High School Football Player of the Week: Justin McCoy answers the call for Newport Harbor
The ascent of Newport Harbor High running back Justin McCoy plays out like the script of one of those feel-good sports movies many people love.
The lifelong football fanatic playing junior varsity as a sophomore switches from his beloved running back position to free safety out of necessity, no questions asked. He pours everything he has into becoming the best lower-level defensive player he can be, until the varsity starter at running back gets injured, and he’s summoned up to the big leagues as a backup running back.
The upstart kid gets a couple of sweaty-palmed, shaky-handed carries in his first varsity action, but is mostly relegated to the sidelines as a safety valve in the slim chance the stud junior goes down.
Of course the stud junior goes down, and the kid takes over, and thrives, making the most out of his opportunity when his number is called.
Well, that scenario is exactly how the Sailors’ season has played out, and McCoy has filled in valiantly for senior Colin Gregg, who was lost for the season with a knee injury, and junior Jake Keliikoa, who was knocked out of action against Santa Monica on Sept. 14.
McCoy, a sturdy 5-foot-10, 175-pound sophomore, took the reins of the Newport Harbor rushing attack and hasn’t looked back.
His first major varsity action came against Santa Monica when Keliikoa went down with a knee injury in the first offensive series. McCoy stepped in, rushed for more than 100 yards, including the game-winning score with six seconds left to lead the Sailors to a 28-21 win at Santa Monica College.
“It was gnarly,” McCoy said of the game-winning touchdown, which helped the Sailors win their third game, surpassing last year’s win total. “When I got the ball I saw the hole open up and I was just screaming the whole time out of pure excitement. When I scored, the whole sideline was roaring.”
The following week at San Marino, ranked No. 6 in the CIF Southern Section Division 9 poll at the time, McCoy’s number was called again. This time Newport Harbor trailed by seven with 30 seconds left, no timeouts, and 20 yards in front of him to pay dirt.
McCoy was admittedly surprised that offensive coordinator Kevin Emerson dialed up a running play, but he took the exchange from the quarterback, rumbled up the middle, shed a tackle at the six, hurdled through the safety and stretched toward the goal line to help Newport Harbor tie the game at 20-20 with 14 seconds left. The touchdown marked McCoy’s third of the game, and the Sailors came away with a tie, completing nonleague play at 3-1-1.
“I was looking around to see if it was touchdown because the refs were hesitant and they signaled a touchdown,” said McCoy, who finished with 22 carries for 101 yards last week. “I was all hyped up on the sideline.”
Hyped up is the perfect way to describe McCoy’s attitude and his approach to football and life in general.
He walks with a bounce in his step and his chest proudly puffed out. He describes things with an excited tone in his voice and really perks up when he’s shooting the breeze about football and his newfound success.
He’s a smart kid, not just on the football field, but in the classroom as well. He’s a student of the game and he wants to learn and that’s half the battle.
— Peter Lofthouse, Newport Harbor High coach
Those qualities are exactly what Newport Harbor coach Peter Lofthouse was looking for when choosing a player to bring up to varsity.
“He’s a young guy and a good athlete who wanted to get on the field and play on Friday nights,” said Lofthouse, in his first year at the helm of the Sailors. “He’s a smart kid, not just on the football field, but in the classroom as well. He’s a student of the game and he wants to learn and that’s half the battle.”
Outside of getting used to the speed of the players and power of the hits at the varsity level, the trickiest part of the transition for McCoy was learning the intricacies of the offense.
Newport Harbor doesn’t have a traditional playbook that McCoy could dive into and memorize for game night, instead, the Sailors have complex hand signals that they use to relay plays from the sideline to the huddle.
“It was a lot of repetition because we don’t have a playbook,” McCoy said. “A lot of our plays are based on hand signals, so not only do you have to memorize the plays, but you have to memorize the hand signals. I’m still working on the passing plays.”
Lofthouse said that McCoy has put in a ton of extra time, before and after practice, to prepare himself for game day.
“Justin spends extra time with our running back coach in the offense asking questions, writing down plays and making drawings,” Lofthouse said. “He’s spent extra time with Coach Emerson watching film and asking important questions to pick up the running back position. It just speaks to the kind of kid he is.”
The coaching staff isn’t the only group in McCoy’s ear, however. The two players above him on the depth chart, Gregg and Keliikoa, are constantly coaching him up, answering his questions, and correcting his mistakes.
“They give me great tips and I can ask them questions any time I have one,” McCoy said. “I ask them what to do on certain plays, what my responsibilities are, or what reads I should be making on certain runs. They give me great advice.”
“You can tell he wants to be a great football player,” Gregg said. “He asks a lot of questions and I’m always there to answer them because I want him to be the best and I want our team to be the best.”
The Sailors start Sunset League action at home Friday against Huntington Beach (4-1), ranked No. 8 in Division 6. It’s too early to predict how McCoy’s story and Newport Harbor’s season will end, and if the Sailors will be as successful as Gregg believes they can be, but there’s one thing coach Lofthouse made very clear: McCoy is a varsity running back now.
“I’m pretty happy about that,” McCoy said with a smile.
Justin McCoy
Born: Dec. 31, 2002
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5 feet 10
Weight: 175 pounds
Sport: Football
Year: Sophomore
Coach: Peter Lofthouse
Favorite food: Orange chicken
Favorite movie: “Caddyshack”
Favorite athletic moment: Scoring the game-winning touchdown in a 28-21 win against Santa Monica on Sept. 14.
Week in review: McCoy rushed 22 times for 101 yards and three touchdowns, including the game-tying 20-yard score, in a 20-20 tie at San Marino on Sept. 21.
DEVIN UGLAND is a contributor to Times Community News. Follow him on Twitter: @Devin_Ugland
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