TV game might leave a mark

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Met Newport Harbor‘s principal, Michael Vossen, on Friday at halftime of the Sailors’ 34-7 loss to Long Beach Poly. He kept calling me Mark.

‘It’s Martin,’ I said. ‘Martin.’ Not that it really matters to anybody but me.

So I asked him about Thursday’s game between Newport Harbor and Corona del Mar being on Fox Sports Net after Poly declined to participate in the television game against Carson.

‘First I heard about it,’ the principal said. So I asked for Eric Tweit, the athletic director, who just happened to be walking in the general vicinity. He walked over after not seeing me in forever and he did know what I was talking about. He also knew my name.

I asked what kind of financial windfall the game would have for the school because, you know, money talks. Tweit said he didn’t know, but recalled a conversation he had: ‘Dr. Staunton (Southern Section commissioner Jim Staunton) said they were looking at the game, and he said there was some potential money in it for us. I don’t know if that means $1.50.’

Probably. The common perception is that the Southern Section likes it’s fair share of the pie. And then it likes another piece.

Tweit had to leave. I talked to Vossen a little more about ‘Newport Harbor,’ a reality TV show on MTV and whether they were filming at the game. No, it’s not affiliated with the high school, he said, but there are former students on the show. He doesn’t get reality TV shows. ‘How much reality is it when they script everything out and tell you this week you don’t like this person,’ Vossen said.

Really?

‘Oh yeah, the kids told me.’

Well, thanks, I gotta get back to work. Nice meeting you.

‘Nice to meet you, Mark.’

- Martin Henderson