Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week, Mike Tunney:

Tale of the tape

Barry Faulkner

Newport Harbor High senior Mike Tunney has played 10 seasons of

organized football, but his career was defined on one snap Friday night.

It was the kind of hit which brings a smile to the face of anyone who

ever played the game; the kind of play which will likely thread so often

through Tunney’s VCR, it will prematurely scratch and fade.

Newport Harbor linebacker coach Matt Burns said he planned to use the

replay as a training video for future Sailors.

“It was a great feeling,” Tunney said of the play, which began as a

simple Villa Park off-tackle run and ended as another footnote on the

school’s proud 69-season gridiron history.

It was third-and-four at the Newport 43-yard line with just less than

five minutes left in the first quarter of a CIF Southern Section Division

VI quarterfinal at the Sailors’ field.

Tailback Marquis Colvin took the handoff and charged to his right, behind

the path of his lead blocker, fullback Daniel Munoz.

Tunney, an outside linebacker on the stingiest defense in Orange County,

read the play and surged forward to fill. It’s a technique Harbor coaches

like to call “window open, window closed.”

Tunney, however, took these teachings one further, slamming the window

shut with a progress-stopping blow directly to Muniz’s upper body.

The collision knocked Muniz backward, into the approaching Colvin, who

staggered to the ground for no gain.

“It was a blast play and (Tunney) stuffed the fullback into the running

back,” Newport Harbor Coach Jeff Brinkley recalled. “On the film, it

looks pretty funny, because both (Muniz and Colvin) fall down and Tunney

is still on his feet, still coming.”

Once the crowd realized what happened -- a linebacker making a tackle

without even touching the ballcarrier -- it howled approval as Villa Park

lined up to punt.

“I’ve been looking to make a hit like that this whole season,” said

Tunney, whose foreboding defensive presence helped secure a 35-16 Harbor

victory, as well as Daily Pilot Player of the Week recognition.

“It was window open, window closed, which means I had to fill the gap.

You’ve got to stay low and be ready to hit. You want to be the hammer

instead of the nail.”

Tunney has hammered with abandon this fall, his third varsity campaign

but his first as a full-time starter. He started two games at fullback

and two at middle linebacker as a junior.

This season, however, Brinkley shifted the 5-foot-10, 200-pounder to the

outside, where he has helped hold opponents to a county- and division-low

8.2 points per game.

“It was definitely a transition,” Tunney said. “There’s much more pass

coverage involved in this position, which I enjoy. But playing the run is

my favorite. I like to hit.”

A linebacker virtually his entire football career, which included six

years in the Junior All-American program before enrolling at Harbor,

Tunney said he has savored his 11-0-1 senior season. He and his teammates

will try to remain unbeaten Friday in a Division VI semifinal against

visiting Kennedy.

“I’m really proud of our defense,” he said. “One of my goals during the

summer was to have the No. 1 defense in Orange County. We all just play

within the system and we all play hard.”

A former Newport Harbor ballboy, Tunney appreciates the program’s

tradition. Part of that tradition includes departing players handing down

numbers to younger teammates.

Tunney’s No. 5 jersey was handed down from former middle linebacker Pete

Hogan, now a defensive end at Colorado State.

“It was pretty emotional,” Tunney said of Hogan’s gesture. “It was in the

locker room after our semifinal loss (to Santa Margarita in 1997) and

Pete came over and told me he wanted me to wear the number. I told him

I’d be proud. I’ve tried to represent it well.”

Hogan, who will eventually hear the story and, perhaps, even see the

video, will surely be proud of the legacy Tunney’s big hit against Villa

Park will leave for those who one day wear No. 5.