Sometimes, the best components of a football team are brotherhood and belief in each other.
That was the case for Newport Harbor High’s CIF-Southern Section Division 6 championship unit under Coach Jeff Brinkley in 2005.
“I’ll say our team was not the strongest team to ever come through Newport Harbor, and we weren’t the most athletic and we weren’t the most talented, but we had this shared belief and connection and brotherhood, and knew the sum of our parts was greater than any single one,” former Sailors standout Ryan Rippon said last week, with Newport Harbor celebrating the 20-year anniversary of its third CIF title team under Brinkley.
Rippon was the team’s leader on and off the field. As a senior tailback, Rippon was honored as the CIF Division 6 Offensive Player of the Year and the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Most Valuable Player after rushing for 1,681 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games.
Rippon missed the season’s first four games recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, but led Newport Harbor to an improbable championship, culminating with a 28-0 semifinal win over Tustin and 28-21 victory over Valencia in the CIF title game.
Despite missing most of the preseason, Rippon had eight games of 100-plus rushing yards, including a 300-yard output in the Sailors’ triumph over Tustin.
Rippon, the Sea View League Offensive Most Valuable Player, also sparked the Sailors (11-3) to a league championship, along with the Sailors’ first CIF crown since 1999.
But what might have been more impactful were Rippon’s symbolic messages in his pregame team meetings, designed to inspire the troops against certain opponents.
Prior to Newport Harbor’s shutout over Tustin, a team that ran a repetitive ground attack out of the double-wing offense, Rippon, according to Newport senior safety James Coder, told a story of a sculptor who had hammered away 1,000 times at a formless block, before it finally began to break apart on the 1,001st strike.
The lesson portrayed the mission of pounding away at Tustin’s physical play, before the Tillers finally collapsed.
Before kickoff in the CIF championship game against Valencia, Rippon compared the contest to a boxer’s final round in the ring. “For us, our last round was the second half,” Coder said.
Rippon, a single father whose daughter, Velvet, plays soccer and attends Corona del Mar Middle School, has enjoyed a successful career in business as a home designer and builder.
Rippon reflected fondly on his days playing football at Newport Harbor and winning championships, despite the Sailors not being the fastest, strongest or most talented players on the field.
“I try to share this when I go back to talk to newer teams to help motivate them,” Rippon said. “We just felt that we were connected to something bigger as each week went on. Guys, I think, would look up to me. I felt I had a responsibility to believe in them, just like they believed in me. They pushed me and I pushed them. I don’t think I was the nicest guy, but we loved each other, and we still do.”
Rippon, who was also voted to the All-Southern Section team (chosen from all 13 divisions), blasted through holes opened mostly by senior offensive tackle Charles Schultz, who was an All-Southern Section choice.
Along with Rippon and Schultz, other Sailors who earned spots on the All-CIF Division 6 team were Billy Munce, Fernando Lara, Jarret Daniel, Nick Frazier and Mike Calabrese.
Richard Dunn, a longtime sportswriter, writes the Dunn Deal column regularly for The Orange County Register’s weekly, The Coastal Current North.