Fresh Start

Dylen Smith Is New Head Football Coach at Palisades High

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

The great 19th Century American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”

If that is true, the future is bright for the Palisades High football program. Last week, athletic director Rocky Montz introduced Dylen Smith as the team’s 13th head coach and it was hard to tell who was more excited—Smith or the ones who hired him.

“What attracted me to the Pali job most is the atmosphere and energy on Friday nights,” said Smith, who spent the last nine years as an assistant at Brentwood and coached against Palisades in the schools’ “Sunset Showdown” in late September. “It reminded me of my high school days, Friday nights under the lights, the student body, the band playing, the stadium being filled and everyone having a great time. As well as the athletes I saw while coaching against them last season. They have a great young team that looks hungry to get better and dominate.”

Born and raised in Santa Monica, Smith is familiar with Palisades, having quarterbacked Samo High to a 35-28 victory over the Dolphins at Santa Monica College in 1996­—a game he remembers well.

“It was my senior year and we hadn’t played them in a few seasons so it was a big deal,” Smith recalled. “Kris Hawkes was the Pali quarterback.”

Ironically, two of Smith’s coaches at Samo were Brian Banducci (who took over in the summer as Pali High’s assistant principal in charge of athletics) and Jake Ford, now the varsity head coach at Brentwood.

“I’ve enjoyed being on Jake’s staff, I learned a lot from him and he’s been super supportive—in fact he’s the one who texted me about the Pali position,” said Smith, who starred for two years at SMC before transferring to the University of Kansas, where he was the Jayhawks’ starting quarterback under Coach Terry Allen in 1999 and 2000. “My expectations this season are first to develop the young kids and teach them my system so when they’re called up to play varsity they’re ready to fill in. Secondly, I expect to play hard, fast and smart. If we can do those things the wins will take care of themselves. I have a couple coaches in mind to come in but as of right now I’ll be retaining some coaches from last season.”

Prior to Brentwood, Smith enjoyed two stints as an assistant at Malibu High, serving as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He has trained Pali High quarterback Roman La Scala privately the last two years at Virginia Avenue Park, two blocks from home. He has two sons, Draiden (1) and Donnan (12)     

“The biggest difference going from a small private school to a large public school like Pali is the number of players in the program—managing 80 kids as opposed to only maybe 35 in the whole program,” Smith said. “Structuring practices and handling playing time will be different too. I can’t wait to get started.”