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Sports with two rounds of league play, such as basketball and soccer,

render each league game less crucial, particularly the first of eight

(Sea View) or 10 (Pacific Coast League) contests.

But a pair of crosstown showdowns between Costa Mesa and Estancia

stand out among openers today and Wednesday, as games that could be

turning points for the teams involved.

One is Wednesday’s 5 p.m. boys soccer confrontation, for which

Estancia is the home team, but has agreed to play at the new Farm Sports

Complex, adjacent to the Costa Mesa campus.

The Mustangs are coming off their most impressive preleague campaign

in recent memory, including the championship of the Magnolia Tournament.

Estancia, the reigning CIF Division IV and PCL champion, has been

quietly building momentum and appears unready to give up its championship

spoils without a fight.

Another Mesa-Estancia meeting of note is tonight’s girls basketball

clash, 7 p.m. at Estancia.

The Eagles and Mustangs open league slightly behind defending champion

Corona del Mar in the eyes of many prognosticators (myself included). But

tonight’s winner asserts itself as the most worthy early challenger to

the Sea Kings’ throne.

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An added bonus of covering prep competition during Holiday break is

that these contests are frequently attended by former area stars home

from their respective college locales.

One such return visitor is 2000 Newport Harbor graduate Dustin

Illingworth, who, after sharing Sea View and Newport-Mesa MVP honors in

basketball last season, agreed to continue his career at UC San Diego.

Philosophical differences with UCSD’s plodding, orchestrated offensive

system, however, prompted him to leave the team well before the first

game.

Illingworth, who took in the Tars’ nonleague home victory over

Fountain Valley Saturday night, said he is planning to play volleyball

for the Tritons, beginning next season.

The communications major reports he loves the school, enjoys his

fellow students and is even satisfying his basketball bug by playing in

an intramural league.

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Former Estancia High boys basketball standout Sam Nelson, who has, in

past years, been seen attending the Eagles Coast Holiday Classic, was a

little too busy this year to spend much time in his old home gym.

Nelson, a two-time Newport-Mesa District Player of the Year in

basketball and the 1997-98 District Male Co-Athlete of the Year, enrolled

at UCLA the fall of ’98 with plans to play volleyball for the Bruins.

After toiling in the volleyball shadows for two seasons, however,

Nelson decided to try his luck at basketball and made the Bruin squad as

walk on.

Those who caught any of UCLA’s Pac 10-opening wins over Washington and

Washington State over the weekend, saw Nelson, wearing white jersey No.

5, pick up some garbage-time minutes in both games at Pauley Pavilion.