Kinder born to be a Sailor
Cole Kinder’s grandparents have been going to Newport Harbor High home football games long before he was born. Al and Doramary Bartolic have seen a lot of Sailor football in the last five decades.
This year, Kinder’s grandma and grandpa have to travel to watch the Sailors play a home game. The site of the home contests have changed because of construction to Davidson Field, but what has not is where the Bartolics sit for the game. They tend to be some of the first fans to arrive, securing their spots in the stands to overlook the 50-yard line more than an hour before kickoff.
Last week was no different. The affair was an important one, the opener to Kinder’s senior year, and it took place at Orange Coast College. His grandparents showed up before Kinder’s parents, Tom and Erin.
“They’re always there before I get there,” Erin said of her parents, adding that Al and Doramary began coming to Sailors games in 1975, when their son, Tony, played football, and when Erin started cheerleading at the school, they came to watch her perform. “It’s a great family function.”
Kinder was born around the start of the football season 18 years ago. Erin said she introduced Kinder to the Sailors when he was a couple of weeks old.
She doesn’t remember who the Sailors played that night or whether they won the game. Whenever she wants to reminisce, Erin turns to a photo of Kinder at the game, all covered up in his car seat, while his cousins looked at the newborn.
Take one look now at Kinder, who at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds is no longer a baby. At that size, he plays running back. He’s a load to bring down, and in the open field, he’s tough to catch.
Kinder is the Bartolics’ seventh grandchild to go to Newport Harbor and he put on quite a show last week.
Kinder produced four touchdowns, three rushing and one on special teams, in the Sailors’ 47-26 win against Pacifica. He had 21 carries for 152 yards, scoring on runs of 45, 40 and five yards, and the other score was an 85-yard kickoff return.
The return, coming on the opening kickoff to the second half, ignited the Sailors. Kinder broke a 14-14 tie, and Newport Harbor outscored Pacifica, 33-12, in the second half.
The final two quarters also saw Kinder rush eight times for 107 yards. Most of the success came running behind the left side of the offensive line, which featured tackle Mike Jarboe.
Seeing Kinder run on the field next to Jarboe, the two look about the same size, and Jarboe is 6-3 and 285 pounds. Kinder is big enough to play on the offensive line.
“And I can play running back,” Jarboe said with a grin.
Kinder and Jarboe were both beaming a couple of days before Newport Harbor’s next game. The Sailors played Pico Rivera El Rancho at Jim Scott Stadium on Thursday, and the last time Kinder faced the Dons, he went into the Newport Harbor record book.
A year ago at El Rancho, Kinder totaled 304 yards on the ground. The yards rank No. 3 in Newport Harbor’s single-game rushing performances. He was seven yards away from eclipsing the school’s top mark.
Jeff Brinkley, in his 31st year at the helm of the Sailors, has had quality running backs in the past. One of those is Dartangan Johnson, whom the Sailors have listed with 3,451 rushing yards, the best in the program’s history.
Kinder is 1,111 yards away from overtaking the No. 1 spot for career rushing yards at Newport Harbor. The question is what level of football Kinder will get to play in college. Johnson went to Santa Ana College after he graduated from high school in 2003. Kinder said he has four Ivy League schools seriously interested in his services.
“He’s one of those guys that [are] on top of the academics,” said Brinkley of Kinder, adding that Kinder’s versatility makes him one of the top running backs in Orange County. “He’s going to have options.”
Two days after the Sailors’ second game of the year, Kinder hopes those options become clearer.
On Saturday, Kinder said he’s taking the ACT. The score Kinder is aiming to get on the college-entrance exam is a 30 or better.
“If I do well on that, I should have an offer from one of those schools,” said Kinder, referring to Harvard, Columbia, Yale and Brown. “I’ve taken it two times now. [My score has] not [been] high enough.”
The grades are there for Kinder, who said he earned a 4.7 weighted grade-point average last spring semester.
The only number lower than that for Kinder is his 40-yard dash time of 4.52 seconds he ran in June. The speed is that of a college running back, and Army is following Kinder as well, but Kinder said schools like Fresno State and Utah are looking at him more as a linebacker.
The Kinder who plays defense in college is Kinder’s older brother. Adam is a senior defensive end at the University of Wyoming. The school is also where Kinder’s dad played football and where Kinder’s parents met 30 years ago.
Last weekend, the Kinder family went back to Laramie, Wyo., for the Cowboys’ opener with Northern Illinois. Erin said lightning in the area delayed Saturday’s kickoff almost two hours.
“I was able to catch up on summer homework,” said Kinder, who stayed in the hotel room before getting the OK to come out.
It was probably a good thing that Kinder’s grandparents didn’t come to this game.
“It was a late game,” Erin said. “Officially it was supposed to start at [8:30 p.m. Mountain Time]. It finally started [at 10:20 p.m.]. It didn’t get done until [2:34] in the morning. It had three overtimes [and Wyoming pulled out a 40-34 win].”
Cole Kinder
Born:
Aug. 23, 1998
Hometown:
Newport Beach
Height:
6 feet 2
Weight:
210 pounds
Sport:
Football
Year:
Senior
Coach:
Jeff Brinkley
Favorite food:
Steak
Favorite movie:
“Undercover Brother”
Favorite athletic moment:
“I scored three touchdowns in less than a minute [for the Costa Mesa Pop Warner Junior Pee Wee Silver team] seven years ago.”
Week in review:
Kinder rushed 21 times for 152 yards and three touchdowns, and he returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown in the Sailors’ 47-26 win against Pacifica at Orange Coast College.
