Pali High Football Players Have Sights Set on First City Section Championship in Program History   

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

When Dylen Smith took over the Palisades High football program in 2023 one of his stated goals was to lead the Dolphins to their first City Section championship. He got his team to the Open Division playoffs his first season and fell one win short of a title last fall, piloting his squad to the Division I final. He hopes his third crack at history ends  in storybook fashion, but there is plenty of work to be done if the boys in blue want to lift a trophy at the end of November.

“This is the youngest line we’ve had since I’ve been here, but skill-wise it’s my best group for sure,” Smith said. “We’ve got a talented bunch of receivers. Malachi Ross is someone to watch. He was MVP on JV last year, he makes amazing plays and knows the playbook well.”

Ross is joined by varsity returners King Demethris and Harrison Carter and newcomer Demare Dezeurn, a junior transfer from Alemany who placed third in the 100-meter dash at the CIF state meet in May. Carter made the All-City Offensive First Team after scoring a team-best 18 touchdowns (10 rushing, six receiving and two on kickoff returns) and amassing 2,218 all-purpose yards.

Last fall, Palisades racked up 582 points in 14 contests (an average of 41.5 per game), notched 11 victories, finished second in the Western League and reached a City final for only the fourth time since the school opened in 1961. A primary reason was quarterback Jack Thomas, who  threw for 3,369 yards and 46 touchdowns and ran for 12 more scores as a junior. The reigning City Division I Offensive MVP looked sharp in an intrasquad scrimmage Saturday at Santa Monica College, tossing three touchdowns passes to Harris and a pair of 80-yard scoring strikes to Dezeurn.

“We’ll be better than we were last year,” predicted Demethris, who had 31 catches for 714 yards and seven touchdowns as a junior last year. “We’ve had more time to work on team. Jack [Thomas] knows me like the back of his hand and vice versa. Our goal is to go to Open and win it. Everybody felt that loss [in the finals] last year. We’ve had that taste in our mouth ever since and we want to get rid of it.”

The Palisades Fire in January severely damaged the Pali High campus and as a result the Dolphins do not get to play or practice at Stadium by the Sea this season. They will host their annual Charter Bowl game versus Granada Hills and their homecoming game against University at Santa Monica College. A home site is still being worked out for their regular season finale against Fairfax on Senior Night. All of the rest of their games will be on the road. Dymally had to cancel next Friday’s season opener due to a lack of players, leaving Smith scrambling for a replacement opponent.

“If we can’t find a game for Zero Week we’ll try for the bye week   [Sept. 19],” Smith said. “You don’t want to have to play so many weeks in a row with no breaks in between, but if we have to we will. We want to play 10 games.”

The Dolphins’ youth up front is the chief concern for offensive line coach Syr Riley, a 2018 Palisades alum who has returned to his alma mater to offer his expertise after having played five years at the Division I college level. “Right now I’ve got Liam [Hudson] at left tackle, Tom [Passman] at left guard, Walter [Perez-Webster] at center, Grayson [Brooks] at right guard and Hunter [Kizee] at right tackle, but  Grayson and Walter will switch off. Tom and Grayson didn’t play varsity last year so this way they’ll always have an experienced guy next to them.”    

Anchoring the defense will be All-City linebacker Nico Townsley (93 tackles last year), end Jackson Kaufman (41 tackles), tackle Mike Tobin and linebacker Enzo Allen, who was JV Defensive Player of the Year as a sophomore last fall.

“We’re coming into the season strong,” Allen said. “Every year you have guys that leave but you have other guys who get better. I have super high hopes. We’re gonna  be fast and strong on defense. We know our offense is the best we’re going to see all season and going up against them everyday only makes us better. Some days we don’t do as good but iron sharpens iron. We’re going to be underdogs.”

Smith said some players will go both ways (offense and defense) and one of them is Augie Evans, who will line up at tight end on offense and split time between end and linebacker on defense.

