
Photos by Steve Galluzzo
Summer Practice Begins at Stadium by the Sea for Palisades High Football Program
By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor
Palisades High summer football practice began Monday afternpoon and head coach Dylen Smith was anxious to see how his players would handle extremely hot weather at Stadium by the Sea. The answer: just fine.
In his first season at the helm, Smith led the Dolphins to a 7-3 record, a Western League title and an Open Division playoff berth. He begins his sophomore campaign with optimism but knows the road ahead is long and full of bumps.
“I didn’t expect the year we had,” Smith admitted. “There was a lot of pressure on me given that Pali made the [Division I] finals the previous season. I personally was surprised how well we did considering all the players we lost. The primary goal this year is to defend our league title and along the way we have to avenge the losses to Granada Hills and Brentwood.”
More than 20 freshmen joined the program and Smith said every position is a competition, including quarterback, where returner Brett Federman and Loyola transfer Jack Thomas will vie for the first string position following the graduation of two-year starter Roman La Scala.
Last season’s JV starter Mattias Hernandez, whom Smith expected to compete for the varsity job this year, transferred to Long Beach Millikan

“I don’t recruit, so I didn’t know Jack was transferring until someone told me he enrolled at Pali,” Smith said. “Jack and Brett are the same type of QB, so he’ll fit intom our system. It’ll be a good competition.”
Last year’s varsity MVP Teralle Watson, who racked up over 1,000 all-purpose yards, transferred to Warren, linebacker Dezmen Howard transferred to Roosevelt in San Bernardino and cornerback/safety Isaiah Sensabaugh transferred to Notre Dame. Palisades’ key returners are junior all-purpose back LeHenry Solomon, junior running back Harrison Carter, sophomore tailback Sholo Beavers, senior offensive tackle Cole Ward, senior defensive end Joseph Bucher-Leighton, senior linebacker Cash Allen (who will replace sacks leader Evan Nehrenberg) and senior linebacker Jake Treibatch, who led the squad with 60 tackles last fall.
Smith has entered the Dolphins in two seven-on-seven passing tournaments: Saturday at Los Altos and the Westside Classic at Culver City High on July 13.
“The main focus right now is our conditioning… hitting the weights, power lifting and getting stronger,” Smith said. “We have to be in better shape than our opponents to run the up-tempo style we want.”

Smith started Monday’s spirited workout by addressing the varsity and junior varsity teams together, introducing the new coaches and then sending the various position groups to different stations for stretching, sprints and drills.
Former head coach and longtime JV assistant Kelly Loftus will be called on to coach the linebackers and Brandon Forrest (the team MVP and the Palisadian-Post Cup Award winner in 2021) will return to his alma mater to coach the running backs.
“[Athletic Director] Rocky Montz and [former JV coach] Ray Marsden] thought of him and he’s a perfect fit,” Smith said of Forrest.
Jack Beck will be the defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach, Devon Shay will handle the lifting program and the offensive line until Moosa McLean returns at the end of summer and Dwight Hamilton is back to head the JV program for a second season.
Smith wanted to schedule tough opponents to prepare the Dolphins for a postseason run. In addition to their annual rivalry games (the Charter Bowl with Granada Hills and the Sunset Showdown versus Brentwood), Smith added Dymally for the season opener and a Southern Section opponent, Harvard-Westlake, to fill out the nonleague slate.
“We didn’t have full participation in the spring so I don’t know if we’ll be an Open level team this year—it’s too early to tell,” Smith added.
Last year we played a little too fast and it took us three or four games to get on track offensively, so this year we’ll take things a little slower. Last year we started with 136 players and were down to 112 by the end of the season. Right now we have about 115, which is fine. You don’t really want too many kids because then it’s harder to get everyone a decent amount of playing time.”
Smith belives the no-huddle attack is what allowed the Dolphins to tire out Venice and win the league title and he plans to use the same basic principle this fall.
“Pali has never won a football title and I want to be the first coach to do do it,” Smith said. “I’m not saying it’ll happen this year, but that’s definitely the long-term goal. We lost our three best lineman so we’ll have to replace them. The way we have our practices set up I want the kids to learn four or five new things each day.”
Treibatch was fired up from the first whistle and wants to be a vocal leader on the defense side. He was in the weight room four times a week during the offseason and recently attended camps at Sacramento State, San Diego State and the University of San Diego.
“I’m up to 210 [pounds] now,” he said. “I was 185 last year. “I know how to use the added weight to my advantage. I’m moving well and my footwork is good. I’ll be doing both [rushing the passer and dropping back into coverage] but most of the teams we play are run-first, so at least 60 percent of the time I’ll be playing the run. We’ve got a lot of new guys on defenss but we have to stay true to our base defense. There are a lot of ways to execute that. We have the same blitz packages and our new defensive coordinator has adapted real fast. It’s going to be fun but we have to put our heads down and go to work. Two years ago when we went to the finals we had three extra games and four full practices each of those weeks, which is great. The more games we play the better.”
Tight end Augie Evans, who is back at Palisades after playing his sophomore season at Notre Dame, stayed after practice to run routes and catch passes from Thomas. The friends and Palisadians are glad to be on the same team.
“This is home and I’m embracing the opportunity to be back in Pali blue,” the 6-foot-5, 200-pound Evans said. “I’m so excited. I’ll have a lot of balls thrown my way at my position and I’ve worked a lot to improve my speed and hands.”
Thomas embraces the quarterback competition and believes it will only make both he and Federman better.
“I’m a fast learner,” Thomas said. “To be a good quarterback you have to do everything—run, throw, make good decisions and be a leader. Today’s my first day whereas Brett is embedded in this program, but I’m bonding with the upperclassmen. There are some similarities and a few differences in the two programs [Loyola and Palisades] but I learned a lot my first two years and I’m real excited to be here. I can tell you that we’ve got it going really good here at Pali.”
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