Football Players of the Week: CdM O-line paves way

Wednesday is the day the Corona del Mar High offensive line looks forward to each week. After football practice, the linemen head to the same place in Huntington Beach to eat pizza.

The order is the same, six large pizzas for a dozen linemen. Two linemen take on a pizza the same they double-team a defensive lineman. They are relentless, but here the only grabbing that takes place is for slices.

Dennis Wilbanks, the offensive line coach, put together the weekly dinner so his big boys can bond off the field. Feeding linemen isn’t cheap, but Wilbanks said his brother-in-law, Garry Gardner, owns Lamppost Pizza and he gives him a deal.

The latest gathering at the pizza joint is one CdM’s starting offensive line earned the right to order whatever they wanted. Left tackle Mitch Dean, left guard Garrett Cleary, center Arwin Rahmatpanah, right guard Bryan Samudro and right tackle Connor Reid paved the way to CdM amassing 621 offensive yards last week.

The quintet saved its best performance of the year for the first round of the CIF Southern Section Southwest Division playoffs, leading the host Sea Kings to a 42-17 win against Trabuco Hills at Jim Scott Stadium. Facing the team that knocked CdM out in the quarterfinals last year, ruining the Sea Kings’ run at a fourth straight section title, added extra motivation.

“We came out like a bat out of hell,” said Dean, a 6-foot-5, 275-pound senior. “We were completely dominating the whole game.”

What a difference a year made for CdM against Trabuco Hills.

A year ago, after losing at Trabuco Hills, 28-10, a former CdM assistant, Kyle Collins, who coached the Trabuco Hills offensive line, couldn’t believe what had happened to the Sea Kings offensively. The Sea Kings failed to score an offensive touchdown in a game for the first time since losing to Beckman, 24-3, in the semifinals in 2010.

“[Collins] said that last year it wasn’t the same CdM team that he saw in years past,” said Rahmatpanah, a 5-11, 245-pound junior.

In years past, CdM was winning section titles. The Sea Kings appear as though they’re on the path to make a run at their fourth section title in five years.

Coach Dan O’Shea said everything starts with the offensive line, which allowed CdM to record 368 yards on the ground and 253 yards through the air against Trabuco Hills. That type of balanced attack would bode well for No. 3-seeded CdM (9-2), which plays in the quarterfinals at Buena Park (9-2) on Friday at 7 p.m.

The Sea Kings don’t plan to bow out in the quarterfinals for the second straight year.

The program’s strong point last year was its defense. This year CdM is loaded on offense. One offensive player, quarterback Chase Garbers, is having a record-breaking season.

Garbers is always the first to credit the offensive line for making it possible for the junior to produce.

“That’s why we feel so accomplished,” Samudro said of seeing Garbers set CdM single-season records for touchdowns passes (32) and completions (217), and CdM single-game records for touchdown passes (six) and completions (34).

Garbers also rewards the offensive line, in the form of food.

On Thursday nights, Garbers’ parents, Angelique and Grant, feed the linemen, along with the rest of the offense, at their Newport Coast home.

“There’s always a lot of food,” said Cleary, a 6-2, 270-pound senior, adding that Grant barbecues, while Angelique makes the sides.

When they eat, Reid, a 6-4, 270-pound sophomore, said the linemen don’t sit in the order in which they line up on the field. He said they do clear up whatever is put in front of them, though.

Whatever Dean, Cleary, Rahmatpanah, Samudro and Reid have been devouring the past five weeks is working. The Sea Kings are averaging 48.4 points per game during the stretch, and in the past three games, they have punted only once.

The key to sustaining drives is on the T-shirts the linemen wear under their jerseys. Right across the front is the acronym “F.I.S.T.” and it stands for “Five Is Strong Together.”

Working together isn’t easy in CdM’s hurry-up offense.

Offensive coordinator Kevin Hettig wants the Sea Kings to attack the defense quickly. The linemen don’t huddle, so there’s rarely time to rest, but Samudro, a 5-11, 265-pound junior, said the entire group is in shape.

“They are the hardest working group out here,” said Jacob Morado, who is in his first season helping Wilbanks coach the offensive line at CdM.

Morado and Wilbanks go back from their days together 20 years ago, when Morado was a freshman at Edison and Wilbanks was an offensive line coach at the school. They hadn’t crossed paths for some time, until Morado applied for an opening at CdM.

“I didn’t know he was the coach [at CdM] when I came here,” Morado said. “I’ve always known him as Coach Wilbanks, and they said you got to meet the offensive line coach, Coach Dennis. I didn’t put it together until I saw him. He didn’t actually recognize me at first.”

Morado and Wilbanks almost didn’t reunite this year. Wilbanks applied for the Costa Mesa High head-coaching opening, but he decided to pull his name out.

“I just love it too much here,” said Wilbanks, who has been an assistant at CdM for eight years and teaches special education at the school. “I didn’t want to give it up.”

Dean, Cleary, Rahmatpanah, Samudro and Reid are glad Wilbanks stayed.

“If we were to credit one person for all of our skill that person would be Coach Wilbanks,” Rahmatpanah said.