Setback

More often than not, Cecil Whiteside hit whoever carried the football backward when he starred at Newport Harbor High. The recent high school graduate is now the one taking a step back before he gets on the field for Cal. The touted linebacker recruit has to sit out his first year due to academic issues. Cal Coach Jeff Tedford told the San Jose Mercury News that Whiteside will grayshirt this season. Tedford added that Whiteside most likely would enroll at a junior college in the fall before coming to Cal in the spring.

COSTA MESA -- A Mesa Verde homeowner in the middle of remodeling what has become a controversial house may have to tear down the stairwell in her home because it violates the city's required setback. The City Council voted 5-0 to uphold the Planning Commission's decision to deny an administrative adjustment that would have allowed the 4-foot 5-inch encroachment. Homeowner Tracy Stevenson and her neighbors in Mesa Verde have been embroiled in recent months in a debate over what is described as a "massive" and "overwhelming" structure on Samoa Place.

Patrick Laverty For the first time since joining the Golden West League two years ago, Estancia High lost a girls basketball game. What Eagles Coach Tami Rappa wants to remind her team is that Tuesday's loss doesn't mean nearly as much as the next 11 games. "I need to let them know that this does not define our season," Rappa said. "We got dealt a bad egg. Hopefully, this will make us work harder." Estancia went through its first season in the Golden West League last year undefeated, claiming the league crown.

HUNTINGTON BEACH — As soon as Danny Cabrera made contact, it was a no-doubter. Cabrera, the Costa Mesa National Little League Majors Marlins outfielder, liked the first pitch he saw in the second inning of Saturday's District 62 Tournament of Champions opener against the Huntington Valley Angels. He liked it so much that he launched it way over the left-field fence, a two-run shot that scored teammate Lucas De La Torre and gave the Marlins a 2-0 lead. "That was the farthest thing I've ever seen in this league," Marlins Manager Randy Wood said.

GIRLS' SOCCER St. Margaret's 2, Sage Hill 0 Goalkeeper Kekai Whitford finished with 14 saves for the Lightning, but it wasn't enough during Saturday's Academy League match. With the setback, Sage Hill dropped to 9-4-2 and 1-2 in league.

The Newport Beach Breakers continued their recent slide with their third straight loss, this time a 22-21 overtime setback to the host Kansas City Explorers Wednesday night in a World Team Tennis Western Conference match. The Explorers (4-6) snapped a three-match losing streak by claiming the final two sets, including Alex Kim and David MacPherson's 5-4 (5-3) victory over Newport's Ramon Delgado and Ellis Ferreira in men's doubles. Kansas City won all three tiebreakers to exact revenge on the Breakers (7-5)

Jennifer Kho WHAT HAPPENED: The Planning Commission on Monday approved a Southern California Edison Company plan to divide a 39,596-square-foot piece of property into two lots. WHAT IT MEANS: The property, at 373 Monte Vista Ave., is an Edison substation that was constructed in 1956. The company is proposing to divide the property to allow part of it, a 15,159-square-foot parcel, to be used for housing. The company has not submitted a specific residential plan for the parcel.

Here are a few items the council considered Tuesday. RECREATION BUDGET REDUCTION The parks and recreation department will cut $100,000 from its budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year, mainly by reducing part-time staff hours. The council in 2004 asked for the budget trim to combat the city's practice of spending more than it takes in. Councilman Eric Bever agreed with the budget reduction but voted against the measure because he thought up to $250,000 more could be trimmed from the recreation budget.

A Newport Beach homeowner's modification permit is up for discussion at Tuesday's City Council meeting. The name might sound familiar to fans of Italian fare. When Antonio Cagnolo, owner of Antonello Ristorante at South Coast Village, recently built a covered patio area and an outdoor fireplace in the backyard of his Cliff Drive home, the fireplace did not comply with city zoning codes. He's applying for the permit to allow it to stay on the property. Newport Beach Planning Director James Campbell said the entire patio structure was initially debated, but Cagnolo agreed to reconstruct it in a conforming fashion, therefore the only structure needing relief is the fireplace because it was built on the setback — the land that edges up against the property line and is not allowed to be developed.

Barry Faulkner COSTA MESA - The Costa Mesa High football team's inability to achieve decent field position has left it in an unenviable position in the Pacific Coast League race. Coach Dave Perkins' Mustangs (4-2) were corralled for most of the night Thursday by Northwood (6-0), which earned a 31-6 PCL-opening triumph at Irvine High. Mesa's average starting field position was its 25-yard line and only once did the Mustangs start with the ball outside their own 36. That one time, when linebacker John Garcia returned an interception 13 yards to his own 45, the visitors proceeded to score their only touchdown.

