Optimism Permeates Pali High Football Practice

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

The first week of practice for the Palisades High football team began with an early-morning workout at Will Rogers State Beach and ended with a late afternoon series of 11-on-11 as the Dolphins prepare in earnest for their season opener Aug. 26 against Sierra Canyon.

“We had an awesome first week — the best we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said head coach Tim Hyde, who begins his fourth season at the helm. “The energy was good and we’ve continued everything we’ve done since the spring to get ready. I’m really impressed with this junior class and we have a great group of kids who were on JV last year that will be major contributors on varsity this year. Now we just have to solidify our line and figure out who goes where. We have eight guys for five spots.”

Hyde has piloted his squad to the City Section Division I playoffs in each of his first three seasons and last fall Palisades earned a share of its first league title since 1987. This year, the Dolphins want the crown all to themselves.

“Yes, I think we can win it all this time,” senior free safety Aaron Butler said. “We have a great team with a lot of two-way players and we’re hungry so I’m pretty sure we can take it all this year.”

The Dolphins donned helmets for the first time Monday and several former teammates showed up to practice at Stadium by the Sea. One of them was P.J. Hurst, Pali High’s starting quarterback the last two years, who left for New Orleans the next morning to begin his college career at Tulane University (camp opens today).

“The O-line will be amazing, they have good receivers and it’ll be scary if they get these guys the ball,” Hurst said, assessing the Dolphins’ talent. “They have a lot of speed in the backfield so they need to run the ball first and that’ll open up the passing game. A lot of guys are returning, so they should be great on defense too.”

Linebacker Alec Simpson, who led Palisades in tackles last fall, is about to start his freshman season at the University of Nevada in Reno. In the midst of a two-week break from camp, Simpson returned to his old stomping grounds to say his goodbyes and give advice to the defensive unit.

“The potential is there — a lot of guys can go two ways like Quinn Perry, Pierre Kaku and Marrio Lofton,” Simpson said. “It’s just a matter of how bad they want it.”

Defensive end E.B. Odeh and defensive tackle Kenny Jones, both of whom graduated in 2015,  were also on the sidelines watching. Jones, who won the Post Cup Award his senior year at Palisades,  helped Santa Monica College finish 11-0 last fall.

Replacing Hurst under center is senior Gabriel Galef, who was the backup last season and scored Palisades’ only touchdown on a quarterback keeper in a 42-7 opening loss to Sierra Canyon.

     “We’re running a pretty diverse offense compared to last year,” Galef said. “We’re going to be a lot more of a zone read team with a quick pass game because we have a lot of athletes and we’re trying to get them the ball as soon as we can. Coach Hyde said we’re going to have about five plays and just run them as fast as we can.”

The receiving corps includes sure-handed Jake Taitelman and speedster Cameron Bailey along with tight ends Jonah Manheim 

and Jack O’Rourke. Seniors Innocent Okoh, Stone Maderer and Nathan Grzesiak will rotate at running back.

“Last year we needed that wake-up call against Venice to get us going,” Galef recalled. “That hit us hard and we had the mentality that we’re not going to lose any more games in league and we didn’t. We won our last four. Now, we want to extend the streak to nine games and bring a unanimous title to Pali.”

Palisades will hold its first full pad practice Saturday morning. Four of the team’s five nonleague games this fall are against San Fernando Valley schools, the lone exception being a road trip to Huntington Park in Week 4. Hyde has also scheduled a home scrimmage Aug. 19 against El Camino Real of Woodland Hills.

“The first week of practice went good, we got  all of our plays down and learned  some stuff on defense,” said Butler, one of several starters who will play offense and defense. “If we come out playing hard with ball-hawking defense we can beat anyone.  We have Kaelynn Lamothe at strong safety,  Oscar Romero and Donald Cook on the corners and  me at free safety. We’re going to go after the quarterback more this year. We have a lot of plays designed for that.”