Longtime Venice football coach Angelo Gasca has died

Angelo Gasca, a one-of-a-kind high school football coach who grew up using football to escape gangs and became a beloved special education teacher, mentor and coach for 36 years at Venice High, died Monday night while watching a Lakers game on television, according to his longtime friend Steve Clarkson. Gasca was 65 years old.

The 1978 Venice graduate never left his neighborhood and met his wife, Elda, in high school. Gasca won his first and only City Section Division I championship in 2021. He was known for his innovative passing schemes and for producing many of the City Section’s top quarterbacks, led by former NFL player JP Losman. He was so well-liked in Venice that coaching the sons of former players became the norm. He loved the “neighborhood team” concept.

During his 26 seasons as head coach at his alma mater, Gasca built the program into a perennial contender for City. His teams won 43 consecutive league matches between 2005 and 2014.

“I’ve known Angelo since I was in high school,” said Palisades coach Dylen Smith, whose team won a thriller at Venice, 56-54, in October en route to the WHL title. “I played against him at Santa Monica High and got to know him better when I played at SMC when he worked there, and then of course I coached against him at Pali.

“He was a brilliant football coach to me. I learned a lot from him as an offensive coach and I took a few things I saw him do and used them myself. Outside of football, Angelo was a great human being. He was always genuine, kind and helpful. Even though he was at a rival school, he was always willing to help in any way. We will miss him!”

Perhaps Gasca’s most important contribution was the training, support and preparation of players to become teachers and coaches. Most of his team at Venice is made up of former players. It would help them accomplish the difficult task of earning a teaching degree and find them a job.

He was very proud of former running back Byron Ellis, who became an orthopedic surgeon, and wide receiver Brycen Tremayne, who walked on at Stanford, went undrafted and joined the Carolina Panthers.

Last month, Gasca was asked if he had ever learned anything from a player and he told the story of a coaches meeting and one of his former players reminded him that he wanted to quit football, but Gasca wouldn’t let him.

“I do not accept your resignation today,” Gasca told him. “You need to go home and think about it.”

Gasca said: “He went home and thought about it, stayed on the team and was the starting center. He taught me that the best thing we can teach kids is to come to school and you never know what connections you will make at the school you grew up in. He taught me that coaching is about more than winning games and scoring touchdowns. In our lives as teachers and coaches, we learn from the players. When we quit to learn, it’s time to stop coaching.”

Even though rumors swirled last season that Gasca would retire, he insisted on his return because he loved teaching and coaching and believed that competing in sports could change someone’s life for the better.

“My parents didn’t go to high school,” he said. “When you play, you get a little taste of success and you want to play harder and people come into your life and help you. It’s just as easy to do well as it is to do bad. Sometimes when your friends zigzag to the right, you have to zigzag to the left. The life lessons we learn together, that’s what matters.”

In addition to his wife Elda, Gasca is survived by his daughter Alyssa, also a Venice graduate.