PREP FOOTBALL ’95 / Sea View League : Awards Reveal to Pepic He’s Good at This Sport : Football: Offensive lineman, lauded by coaches, hopes to lead Newport Harbor back to prominence this season.

Sherif Pepic didn’t grow up dreaming about playing football. He was not a product of the Pop Warner leagues or Sunday afternoons glued to the TV.

Pepic, whose father is half Italian and mother half Albanian, grew up in a futbol environment--soccer.

That’s why last year was so important to him, why it meant so much to represent Newport Harbor on the All-Sea View League team, and be named All-Southern Section in Division V.

Pepic was a question mark at the beginning of the season, an unlikely candidate to achieve such recognition.

“Before I got to high school, I had never played,” Pepic said. “But all my friends had played Pop Warner. That meant that I had to work a little harder.

“It was different because I was raised to play soccer. I played soccer for nine years.”

Pepic suited up for varsity games as a sophomore, but he was only window dressing. His only action was on the junior varsity.

But his sophomore year was important because he was in the process of transforming himself. He hit the weight room and improved his strength considerably. An example of Pepic’s increase: he cleaned 176 pounds after his freshman year, 253 pounds the summer before his junior year.

The coaches noticed.

Last season, Pepic won the starting left tackle job--a crucial spot on the offensive line because it protected quarterback John Giordani’s blind side.

Pepic--and the other members of the Sailors’ line--performed brilliantly.

They did not give up a sack until the ninth game of the season. Through 14 games--make that 14 victories-- they gave up only five sacks en route to their Southern Section championship.

Then came the awards.

“Then it hit me that I must have done something good this past season to get such honors,” said Pepic, who hopes to study pre-law next year. “My friends said I had a lot to live up to next year. That’s when I thought, ‘This was my defining moment, that I must be good at this sport.’ ”

Very good, along with his teammates, left guard Brandon Baker, center Brandon Hetrick, right guards Bill Johns and Tom Eaton, and right tackle James Moureaux. Baker and Hetrick also return this year.

“Where [that offensive line] hit their most confident point, where they really knew they could play a little bit, was when we beat Savanna and they were ranked No. 1 in Division V,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said. “They had been beating up on people [giving up 8.5 points per game], and that’s when those guys kind of felt that we could play a little bit and gained some confidence going into the Irvine game, which we knew would be a tough one.

“Against Canyon and Savanna, we had to run the ball at the end of the game to run time out, and the offensive line really did a job in those two games. It gave them confidence going into the league.”

After three lopsided victories to open the season, Newport Harbor beat Canyon, 21-19, and then Savanna, 22-15. The next week, the Sailors beat three-time defending Southern Section champion Irvine, 9-7.

“On the field, [Pepic] was pretty efficient at run blocking and pass blocking; the pass protection was probably most impressive,” Brinkley said. “He has the toughest spot on the back side. As a team guy, he just accepted his role. He’s not a guy I would consider one of our leaders; he understood his role and executed within the framework of what we try to do offensively.

“Sherif’s a little short (6-2, 240), but technically, I think he’s Division I [college] caliber. When [running back] Jeremy Mason came back from the combine, he thought that, technically, Sherif was as good as anybody; he wasn’t as big as most of them. . . . That’s a compliment to the coaching he’s received from [offensive line coach] Bill Vetica.”

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1994 IN REVIEW

Highlights

Newport Harbor’s John Giordani passed for 1,508 yards, 16 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing 52.7% of his attempts. Brian Johnson intercepted seven passes, third-most in the county; he also rushed for 1,117 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. El Toro’s Brian Wilson threw for a league-high 1,830 yards and completed a higher percentage (54.9), but had 14 interceptions to go with 14 touchdowns. Brian Hogan of Corona del Mar threw for 1,488 yards, a 6.9 average. He also scored 14 touchdowns. El Toro’s Murle Sango had a league-high 52 catches for 630 yards, and teammate Jamie Hanaway scored 10 times. Johnson and Hogan were named co-offensive players of the year; Newport Harbor’s Bill Johns was the defensive player of the year. Newport Harbor went 14-0 and won the Southern Section Division V title with a 20-15 victory over Servite. It was the Sailors’ first undefeated season in their 64-year football history. Irvine, after winning three consecutive section titles, failed to make the playoffs. El Toro turned out to be the league’s most surprising team, upsetting second-seeded Savanna in the first round of the playoffs, 35-33, before falling to Servite in the semifinals, 34-19.

1994 IN REVIEW

Standings

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League Overall School W L T W L T Newport Harbor 5 0 0 14 0 0 Corona del Mar 3 2 0 5 6 0 El Toro 2 2 1 7 5 1 Irvine 2 2 1 4 5 1 Santa Margarita 2 3 0 5 5 0 Woodbridge 0 5 0 5 5 0

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