Stop and ask Gavilan head football coach John Lango how summer
football is going and you’re likely to get a really enthusiastic
response.
Gilroy – Stop and ask Gavilan head football coach John Lango how summer football is going and you’re likely to get a really enthusiastic response.
“Great,” Lango said. “God, how can I put it? This has been the best summer we’ve had since we’ve been here.”
For Lango, who took over the Rams program in 1997, that’s nine seasons.
Summer football usually stirs excitement for the upcoming season. But this year is a little different for Gavilan.
For one, the program is bringing in a lot of new local talent from the local programs at Gilroy, San Benito and Live Oak high schools. A total of 13 players from the three schools, including all-Central Coast Section first-team linebacker Anthony Vasquez of San Benito, will be joining the Rams this year.
Additionally, Lango and his staff have already started teaching a lot of the sets the team will be using this season, something they usually hold off on doing until the season officially starts up in August.
Simply put, it’s a special approach being taken with a special group.
“We have a different attitude as a coaching staff. We feel more positive as to what we’re doing in the long run,” Lango said. “We’re giving them all stuff were going to do (this season) so they get a little taste of it.”
Most importantly, Lango said the team has built strong chemistry this summer with the players’ work ethic and by already buying into two key mantras he teaches: Brotherhood and “R.E.,” which stands for “relentless effort.”
Lango has strength in numbers, too. He estimates about 60-plus players will make up the Rams roster in the fall, 20 of whom are returning players.
“That’s a huge plus for us,” Lango said. “And it’s mainly local kids.”
Of the returning players, 6-foot-1, 230-pound middle linebacker Bradley Niles has been catching the interest of several NCAA Division I programs, with the ones in hottest pursuit being Oklahoma State, Toledo and South Florida. Lango said Arkansas State and Arizona State have also shown interest and that scouts from Nebraska, Cal and USC have also been out to have a look at the second-year player out of San Jose’s Piedmont Hills High.
Summer football, which is part of a Monday through Thursday Motor Development and Agility class that Lango teaches, ends July 28.
For the first time in three years, Lango has been able to hold practice on Gavilan’s own football practice field. In years past, the field was unplayable because it had been so badly torn up by gophers and wild pigs. At this time last year, it was just being re-sodded. Now, the field is looking its best.
“Knock on wood, it’s been great,” Lango said. “(The maintenance staff) has done a fabulous job with it.”
Official season practice begins Aug. 11 and the team has its Blue and White intersquad scrimmage Aug. 30. The team’s first home scrimmage against another program is Aug. 25 against Merced.
The home regular season finally kicks off Sunday, Sept. 3.