“Our defense is about 11 hats to the ball and being one unit—if one guy misses a tackle the next guy makes it,” said Evans, who had 14 receptions for 168 yards and three touchdowns last year and is also on the varsity basketball team. “The offense is more centered around the quarterback but on defense I can make a play every down. Defensive end is more natural to me but I can play the gap… wherever coaches need me. Just don’t take me off the field. I want to be in there on every snap.”

Palisades will practice at UCLA next week through September 12, then switch to John Adams Middle School. The Dolphins travel to Reseda today to scrimmage Cleveland and Van Nuys.

“I haven’t been able to do a lot of football things I’d normally do because of the field situation,” Smith said. “So we’re behind in certain areas but the scrimmage will help us to see where we are.”         

Tennis Event Celebrates Palisadian’s Life on His Birthday

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

There was nothing Braun Levi enjoyed more than playing tennis, so on August 9—what would have been his 19th birthday—more than 300 people showed up at the Peninsula Racquet Center in Palos Verdes for the inaugural Live Like Braun Tennis Tournament, a fitting tribute to an inspiring young man whose life was taken too soon.

Levi was a senior about to graduate from Loyola High School when he was killed May 4 by an alleged drunk driver in Manhattan Beach. The captain of the Cubs’ tennis team, he was set to attend the University of Virginia. He and his family were living in the South Bay after having lost their Bienveneda home in the Palisades Fire.

“We created the Live Like Braun Foundation to keep this incredible legacy alive by inspiring others to live like he did,” his mom Jennifer said before over 140 players took the courts for five hours of Live Ball doubles competition. “We’re committed to lifting up all you young people and helping you pursue your academic dreams, just like Braun would’ve wanted. So today as we serve, slice and maybe whiff a few balls we’re doing it with purpose, we’re doing it with love and we’re doing it in the spirit of someone who made this world a better place, one match at a time.”      

Tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver was there and encouraged everyone to “keep playing tennis and keep honoring Braun.” Among those participating were Braun’s dad Dan, Loyola tennis coach Brian Held and several of his teammates, including his doubles partner and fellow Palisadian Cooper Schwartz.

“I’m seeing people I hadn’t seen since I was 8… it’s a beautiful mix of everyone who knew Braun,” said Schwartz, who paired up with Nick Rogers, his previous doubles partner at Loyola. “Braun and I were closer off the court than on. I lived with his family for a week after the fires. He was in the room across from me and every night I slept in his room.”

Several Palisades High tennis alums were in the draw, Among them was Jex Frankel, who paired up with his dad Shepherd.   

“Braun was one of my good friends growing up… we were on the Pali Waves at the PTC when we were 10 years old,” said Frankel, now a junior on the men’s team at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “I was at school when my parents called me the morning he died. It was devastating news.”

Ben Tom graduated from Pali High in 2006 and became an instructor at the Palisades Tennis Center five years later. He remembers a certain 5-year-old kid with blond hair who was not always eager to play.

“I started coaching Braun when he was a little tike,” Tom recalled. “He had an awesome attitude and he’d listen up. Sometimes if he wasn’t in the mood me and Jen would have to tag team and promise him Scooby Snacks or M&Ms so he wouldn’t run off.”    

Lucas Bellamy, who played at Pali High and then UCLA, considered Braun his younger brother: “I knew him for 10 years. Jen and Dan are like second parents and they’ve done a great job. Every year August 9 is on my calendar.”    

Former Pali High player Alex Giannini and his partner reached the final round, but ultimately prevailing 10-6 in a tiebreaker were 17-year-old Andrew Sweeney, a teammate of Braun’s at Loyola, and pro tour player Miles Jones. “It was fun,” Sweeney said. “This is the best format they could’ve chosen.”   

To learn more about the foundation or to make a donation visit livelikebraunfoundation.org or on Instagram at @livelikebraunfoundation.

