High Schools: Kinder generating attention

Just a couple of years ago, Cole Kinder said he never had a favorite sport. During his first two years at Newport Harbor High, he played football in the fall, basketball in the winter and volleyball in the spring.

This year as a junior, Kinder continued with football and basketball, but he dropped volleyball. The time away from another athletic season allowed Kinder to focus on getting stronger and faster in the sport in which he believes he has a future playing on the next level.

Kinder hit the weight room and worked on his speed during the spring, and his strength and speed have caught the eye of some college football programs.

Kinder’s grade-point average almost matched the 40-yard dash he ran at Fresno State’s football camp on June 12. Kinder said his 40 time of 4.52 seconds was the fastest of the 200-plus players invited to the camp.

The performance turned in by Kinder has Fresno State seriously interested in the 6-foot-2, 210-pounder, said Tom, his father.

While Kinder has stood out at running back for the Sailors the past two years, rushing 353 times for 2,189 yards and 13 touchdowns, Tom said Fresno State sees his son as a linebacker. During the camp, Kinder lined up five times at linebacker, a position Tom said his son last played in sixth grade, and twice he came up with an interception.

The football camp marked one of 12 Kinder has participated in during the offseason. Kinder also did well at the Boise State camp at Whittier College earlier this month, saying he was named one of the top three running backs at the camp.

Up next for Kinder is a tour of some Ivy League schools. Tom said he and his son are traveling to Philadelphia on Thursday for a University of Pennsylvania camp at Franklin Field on Friday. After that, Kinder has a camp at Harvard on Saturday, one at Yale on Sunday, followed up by one at Brown on Monday.

Kinder is glad to have someone like his father on the trip because Tom was also a high school football recruit and he went on to play at the University of Wyoming in 1981. Kinder said Utah, UNLV, the University of San Diego, UC Davis and Portland State are also interested in him.

“My dad knows a lot about football,” said Kinder, adding that football is now his favorite sport because football is the one he excels in the most.

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Summer football is right around the corner for the local programs. Newport Harbor, Estancia and Costa Mesa start Monday.

Corona del Mar is the team that begins later, the day after the Fourth of July, and it will be getting ready for one of the premier summer passing league tournaments in the state.

The Sea Kings are in the Battle at the Beach at Edison High on July 9. The 20-team tournament features powerhouse programs like Corona Centennial and Bellflower St. John Bosco, which played for the CIF Southern Section Pac-5 Division title last year. Other teams include Mater Dei and La Puente Bishop Amat, both Pac-5 Division semifinalists, as well as Westlake Oaks Christian, Los Angeles Loyola and Gardena Serra, all Pac-5 Division quarterfinalists, and Harbor City Narbonne, the CIF State Division I-A champion.

The Sea Kings, who made the Southwest Division quarterfinals the past two years, are looking forward to the competition.

“We as a family wish [the] Battle [at] the Beach could be tomorrow,” said Jaydin Moses, who helped CdM finish as undefeated Pacific Coast League champions for a fourth time in a row last year. “We’re ready to show everyone in [Orange County] that we are more than capable of competing against these big-time programs.”

The Sea Kings enter the tournament with a quality team, led by future senior quarterback Chase Garbers, who committed to Cal on Tuesday, and Moses, who played running back and linebacker a year ago.

Moses, who has an offer from the University of San Diego, rushed 127 times for 1,008 yards and nine touchdowns as a junior.

“[CdM Coach Dan] O’Shea runs a tight ship and the team is looking as sharp as ever,” Moses said. “We had our Blue vs. White spring game about two weeks back and we saw a lot of great things on both sides of the ball. So much of it can be [attributed] to our team’s work ethic. Whether it’s out on the field, in [the] weight room, or watching film, we’ve taken an entirely new approach to this offseason compared to past ones. Every day we wake up remembering what happened in [our 35-17 loss in the quarterfinals] last year against Buena Park. We let that drive us.”

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Costa Mesa Coach Glen Fisher spent the first part of Friday at the hospital. His daughter, Brooke Hambright, had a child, and Fisher welcomed his second granddaughter, Bodie Rose.

Fisher then had to get ready to join his football family.

The Mustangs held their Green vs. Black scrimmage near their new stadium on campus.

“We’re supposed to be in there in August,” Fisher said of being able to practice inside the new facility. “Almost the entire stadium is [ready]. The turf is down, the numbers and logos are on the field. They still have to do the track. All the bleachers and press box are there.”

Fans at the scrimmage also got a peak of the Mustangs’ new field, where Fisher said they are playing their home games this upcoming season. For those who haven’t seen the Mustangs yet, expect to see some new coaches and many young players.

“I thought we looked pretty good,” said Fisher, whose new staff members include Dick Freeman, a former CdM head coach who will work with the offensive line, and Vinny Romo, the offensive coordinator. “We’re a young football team. We graduated 14 seniors. We’re going to have 28 or 29 underclassmen and only seven seniors.”

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With Costa Mesa’s new stadium expected to be ready, only Estancia, Newport Harbor and CdM are sharing Jim Scott Stadium during the 2016 football season.

Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley said the Sailors are splitting their six home games between Jim Scott Stadium and Orange Coast College, while CdM’s four home dates are at Jim Scott Stadium.

Estancia, which has played its home games at Jim Scott Stadium since its inception in 2008, has to play twice on Thursdays because of three teams using Jim Scott Stadium.

“It’s going to work out,” Estancia Coach Mike Bargas said. “There was one game that conflicted, but we made it work. We open with Loara on a Thursday and it doesn’t matter that the game is on a Thursday because we will be chomping at the bit to play [on Sept. 1]. We want to play right away.”

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Sage Hill’s move to eight-man football starts Monday with its new coach, BJ Crabtree.

“Our motto for the season [is] ‘Attack the Moment,’ and in a nutshell, that is what we intend to do,” said Crabtree, a walk-on coach who expects 20 kids to come out for the program. “We will spend each day finding growth and development opportunities in every moment we are together on the field. We will be developing our character, our athleticism, and our leadership skills as we prepare to head into our first game [on Aug. 26, when we play at home] against Calvary Chapel Downey.”