Sea View League

Elevated to the head coaching job at Newport Harbor High in 1982 in an attempt to right a ship which had been on course to rival the Titanic's destination in a three-year spiral, veteran football coach Mike Giddings saw his first team lose its first two games. But in reality, it was but the setup for a breakthrough season. And in a critical Sea View League duel with Saddleback High's Roadrunners, he threw the dice with a two-point attempt, and lost -- but not really.

Kayleigh Horn, who captained Newport Harbor High's girls golf team the last two seasons, has committed to Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Horn, who finished no lower than sixth in three Sea View League individual tournaments, was selected Newport Harbor's Scholar Athlete of the Year for 2004-05, one of only 178 students out of 700,000 in CIF to receive the award. The Sailors finished third in league and seventh in the CIF Southern Divisional team championships.

They were the defending CIF Southern Section Division VI champions, unbeaten, with more than two dozen returnees, and hopes were high as the 1989 high school football season approached. Yet they would put their coach, Dave Holland, on an elevator ride for the ages. Corona del Mar's Sea Kings, 12-0-2 a year earlier, were beaten in their season opener, beaten in their league opener, beaten in the Battle of the Bay showdown with Newport Harbor and finished fourth in the Sea View League with a nondescript 2-3 record.

Charles Rich With the dust settled following two months of regular-season matches, only four local high school boys' soccer teams remain standing. The playoff paths have been created. St. Francis, La Canada, Glendale and Flintridge Prep learned its respective CIF Southern Section brackets after the CIF office in Los Alamitos released them on Monday. Things won't be easy for the squads, who will begin the postseason with first-round matches Saturday.

Hamlet Nalbandyan GLENDALE -- The following is a preview of today's CIF Southern Section girls' soccer playoff matches involving local teams: Newport Harbor at Crescenta Valley, 3 p.m.: It took everyone giving it their all and playing 110%, as CV High girls' soccer Coach Reggie Rivas said, for the Falcons to get to today's CIF Southern Section Division II quarterfinal-round match against visiting Newport Harbor....