Kings Crew gets fired up for Friday night’s Battle of the Bay football game between CdM and Newport Harbor

Junior Jennings Torgelson (left), baseball coach and teacher Kevin McCaffrey and junior Henry Hobin (far right) have led a drive to provide support for the Sea Kings sports teams at home games. (Tim Burt photo)

One day before the annual Battle of the Bay football rivalry between Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor, spirit was sky-high on the CdM campus Thursday afternoon.

To see the slide show, please click on the first photo.

One of the murals on campus at Corona del Mar as students get ready for the big game.

CdM students packed last year's game with Newport Harbor.
PHOTO COURTESY CDM

CdM students showed up for a Pink Out football game a couple weeks ago.
PHOTO COURTESY CDM

A mural in the middle of campus lists all the names of the Sea Kings players.

CdM students Jennings Torgelson (left) and Henry Hobin (right) are in the spirit class of Coach Kevin McCaffrey (middle).

There was a long line this week to purchase football tickets this week.
PHOTO COURTESY CDM

Members of the Kings Crew have led the rest of the student body in preparation for Friday’s Sunset League game between Newport Harbor (3-4-1) and Corona del Mar (6-1-1, 2-0-1). CdM shares the Sunset League lead with Los Alamitos and is ranked third in this week’s CIF Division 3 poll. The Sea Kings are the home team for the game.

“What separates us from other schools is our participation rat,” said Kevin McCaffrey, who runs the Kings Crew class and is also the CdM baseball coach. “We are a small school of under 1,700 kids. Our home football games are played at Newport Harbor and that is one of the largest stadiums in Orange county. The past two years we have been packing the stadium in support of our team.”

The CdM side on Friday will be a sea of blue. All of the students will be wearing blue T-shirts with the words, ‘this is our house’ which they received for purchasing a $15 ticket for the game.

“This week we have sold 3,500 shirts in four days,” McCaffrey said. “Tickets for our game with Newport sold out in four days.”

Corona del Mar has made it a point to stress leadership for its athletes, McCaffrey said.

“We might be the only school in Orange County to offer an athletic leadership class during the school day,” he said. “Our administration has been extremely supportive of all of our athletic efforts. In having this class, it shows our commitment to athletics and developing our athletic leaders.

“The basic idea behind the class is teaching athletic leadership and promoting school spirit by running the Kings Krew spirit group.

“The Kings Krew class is made up of 53 students. All 53 students are athletes on campus. We have athletes from just about every athletic program represented in this class. We teach athletic leadership skills in the class. We are currently reading “The Energy Bus” by Jon Gordon. We have break out groups, discussions, and videos showing what leadership looks like and discussing the importance of being a quality leader. The students in this Kings Krew class are hopefully taking what is discussed in class back to their teams in an effort to create even more athletic leaders. We are trying to promote the idea of positive energy to our athletic leaders.”

Two of the leaders are juniors Jennings Torgelson and Henry Hobin, who have helped all the Kings Krew members design murals which include the names and numbers of all the football players, lead special events and promote the game.

Torgelson, who plays soccer and baseball at CdM, was in charge of social media, getting the word out about the big game.

“So far, we’ve built this mural and and I was doing some social media stuff and me personally I’m getting ready for helping spirit stuff during the game,” he said.  “I’ll be in charge of one of the machines in the back that shoot up the smoke (after big plays).”

The students are excited about supporting the athletic teams, Torgelson said.

“People have bought in throughout this year,” he said. “Since this is our first year, the turnout has been very good. We are seeing more and more people come out and more and more people getting intrigued by what we’re doing. We tried to get as many people out to the water polo game for their game against Huntington Beach. We had posters throughout the whole pool area. As soon as next season comes around, we’re still right on it.”

Torgelson and the rest of the students who attend McCaffrey’s class are learning about sportsmanship and leadership, he said.

“It’s fun, Coach McCaffrey teaches it and he helps organize us more than we can do ourselves,” he said. “Leadership and sportsmanship is very high on what we do.”

As for a prediction on the game, Torgelson said, “CdM, no doubt.”

“It’s going to be insane.  All of it’s fun. I just hope everyone comes out and has fun and enjoys coming out and hanging out and cheering on our boys team.”

Hobin is also looking forward to the big game and said the students on campus are pumped up for the big rivalry game.

“We’ve been doing a lot of publicity for it just trying to get everyone super excited and pumped up and to get there early and be loud and cheer our guys on,” said Hobin, who plays volleyball and is on the surf team.

Hobin said spirit has been strong on campus, but he and Torgelson wanted to make it even better.

“I would say we just wanted to build on what we already had and take a group of athletes to promote our sports and to get these athletes out at other games,” he said.

The game should be a special one, he said.

“It should be crazy,” Hobin said. “It usually is. Our rivalry with Newport Harbor is quite unique and pretty crazy. “During the game, I will be on mic, trying to get the students pumped up and loud and cheering on and be a leader out there for the students in the stands.”

McCafffrey said he is pleased to see how the students have stepped up and how the spirit has spread throughout the campus.

“This year our kids are really doing some great things at our sporting events,” he said. “Our Pink out two weeks ago was a hit. The stadium was packed and everyone had a blast. It was a true sea of Pink.

“Our ASB and Kings Krew class kids have been doing a wonderful job of pushing school spirit and getting out to our big games. The Kings Krew class works with Mr. Dobyns and his ASB class to really push all of our school events.”

McCaffrey said he is looking forward to seeing the CdM side of the stands on Friday.

“Our campus will be packed with Kings Krew blue tomorrow and our side of the stadium will all be wearing the same shirt tomorrow night,” McCaffrey said. “It creates a really neat atmosphere.”