HUNTINGTON BEACH - Evan Chalmers coached Newport Harbor High in a Sunset League baseball game for the first time in five seasons on Friday. He was happy to be back, not so much with his team's start to league. Early on, the Sailors missed chances to jump on host Huntington Beach. Chalmers saw a runner on second base get doubled up after he didn't try to get back to the bag on a line drive to third base. In the next inning, that same player struck out with the bases loaded. The Oilers took the lead in the bottom of the second inning and they went on to open league with a convincing 8-4 win. They are talented, with a half dozen players committed to NCAA Division I programs.

ANAHEIM - A reporter asked Jeff Brinkley for his thoughts on Kai Ross and it drew a short response from the Newport Harbor High head football coach. He preferred to talk about his Sailors, not the Huntington Beach  player who again proved to be the difference against his team. Everyone on the field seemed to want to talk about Ross, or to him. He finally appeared with his jersey and shoulder pads off, shortly after leading his Oilers to a 42-28 victory and the program's first CIF Southern Section championship in 78 years.

The tears welling in the eyes of UC Irvine defender Jordan Bruce had nothing to do with the first goal of her collegiate career. Instead, Bruce and her Anteaters, dominant yet still doomed, were writhing as a result of their 2-1 Big West Conference loss to visiting Long Beach State on Thursday night. "It's the sport we play," UCI Coach Scott Juniper said. "You can dominate a game and lose. I don't think that happens in any other sport that you can dominate a game to that degree, literally in every department.

LA MIRADA - An achievement eight years in the making for Vanguard University women's soccer coach Randy Dodge all but vanished in the span of 90 ill-fated minutes on Tuesday afternoon. The Lions, who had won their first seven contests to, for the first time in school history, move atop the NAIA coaches' poll released Tuesday afternoon, played like a team with a target on its back in a 3-0 loss to Westmont at Biola. The Golden State Athletic Conference opener marked the first loss in 13 contests against conference foes for the Lions, who were a perfect 10-0 in conference last season, then won two games to pocket the GSAC Tournament crown on their way to an NAIA quarterfinal appearance and an 18-2-1 record.

NEWPORT BEACH — Weird things happened on a windy Wednesday afternoon at the Newport Harbor High baseball field. A couple of well-hit balls carried all the way out of the park. A couple of balls appeared foul down the left-field line, only to be blown back into play for hits. But the Sailors couldn't really blame their 8-5 loss to first-place Fountain Valley in a Sunset League game on gusts of air. Errors were a bigger issue. Newport Harbor (9-10, 2-7 in league) committed five of them in falling further behind in the league race.

RIVERSIDE - There is taking what the opponent gives you and there is taking what you simply decide the opponent can't deny you. UC Riverside accomplished the latter in handing visiting UC Irvine a 68-58 Big West Conference men's basketball defeat Saturday. The Highlanders (5-13, 2-4 in conference), who had lost three straight against Big West competition, dominated inside and shot better from the perimeter to halt the Anteaters' three-game conference winning streak that had allowed them to earn a share for second place entering Saturday.

COSTA MESA - Coach Robert Castellano has told his players that they're all important and he needs each one of them to do their part. He's not kidding. Everyone on the team gets to play. With only 15 players, the Estancia High boys' soccer team is thin. The program began the season with 20 players, but three players have been lost to injuries and two players because they had to get jobs. At halftime of the Eagles' match on Friday, they lost another player. Castellano said Chris Gomez, the team's leading goal scorer last season, had to leave because of work.

GIRLS' SOCCER St. Margaret's 2, Sage Hill 0 Goalkeeper Kekai Whitford finished with 14 saves for the Lightning, but it wasn't enough during Saturday's Academy League match. With the setback, Sage Hill dropped to 9-4-2 and 1-2 in league.

IRVINE - Estancia High traveled to the city of Irvine to play a football game on Thursday night. The city prides itself on being one of the safest in the country. While the city is safe, no lead was for Estancia on the city's lone high school field with lights. Twice the Eagles took 14-point leads in the second quarter, only to see host University come back and tie the game right before halftime. The Trojans made up a lot of ground. The best way to catch Estancia was by attacking on the ground, and once the Trojans did, they never stopped.

LONG BEACH - With 13 seniors and one junior on his roster, maturity is not a problem for Corona del Mar High boys' water polo coach Barry O'Dea. After watching his Sea Kings lose a 16-15 back-and-forth contest to Long Beach Wilson on Tuesday at Belmont Plaza, O'Dea talked about needing to get better defensively. But it was not an angry observation, just a matter-of-fact one. "They just need to figure out what their priorities are in a game," O'Dea said. "Is it offense and scoring goals, or are we going to put a little more effort into playing some defense?