Expand<\/a><\/p>\nLAKEWOOD \u2014 The Lakewood football team will have a new starting quarterback for the first time since 2023, and Aidan Kautsky believes he\u2019s up to the task.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-2 senior, who is also a pitcher and outfielder on the school\u2019s baseball team, backed up dual-threat quarterback Kade Casillas last season. Casillas was the team\u2019s starter for three seasons and has now graduated.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the next man up,\u201d said Kautsky, who has been playing quarterback for two years. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to the season, getting out there, showing my potential. Hopefully, it\u2019s going to be a good ride this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Mario Morales is entering his second season leading Lakewood after previous lengthy stops at St. Anthony, where he won a CIF-SS Division 10 title in 2016, and at Wilson, where he coached seven-time Pro Bowl selection offensive guard Joel Bitonio, who recently retired from the Cleveland Browns after 12 seasons.<\/p>\n
Morales said he believes in Kautsky\u2019s potential. He completed 6 of 11 attempts for 147 yards, one touchdown and one interception last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing is preparation,\u201d Morales said. \u201cThe second thing is the opportunity that he understands that he has and then believing in him. And that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019ve done. I\u2019ll tell you, Aidan\u2019s done a great job being coachable. He\u2019s like a sponge. He absorbs everything. He asks a lot of questions. The key for him again is just being prepared. We try to prepare him the best we can, but he has done some great things for us in a short amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lancers finished 6-5 overall last season and 4-2 in the Moore League (third place). They lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 5 playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that our discipline from last year will be much better,\u201d Lakewood senior running back Thales Nguyen said. \u201cI expect our team to not show as many flags and to honestly be the better team on the other side of the field, in terms of losing yardage to mistakes made by a singular player.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cJust like in life, even on the field, when you make a mistake, you have to learn from the mistake,\u201d Morales added. \u201cI think that\u2019s the key and try not to make that mistake again, but more importantly, learn from that mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lakewood will play a quality nonleague schedule with games against Corona del Mar, Paramount, Ventura, Mayfair, Torrance and Villa Park. The Lancers will begin Moore League play against Long Beach Poly at Cabrillo High on Oct. 2, followed by league games against Millikan, Wilson and Jordan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur declining enrollment has been something we\u2019ve been keeping an eye on,\u201d Morales explained. \u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s still football. It\u2019s 11 versus 11 and it\u2019s about teaching these young men about doing things the right way and understanding the bigger picture. Whether it was 33 years ago when I first started or today, at the end of the day, it\u2019s about these guys believing and working hard and understanding what a work ethic is and commitment and all the intangibles that we preach. Because again, I\u2019m a big believer that high school football isn\u2019t everything. It\u2019s what you learn from it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nguyen will be key player for the Lancers at running back. Senior Davian Avila will anchor the team\u2019s offensive and defensive lines. Senior Murdoch Langdon will split time between safety and linebacker and senior Joe Joe Macias will play slot receiver and linebacker.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say I play fast,\u201d Macias said. \u201cNo matter what I\u2019m going to do, I\u2019m going to do it 100%.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ultimately, success for the Lancers will heavily rely on the team\u2019s bevy of two-way players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everybody on our team is willing to do whatever it takes to win,\u201d Macias said. \u201cIf we have to play two positions, kickoff, punt, we will do everything. Whatever it takes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe define success like I said many times about who these guys end up being down the road,\u201d Morales added. \u201cI love when players come back and reminisce\u2026 It\u2019s the experience they\u2019re having right now and what they do with what they\u2019ve learned moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lakewood\u2019s Davian Avila faces the media on Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, at Millikan High School in Long Beach.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,5479,2043,2044,22251,131,133,132,137,127],"class_list":["post-431944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-high-school-all-sports","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-lakewood","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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