Tift Credits Talented Line for His Success

Wade Tift let everyone know what had happened.

Moments before, he had put Newport Harbor in the Southern Section Division IV final with a burst of energy. His 30-yard touchdown run had broken a 21-21 tie with Corona del Mar and put the Sailors in their first football title game in the school’s 61-year history.

It was a moment a running back lives for and thrives on. So Wade, how did you do it?

“It wasn’t me,” Tift said. “The offensive line made it happen. It was a perfect play. All I had to do was run.”

So goes Wade Tift, the unpretentious running back. A guy who shrinks from the spotlight, yet has grown in stature. Once a humble part of the Sailors’ tag-team tailback tandem, he is now “it.”

Tift started the season a content member of the supporting cast and is finishing it as a reluctant headliner. All he had to do was run.

“I’m really not that fast and I don’t have great lateral movement and I don’t hit that hard,” Tift said.

So how does a guy without those skills manage to accumulate 1,476 yards?

“I just run through the holes,” he said.

Simple and very effective.

Surely, it’s no coincidence that the Sailors’ winning streak--now six games--began when Tift started chewing up yards by the acre. In those six games, he has gained 911 yards in one outstanding performance after another.

The biggest, at least in significance, was last Friday’s 28-21 victory over Corona del Mar. He finished with 153 yards in 26 carries, as Newport Harbor rallied from a 21-13 deficit.

“Wade had that put-the-ball-in-my-hands look in his eyes,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “He loves to be the guy in crunch time. He hates to lose.”

Tift scored the Sailors’ first and last touchdowns. “It was the blocking,” Tift said. “I know I’ve said that over and over and over. But that’s how it was.”

Said tackle Beau Ralphs: “You got to love a running back that gives the line credit. Some running backs are so cocky.”

Not Tift. Not even when the credit is deserved.

He has scored 10 touchdowns this season. Six have come on runs of 29 yards or longer.

“He has had more long runs than any back we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Brinkley, now in his sixth season.

But Tift found little time to run at the start of the season.

Tift, a 6-foot-1, 185-pound junior, played mostly on defense last season. He was a starter at cornerback and intercepted four passes.

He was also understudy at tailback to Brandon Finney, a 1,000-yard rusher. When Finney was tired, Tift got to carry the ball.

Finney graduated and Tift thought he and junior Steve Gonzalez would share the position. Both played on defense and could trade off in the backfield.

But it was back to being an understudy after Gonzalez gained 138 yards in a 24-0 victory Orange in the opener. Tift did gain 51 yards, but mostly in mop-up duty.

“I was really down because it looked like Steve was going to be the guy,” Tift said. “But I decided to do my best at whatever position I was at.”

That turned out to be at running back, after all.

Gonzalez injured his shoulder just before Sea View League play began and Tift was summoned. His performance was competent, but unspectacular, at first.

“I wasn’t used to carrying the ball so much,” Tift said. “I was having trouble finding the holes.”

In his third start, against Woodbridge, Tift found his way. He gained 167 yards and scored on runs of 57 and 50 yards. The following week, he had 156 yards and two touchdowns in the Sailors’ 27-16 upset of Santa Margarita. He has gained at least 100 yards in five of the last six games

“I still get nervous sometimes,” Tift said. “There’s a lot of pressure on me. But I like having the ball at the end of the game. We have such a great line. They do all the work.”

And all Tift has to do is run.