Story By Damin Esper | Photos By Dennis Lee
Gunnar Rask’s first try at football was when he went to a De La Salle High School-Concord camp when he was in third grade. He started out trying the defensive line and wide receiver.
“I could not figure out X, Y and Z to line up off and on the ball. So the next year I was an offensive lineman,” Rask said.
It all worked out. Rask is now a senior for the Spartans, playing both offensive and defensive line.
“The most humbling part about the position is that you’re going to be the person that the quarterback and running back and wide receiver thank after the game,” he said.
Now, the Spartans are back in the California Interscholastic Federation Open Division championship game, set to face Mater Dei-Santa Ana at Cerritos College on Dec. 8. It will be a repeat of last year’s title game when De La Salle fell to the Monarchs, 52-21.
The endpoint is the same for Rask and the Spartans, but the journey has been a little different. De La Salle is now 12-0 on the season but it opened the year with several question marks. Rask, the right tackle, was the only returning starter on the offensive line. That line was expected to protect sophomore quarterback Dorian Hale, the first sophomore to start a season at quarterback for De La Salle in 20 years.
Rask said it wouldn’t be a problem.
“This offensive line definitely grinded over the offseason,” he said. “I knew (Hale) would be ready from the get go.”
The 6-foot-2, 277-pound Rask added that its the work he and the other linemen have put in every year that instills that confidence.
“It goes back to freshman year,” he said. “How many times have I hit that blocking sled, working on perfecting my footwork.”
De La Salle coach Justin Alumbaugh called Rask an anchor on the line.
“We talked to our line at the beginning of the year that they’re going to have to be real solid,” Alumbaugh said. “We have a 15-year old quarterback coming in. They’ve done a good job of that. He’s the captain on that line. He’s the brightest one we’ve got up there. He’s helping everybody out making sure everybody knows what they’re doing.”
In that opener, the Spartans offense struggled to get going, getting shut out in the first half for the first time since 2013. However, the De La Salle defense, led in part by Rask, was just as tough, shutting out Folsom, a team that averaged over 48 points per game in 2017 when it went 16-0.
Rask was right in the middle of a key sequence that turned the game early in the third quarter. Folsom was facing a third-and-13 at its own 17. Rask broke through and sacked quarterback Kaiden Bennett for a 6-yard loss, forcing a punt. Shamar Garrett returned the punt to the Folsom 28, setting up De La Salle for its first touchdown. The Spartans ended up winning 14-0.
This is an excerpt from SportStars Magazine’s forthcoming feature on Gunnar Risk set to release in our December issue at SportStarsMag.com on Dec. 6.
1 comment
Good luck on the big game, Spartans!
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