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He has thrown thousands of passes in his life, in stadiums packed with people, but none have been as meaningful to Miller Moss as the ones he threw on July 26 at Beverly Hills High. Like so many other local residents, the college football quarterback was directly impacted by the Palisades Fire, but he was happy to host a Fire Relief Youth Camp with Flexworks Sports and it was hard to tell who was having more fun—Moss or the 50 kids ages 6-16 who signed up.

“It was awesome and we had a great turnout,” sais Moss, a redshirt senior who transferred to Louisville in December after spending four years at USC. “I want to thank the campers, parents, coaches and staff for making our camp such a success. It was an honor to give back to the community that’s given me so much. Campers were grouped according to age and activities included lectures, fundamental skill stations, contests and awards. The session ended with a scrimmage in which Moss switched sides after each possession. He stayed afterwards taking pictures and signing campers’ hats and t-shirts.

“It’s a little nostalgic because I used to be a kid going to camps in this area,” Moss said. “I’m optimistic how much we raised.”    

The house Moss and his sister grew up in on De Pauw burned down, as did his grandmother’s house on Northfield.   

“I was getting ready to leave in a few days,” Moss said, remembering where he was January 7. “I was at home eating lunch when a buddy texted me. By that night we were out.”       

Foreshadowing what was to come, Moss won the boys’ 8-9 division of the NFL’s Punt, Pass and Kick qualifying competition at Palisades High in 2010, used his accurate arm to lead the Rancho Dominguez Lobos to the AAU California 14U Super Bowl as an eighth-grader at St. Matthew’s, went on to become the first freshman quarterback to start for Loyola’s varsity team and spent the last three years of high school at Alemany in Mission Hills.   

He made his first start for USC in the 2024 Holiday Bowl and was named offensive MVP after throwing a record six touchdown passes.  Ironically, that came against Louisville—the school he looks forward to playing at in head coach Jeff Brohm’s pro-style offense.     

“At the end of the day it’s a great opportunity,” Moss said. “As a quarterback walking into a new program the most important thing is to establish a strong work ethic.”     

A winter of tragedy turned into a summer of triumph for a resilient group of young players from the Pacific Palisades Baseball Association.

Under the tutelage of head coach Matt Underwood and assistants Chad Martin and Jeremy Elbaum, the league’s Mustang 10U All-Stars advanced to the Super Regionals of the PONY sanctioned playoffs.

The roster included right fielders Nate Underwood and Milo Rotter; left fielders Brady Elbaum and Bowie Thorne; center fielder Dax Skinner; first baseman Tristan Kawasaki; second baseman Maddox Martin; third basemen Ben Underwood and Will Fiel; shortstop Carter Bergman; and catcher Jack Hetherington.

“We were 19-4 in All-Star tournaments and we were 12-2 in sanctions,” Coach Elbaum said. “Six of 11 kids lost their houses in the Palisades Fire. We practiced in Santa Monica. We won the Open (maybe the first Pali team to ever do it) and we won our region. We were two wins away from Zone.  We’re coming back next year to win the World Series.”

On July 29, Angel City Football Club announced that veteran defender and Palisadian Ali Riley was being taken off the National Women’s Soccer  League season-ending injury list. She haf been placed on the list midway through the 2024 NWSL season due to a leg injury.   

In a statement posted on the team’s website, Riley said: “This could easily have been a career-ending injury and nobody could tell me for sure that it wasn’t, so I’m overwhelmed with joy at reaching this milestone…

“While I’m really proud of myself for not giving up, I’m even more grateful for all of the medical professionals who never gave up on me and my teammates for supporting me when I didn’t know if I’d ever kick a ball again.

“I was out for a long time, so I’m going to have to work really hard to wear the jersey again, but I’m going to give it everything I’ve got and with these players by my side I have to believe anything’s possible.”

Riley’s childhood home in the Alphabet Streets burned down in the Palisades Fire.