By Joe Snyder
Last season, Gardena High’s football team enjoyed some success after placing third in the always highly competitive Marine League and making the CIF-Los Angeles City Section quarterfinals.
This year’s edition of the Panthers have a few outstanding players back but most of the squad is rather young and inexperienced.
Gone from Gardena is quarterback Kevin Martinez but his replacement, senior Omar Figueroa, is showing a lot of promise. Figueroa started a few games for the Panthers with some good success and head coach Terrence Williams has a lot of hope on him. According to Williams, Figueroa is a smart athlete and has good focus.
Williams has a very good wide receiver in senior Kevin McKinney.
Another key player for Gardena is junior running back Norell Parks.
The Panthers should have a very good offensive line behind 6-foot-3, 320-pound left guard Valentino Jones, a returning starter. Six-foot-one junior Honen Nava is expected to start at center.
On defense, Gardena returns end Jalen Bigno. “He’s a pretty good rusher,” Williams said of Bigno. Other top defensive players for the Panthers include strong safety Chace Johnson, cornerback Parks, and free safety McKinney. Junior free safety Rajon Adams is expected to be another key starter.
“We’re a new team,” Williams said. “We’re still young. We’re still getting identity of who we are. We should be a strong running threat.”
Last year, Gardena finished behind eventual CIF-L.A. City Section Open Division champion Carson and second-place San Pedro and Williams feels that the Marine will continue to be competitive.
“We’re expected to see everybody (in league) beat one another and battling each other,” Williams said. “I’m excited about this season. I want to see how my quarterback (Figueroa) does.”
This season, Gardena will be without its home field after being demolished and rebuilt, hopefully in time for the 2027 season. The Panthers begin the season at Hawthorne Friday at 7 p.m. The Cougars have a milestone with a female head coach Jazmin Gamble. Gamble is a former women’s National Football Conference player from the Los Angeles Legends where she was on the all-pro team last year. Gamble could be the first female coach to coach the boys’ tackle team in CIF-Southern Section. Hawthorne mostly struggled in recent seasons. The Cougars are in the Ocean League.
Gardena’s home games will be at L.A. Harbor College in Wilmington as it has its first home game against Gahr High from Cerritos on Sept. 24. The Panthers begin the Marine League at Carson on Oct. 2.
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Serra seeks banner ‘comeback’ season
Last year, Serra High’s football team began with a lot of promise before a rash of key injuries threw the Cavaliers to a 4-6 season, including 1-4 in the Mission League, as Serra missed the CIF-Southern Section playoffs for the first time in 21 years.
This is a new season and head coach Scott Altenberg and his squad hope to stay healthy and contend for a Mission League and, possibly, a Southern Section and CIF-State crowns. That even includes a shot at knocking off powerful Chatsworth Sierra Canyon.
In addition, Serra has its stadium rebuilt after a large part of it was destroyed by a fire on March 2025.
The Cavaliers continue to have plenty of talent, including speedy defensive back-wide receiver Wesley Ace, who guided Serra’s boys’ track and field team to the CIF-Southern Section Division IV crown with 10.5 100-meter speed. Ace already committed to playing football at San Jose State University. Serra will also welcome running back A.J. McBean, a transfer from Manhattan Beach Mira Costa who is bound for Stanford University. McBean is also a standout track and field, running as fast as 10.53 in the 100-meter dash.
Serra’s offensive line should give its backfield very good aid behind returning junior Daily Breeze all-South Bay Larry Shingleton, who is 6-feet-3 and weighs 300 pounds. As a sophomore last year, Shingleton did not allow a quarterback sack. Darlington Nwenza is another returning starting lineman who is expected to go both ways.
Expected to start at quarterback is senior Mahk Tunai, who started several games last year. He will have a very good wide receiver in Hassir Houston.
“We should have a strong running game,” Altenberg said. “We have all of our linemen back, a good running back, and running quarterback. Our defensive backfield is very good and deep.”
The Cavaliers begin their season with another showdown between two of the top South Bay teams against Palos Verdes High Friday at 7 p.m. at El Camino College. The Sea Kings are led by fourth-year starting preseason all-American quarterback Ryan Rakawski, who is bound for new PAC 12 school, University of Nevada next season. Palos Verdes also has very good depth with all around and should be one of the favorites to win the extremely highly competitive Bay League. Last year, Serra shut out the Sea Kings 26-0 but P.V. is even better and it could be a different game. The Cavaliers will open their newly partially rebuilt stadium against CIF-L.A. City Section school Hamilton on Aug. 28. Serra begins the Mission at home against always tough Bishop Amat from La Puente on Oct. 2 at home.
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Former Serra standout Tate now Cavs’ flag football coach
Former Serra High football standout Akili Tate is the new head girls’ flag football coach at Serra.
Tate takes over from ex-head mentor Monique Adams, who guided the Lady Cavaliers over the past four seasons. Adams was also head coach for the Women’s National Football Conference Los Angeles Legends.
Tate, who graduated from Serra in 2013, was a member of Serra’s CIF-Southern Section Division II and CIF-State Division II team from 2012.
The Cavaliers, who finished third in the Camino Real League last season but had a 10-4 overall record, begin their season at home against CIF-L.A. City School Hamilton next Thursday at 7 p.m. Serra begins the CRL against powerful St. Joseph High from Lakewood on Sept. 9 at the same time. The Cavaliers are in the league with St. Joseph, Long Beach St. Anthony, Inglewood St. Mary’s Academy and La Puente Bishop Amat.
At the Manhattan Beach Association of Volleyball Professionals Classic last Sunday, Taryn Brasher and Kristen Cruz won their third straight at this prestigious invitational by sweeping Kelly Cheng and Megan Kraft, 21-18, 21-16. The duo swept all of their opponents, as they did in the previous two years.
For the men, it was Andy Benesh and Taylor Crabb that swept Gage Basey and Thomas Hurst, 21-14, 21-13. Like Brasher and Cruz, Benesh and Crabb also finished the tournament at 6-0, sweeping all of their opponents. For Crabb, who has been with the AVP for several years, this was his second Manhattan Beach Open title. He won with Taylor Sanders in 2023. It was the first Manhattan Beach Open crown for Benesh.
