Gondos Football Ready to Tackle City

The Venice High varsity football team opens the season Friday night in North Hollywood against Harvard-Westlake. The Gondoliers are in pursuit of their 10th consecutive Western League crown and are No. 4 in the MaxPreps preseason Los Angeles City Section rankings. Patch caught up with head coach Angelo Gasca after practice Wednesday to get his thoughts on this year's team and what his expectations are for Friday's first game and the season as a whole:

Patch: How well prepared is the team heading into the new season?

Angelo Gasca: We had a good summer. We're healthy and I'm very happy with the team. I think we should have a strong season. We've got a lot of talent on both sides of the ball and we've got just as good a chance as anyone to win [City]. Everyone is 0-0 right now.

Patch: What did you learn from scrimmaging Garfield last week? Angelo Gasca: It was good for us to have a practice game to get an idea where we're at. We won 10-0 and we moved the ball to the 5-yard line another time before running out of downs. I think our biggest strengths are our overall speed and our balance. We have the ability to throw and run out of multiple formations. Garfield's a quality Division I team that we could see again in the playoffs. More importantly, no one got hurt.

Patch: Who will be some of your significant returners on offense?

Angelo Gasca: It starts at quarterback. Dean Sarabia had a good junior season and I think he'll be better this year because he has a lot of options to throw to. He just has to get them the ball and let them make plays. He's a drop-back passer with a strong arm, he's a senior and he's making quicker reads and smarter decisions. We've got a lot of depth at wide receiver, starting with Gabriel Marks (a Southern Methodist commit) and three-year starter Jahret Hood. Two other seniors--Deontay Banks and Jayshawn Lowe--give us depth at wide receiver. Then we've got Lamar Moody back to run the ball. Our kicker McLean Emmanuel is also returning after starting as a sophomore last year. From 45 [yards] and in he's pretty good. He's also booting more of his kickoffs into the end zone.

Patch: Who will be some of your significant returners on defense?

Angelo Gasca: Some of the same kids. Jahret [Hood] looks great at the outside linebacker spot and another senior, Daniel Magallanes, is an impact player at middle linebacker. As far as the line, [junior] Marcus Anderson and [senior] Ricardo Navarro are the anchors up front. We have four senior starters in the secondary and Gabriel [Marks] and Jayshawn [Lowe] are both lockdown corners.

Patch: You have more underclassmen than usual on varsity. Why is that?

Angelo Gasca: Yeah, we have eight sophomores--which is rare for us--but I'm not using the fact that we're a young team as an excuse if we mess up. Every one of them is capable of starting. That's why they've been brought them up. We have confidence that they can do the job. Most of the 10th graders were defensive guys on JV, which went unscored upon in league. That's not easy to do at any level.

Patch: Why do you like to schedule such strong nonleague opponents?

Angelo Gasca: We've reached the point in our program where I think we can compete with the better Southern Section schools. To be the best you've got to play the best. Everyone we play [in nonleague] is a City playoff-caliber team--and that's by design. It's all to toughen us up for the postseason. We started 1-4 last year and look what happened... we won seven straight after that. As a coach, it gets harder and harder to find top teams to play but we've done a decent job. [San Diego power] Helix, Bishop Amat and Chaminade will probably be as good as anyone we'll play in the City.

Patch: What's your assessment of the Western League as a whole?

Angelo Gasca: I think it's very underrated. It gets better and better each season. We've managed to win it year after year but we always have close games because of the familiarity factor. The league's full of great coaches and they know your weaknesses. It's a little misleading because even though we've only lost one league game in the last nine years, the other schools have very good programs. The fact that five of the six teams are in Division I now proves that. Fairfax won Division II last year, Pali made the semifinals and Westchester darn near beat San Pedro in Division I.

Patch: Is Venice the team to beat in the City Section this season?

Angelo Gasca: No. In my mind, Crenshaw is still the team to beat. They've won it two years in a row and no one came close to beating them in the playoffs last season... so you have to give them their respect. Until another team knocks them out those guys deserve to be called the champions.

Patch: What makes this year's team better equipped to win the City title?

Angelo Gasca: This is my 12th year here and one thing I've learned is that to win in the playoffs you have to be able to run the ball and you have to be able to stop the other team. My first couple years I thought we could win by outscoring everybody but when you go up against the top-tier teams that doesn't work. They say in baseball that "good pitching beats good hitting." Well, the same is true in football. You won't get to the top without a great defense.

Patch: What are the keys to beating Harvard-Westlake on Friday?

Angelo Gasca: We need to force some turnovers and we have to do it early. Their quarterback [Chad Kanoff] got in the game against us last year and we know he's very good. We have to pressure him and not let him get comfortable in the pocket. It will be a long day if we don't. They're practicing that Oregon offense and once it gets rolling it's hard to stop, so our defense has to set the tone right away. I'm expecting a tough game but hopefully we can get through it without any major injuries because the schedule doesn't get any easier after that.

Note: Kickoff for the intersectional matchup between Venice and Harvard-Westlake is set for 7 p.m. Friday. The game will also be broadcast on FoxSportsWest.com.

2011 VENICE VARSITY FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Sept. 2 -- at Harvard-Westlake, 7 p.m.

Sept. 9 -- at Chaminade, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 23 -- vs. St. Francis, 7 p.m.

Sept. 30 -- vs. Helix, 7 p.m.

Oct. 6 -- vs. Bishop Amat, 7 p.m.

Oct. 13 -- at Fairfax, 7 p.m.*

Oct. 21 -- vs. Westchester, 7 p.m.*

Oct. 28 -- vs. L.A. Hamilton, 7 p.m.*

Nov. 4 -- vs. L.A. University, 7 p.m.*

Nov. 10 -- at Palisades, 7 p.m.*

* Western League game