Eighth in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Wesley Ace, Gardena Serra defensive back.<\/p>\n
Wesley Ace has no complaints when people underestimate his football ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple coaches just walk by,\u201d he said of recruiters showing up at practices and bypassing him.<\/p>\n
At 5 feet 9 and 180 pounds, the Gardena Serra High cornerback is used to the skepticism because of his size.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all good,\u201d he said. \u201cMy film speaks for itself. If you\u2019re a baller, you\u2019re a baller.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Ace is a fast baller, having run the 100 meters last spring in 10.51 seconds at the school that produced state 100-meter champion Rodrick Pleasant. Ace also has video of him running down the speedy Deshonne Redeaux last season to prevent a touchdown against Oaks Christian. Redeaux is a freshman at USC this season.<\/p>\n
Playing the nickel position in Serra\u2019s 4-2-5 defensive alignment, Ace contributed 52 tackles. He\u2019s an aggressive tackler. He\u2019s far stronger than people think, bench-pressing 275 pounds.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been playing tackle football only since eighth grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole life, I\u2019ve been playing baseball,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Then he got bored and switched to football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had to get stronger, faster and learn the rules of the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His first position was defensive end. The coach must have wanted someone to be a pest going after quarterbacks with his lack of size.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so fast, big guys that age couldn\u2019t keep in front of me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Ace learned to play defensive back and was most effective last season covering slot receivers. This season he\u2019ll get a chance to show what he can do against taller players as a cornerback. He\u2019s confident his speed and strength will make it a smooth adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a defensive back, you\u2019re going to mess up eventually,\u201d he said. \u201cSpeed allows you to recover and get back.\u201d<\/p>\n
His father, Wesley Sr., was a standout defensive back at Westchester and San Diego State who never encouraged his son to play football because of head injury concerns. He\u2019s been training him while serving as an assistant principal in the Los Angeles Unified School District.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad always says be everything but big,\u201d Ace said.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t be surprised to see Serra taking advantage of Ace\u2019s speed by letting him return kickoffs and make some plays on offense. Regardless, he finds a way to contribute on defense with his quickness, instincts and fearless attitude. He committed to San Jos\u00e9 State during the summer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, I play with a chip on my shoulder,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Wednesday: Gabriel Goroyan, Westlake kicker.<\/p>\n
Defensive backs to watch<\/p>\n
Isala Aisa Wily-Ava, St. John Bosco, 6-2, 195, Sr.: Washington commit has been starting so long he might have grey hair<\/p>\n
Wesley Ace, Gardena Serra, 5-9, 180, Sr.: San Jos\u00e9 State commit ran 10.51 seconds for 100 meters<\/p>\n
Myles Baker, Sierra Canyon, 6-2, 205, Sr.: UCLA commit is built like the Rock of Gibraltar<\/p>\n
Jordan Hicks, Mission Viejo, 6-1, 180, Jr.: Ambitious, confident and decisive on any field<\/p>\n
Jaden Walk-Green, Corona Centennial, 6-0, 195 Sr.: Washington commit had 10 interceptions last season<\/p>\n
JuJu Johnson, Long Beach Poly, 5-11, 175, Sr.: UCLA commit is most improved player anywhere<\/p>\n
Danny Lang, Mater Dei, 6-1, 165, Sr.: USC commit thrives on hand-to-hand combat with receivers<\/p>\n
Jaxson Rex, San Clemente, 6-1, 190, Sr.: Put him anywhere on the field and BYU commit would excel<\/p>\n
Gavin Williams, Damien, 6-1, 185, Sr.: USC commit will set highest standard at safety this season<\/p>\n
Donte Wright, Long Beach Poly, 6-2, 180, Sr.: Miami commit is physical cornerback with speed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eighth in a series of stories profiling top high school football players by position. Today, Wesley Ace, Gardena…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[140606,97058,173177,43541,48,52,51,47,50,49,16975,996,278,9018,19930,87851,1092,3533,173178,173175,173176],"class_list":["post-436287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-baller","tag-cornerback","tag-football-ability","tag-gardena-serra","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-position","tag-san-jose-state","tag-season","tag-second","tag-speed","tag-thrill","tag-ucla","tag-usc","tag-washington-commit","tag-wesley-ace","tag-wesley-sr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436287","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=436287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}