Sailors rumbled in 1983

All-Orange County tailback Steve Brazas and two-way lineman Brett

Kacura were returning for their senior season in 1983 for the Newport

Harbor High Sailors in Sea View League football under the guidance of

Coach Mike Giddings.

So were linemen Mike Beech, Tom Kitchens, Frank Roa, Pat Williams

and Steve Moses, tight end Joey James, wideout Rich Power,

quarterback Bruce Goodfield, fullback Fritz Howser, linebackers John

Stockham and Mark Parry, as well as Long and Ho Truong in the

secondary.

And, surfacing would be linebacker-center Chris Parks and

linebacker Andy Stoneman, defensive back John Spangler, place-kicker

Sterling Coberly, Gary Cunningham, Scott Huntley and Jerry

Piaskowski.

So there wasn’t much doubt in the minds of the Sailors, after

posting a 7-5 record in ‘82, that nothing less than a league

championship would do.

“This team could have won it all,” Giddings mused during a recent

interview with the Murrieta resident as we talked about his memorable

four-year tour as a walk-on coach with the Sailors. “And the next

team (1984) could have won it all, too.”

The Sailors would hold seven foes to less than a touchdown,

blanking five of them in 1983.

Offensively, it was all Brazas as the All-CIF back scored 13

touchdowns over a span of four league games en route to the finale

against Back Bay rival Corona del Mar.

It began with a powerful foe in Santa Ana where Tom Meiss was in

command of the Saints, and Giddings remembered it as a “heckuva

game.” It was tied after three quarters, 15-15, and ended 22-22.

Santa Ana ran up 316 yards on the ground and it triggered some

changes in the Sailors’ game, mainly in terms of “two-platooning.” A

number of standouts would now be required to go both ways.

Assistant Coach Bucko Shaw would be instrumental in the next

nonleague start, a 37-0 thrashing of Don Lent’s Cypress eleven.

Lent was Newport Harbor’s coach in 1971-73 and Bucko, one of his

players, did not forget Lent’s tendencies.

“Bucko had all the answers,” Giddings said with a big grin.

The Tars ran into Sunset League power Huntington Beach the

following week and they could not stop the Oilers, losing, 35-14. A

lot of people could not stop the Oilers that year, as Huntington had

one of the most electrifying backs in Orange County history on its

side, UCLA-bound Danny Thompson.

Brazas was held to 50 yards on 15 carries and caught three passes

for 23 yards.

Sea View League play began with University High and it would take

a memorable pass play from Goodfield to Power in the second half to

break away from a 6-3 lead. The touchdown pass was the key to a 14-3

victory over the Trojans.

“We called it ‘Rocket 599,’ ” Giddings said. “It was a motion pass

with an option to a curl or post to the splilt end. Goodfield, you

know, was underrated. He was a smart kid. He really turned us around

in ’81 and ’82. His record with me was probably 24-4.”

The turning point for the Sailors finally came about against

Irvine in Game 2 of league play as everything fell into place at the

expense of the Vaqueros, 52-0.

“They had a funny defense,” Gilddings recalled, “with a lot of

little guys. So we ran two tight ends and, at times, we had no wide

receiver in the game at all.”

The Tars led at halftime, 35-0. Brazas chalked up 287 yards on 22

carries and scored four touchdowns.

Estancia was next and it was 28-0 at halftime, with Brazas rushing

for 230 yards on 27 carries, again scoring four touchdowns.

Harbor won it, 42-27, with a lot of reserves getting in more time

than usual in the second half.

Dangerous Saddleback was next, but there was no stopping the Tars’

ground game as Brazas ran for 290 yards and scored three more

touchdowns in a 21-0 victory.

Costa Mesa followed and it was business as usual as the Sailors

rolled to a 24-0 halftime lead. Brazas ran for 147 yards on 20

carries and two TDs and they closed it out with a 33-0 victory.

The pounding on Brazas and Howser, Newport’s one-two running

punch, had taken its toll on the Sailors as the El Toro game

approached and Giddings decided to hold both of them out of the game

in preparation for an anticipated showdown with Corona del Mar for

the title.

“It was a lousy game and a big letdown,” Giddings said of a 28-7

loss to the Chargers. “[Brazas and Howser] could have played, but I

wanted to save them for CdM.”

It was probably for the best. The Sailors would need all the help

they could get the following week en route to a 7-3 victory over

Corona del Mar to clinch the league championship.

Both teams were 5-1 in league going in. Dave Holland’s Sea Kings

were especially impressive early, defeating Huntington Beach in the

season opener, 10-3, Capistrano Valley, 28-26, and El Toro, 20-0, en

route to seven straight victories.

For the seniors, it was very much like Newport’s narrow victory

over CdM in the 1981 sophomore game.

“It was a hittin’ game, I remember that,” said Giddings, who

watched his team hold on to a 7-3 halftime lead to secure the win.

Corona del Mar lost four fumbles.

So the Tars reigned as league champions, the first time in a

decade, and Garden Grove would furnish the opposition in the first

round of the CIF Central Conference playoffs.

The Sailors won, 20-0, but they paid a big price. Brazas was taken

to the hospital with an ankle injury, which proved to be big the next

week, when the Valencia Tigers eliminated the Sailors, 17-13.

Giddings still believes with earnest his Sailors won that game

with a touchdown pass to Power, but the official (Laird Hayes) ruled

the play dead at the 1-yard line. A year earlier it was Fullerton

sending Harbor home with an identical 17-13 loss in the second round

of the playoffs.

All that was left was the postseason banquet, a time when the

coach would get in his last two cents. Giddings was not a stranger to

the podium. He would later introduce San Francisco 49er Dave Wilcox

at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Hall of Fame induction ceremonies.

But when he was supposed to introduce Roa at the Sailors’ banquet,

he uncharacteristically fumbled for words.

“Frank,” he asked, “have we ever talked?” The big, valued lineman

responded: “I was too scared to talk to you.”

Giddings, whose tirades sometimes bordered on legendary, thought

back and realized, “I never even chewed him out!”

Giddings’ first two seasons had produced a league championship and

two appearances in the second round of the CIF playoffs, three

All-CIF players (David Cadigan in 1982 and Brazas and Kacura in

1983), and 15 victories.

Brazas would go on to Illinois, but his absence was hardly

noticed. A year later Giddings’ Tars were 9-2-1.

Brazas was the Big Ten’s leading kickoff returner as a freshman in

1984, but that proved to be his only season with the Illini.

“There was no purer football player out of Newport Harbor than

Brazas,” Giddings, 71, said. “As a sophomore, with the wind behind

him, he punted 80 yards to get us out of hole in a game we won,

30-28.

“I hadn’t seen him for years, but they had a surprise birthday

party for me last year, and who walked in but Brazas. He has been in

Texas for a long time with his wife and two children.”

* ROGER CARLSON is the former sports editor for the Daily Pilot.

He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].