Despite His Size, Cole Gives Foes Devil of a Time

Chris Cole of Mission Viejo High creates the havoc of a giant on the football field even though he’s not much bigger than a running back.

He’s a 5-foot-10, 225-pound senior defensive tackle who makes 290-pound offensive linemen look helpless when they try to block him.

“You play against him or watch him on film and you come away knowing who’s the best football player on the field,” Coach Bob Johnson said.

It’s the Humpty Dumpty syndrome when facing Cole: The bigger the blocker, the harder he falls.

Cole uses speed, power and instincts to sack quarterbacks, disrupt rushing attacks and cause chaos. It’s no wonder Mission Viejo has won 25 consecutive games over the last two seasons.

“I’ve coached 32 years of defensive linemen, and this is the finest I’ve seen, let alone coached,” defensive coordinator Marty Spalding said. “He’s so fast and a tremendous athlete. He’s a clinic on film. You just want to watch him and use his play as a teaching tool.”

Cole had 15 sacks last season. He has nine sacks and 16 tackles for losses this season. He bench-presses 325 pounds, runs 40 yards in 4.7 seconds and never gives up on a play.

“I always play like it’s my last game,” he said.

Maybe it’s his Samoan heritage that gives Cole a toughness that’s hard to duplicate.

He was born in New Zealand and moved to Orange County when he was 11. Rugby was the sport he knew best until he tried out for football as a freshman.

“They just put me out there and told me to hit,” he said.

His strategy is simple.

“The ball is snapped, you explode with quickness and get into the backfield,” he said.

Double teams don’t bother him.

“It just leaves another person open, so that’s good for the team,” he said.

Size is supposed to be crucial for linemen, but Cole has discovered other ways to complete his tasks.

“I don’t really care how big they are,” he said of offensive linemen. “Some guys smaller are much better. It’s good I’m short. I get leverage and don’t get popped when they’re coming at me. I like it when they’re big.”

Mission Viejo (11-0) is seeded No. 1 in Southern Section Division II and plays at Canyon Country Canyon (10-1) Friday in a quarterfinal game. To beat the Diablos, some team is going to have to figure out how to neutralize Cole.

“He’s running at full speed constantly, so the only way to effectively block him is two on one,” Spalding said.

But that only frees up defensive end Justin Williams or others to make tackles.

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Los Angeles Jefferson finished 1-8 last season, but the Democrats (6-5) have made it to the City Championship quarterfinals under first-year Coach Doi Johnson.

A big reason is the Big Three -- receiver Gary White and offensive tackles Clifton Stanford (6-3, 280 pounds) and Whitfield Usher (6-3, 315). All three are future college players. Usher scored 1,240 on the SAT and rarely gives up sacks.

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How much time should be devoted to sports practices at the expense of academics is always open for debate.

North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake is on the verge of approving a schoolwide policy that would limit its sports teams to two hours of practice on weekdays and three hours on Saturdays.

Numerous coaches across the Southland wouldn’t be able to coach at Harvard-Westlake under the new policy, because they conduct practices that last three hours or longer in such sports as football, basketball, water polo, swimming and baseball.

The school newspaper, the Chronicle, criticized the proposal in an editorial: “We cannot expect excellence from our teams if we restrict practice hours to less than that of the competition.”

The Chronicle asked, “If we limit the number of hours a team can practice to two, then shouldn’t we also limit the number of hours of school play rehearsal?”

It will be interesting to see whether any schools follow Harvard-Westlake’s lead. Don’t count on it.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com