Longtime Venice Football Coach Angelo Gasca Has Died

Angelo Gasca, a one-of-a-kind precocious schoolhouse shot coach who grew up utilizing shot to flight from gangs and became a beloved typical acquisition teacher, mentor and coach for 36 years astatine Venice High, died Monday nighttime while watching a Lakers crippled connected television, according to longtime friend, Steve Clarkson. He was 65.

The 1978 Venice postgraduate ne'er near his neighborhood. Gasca won his first and only City Section Division I title in 2021. He was known for his innovative passing schemes and producing galore apical City Section quarterbacks, led by erstwhile NFL subordinate JP Losman. He was specified a fixture astatine Venice that coaching sons of erstwhile players became nan norm. He loved nan conception of “neighborhood team.”

Perhaps his astir important publication was training, supporting and preparing players to go teachers and coaches. Most of his unit astatine Venice has been made up of erstwhile players. He’d thief them instrumentality pinch nan difficult task of earning a school credential and find jobs for them.

He was astir proud of erstwhile moving backmost Byron Ellis, who became an orthopedic surgeon, and receiver Brycen Tremayne, who walked connected astatine Stanford, went undrafted and made nan Carolina Panthers.

Last month, Gasca was asked if he ever learned thing from a subordinate and he told nan communicative of having a coaches gathering and 1 of his ex-players reminded him really he wanted to discontinue shot but Gasca wouldn’t fto him.

“I’m not accepting your resignation today,” Gasca told him. “You request to spell location and deliberation astir it.”

Said Gasca: “He went location and thought astir it and stayed connected nan squad and was nan starting center. He taught maine nan champion point we tin thatch kids is travel to schoolhouse and you ne'er cognize what connections you’ll make astatine nan schoolhouse you grew up at. He taught maine there’s much to coaching than winning games and scoring touchdowns. In our lives arsenic teachers and coaches, we do study from players. When we extremity learning, it’s clip to extremity coaching.”

Even though location were rumors past play of Gasca retiring, he insisted he was coming backmost because he loved school and coaching and believed that sports title tin alteration someone’s life for nan better.

“My parents didn’t be precocious school,” he said. “When you play, you get a small sensation of occurrence and want to play harder and group travel into your life and thief you. It’s conscionable arsenic easy to do good arsenic it is to do bad. Sometimes erstwhile your friends zig right, you person to zig left. The life lessons we study together is what it’s about.”