Vertin is a leader both on and off the field for the Rams
Gilroy – It was after a hard practice late last season. One of the player’s mothers had brought refreshments for the team to enjoy.
Bradley Niles and Shane Butcher, two of Gavilan College’s top players and Division 1 prospects, approached Dustin Vertin.
“They told me I was the hardest worker on the team,” Vertin said softly. “They hadn’t talked too much to me before day. For them to open up and tell me that really inspired me. I mean, these were players who were going on to the next level and telling me that.”
That’s the type of story that would not surprise Rams’ coach John Lango. When the coaches got together before this season to decide who should be co-captains, they didn’t even discuss Vertin. It was just assumed by all that he would be a co-captain. It wasn’t because of his rah-rah style. In fact, Vertin is soft-spoken.
But he is what Lango fondly refers to as the “bell cow,” the guy that everybody follows. It’s not just that he works hard on the field and is able to play four different position. The 6-1, 220-pound center and Live Oak graduate is as hard working in the classroom where he has a 3.9 grade point average as he is on the football field.
“He just gives everything he has, whether it’s on the field or in the classroom,” Lango says. “With him it’s always a relentless effort. To me he’s the epitome of what you want a football player to be. He’s the epitome of what every coach wants.”
Vertin is not the biggest, strongest or fastest player on the field. His size may keep him from being a Division 1 player. His academics, however, assure that someone will offer him a scholarship. And if he isn’t offered anything athletically, you can bet he will try to play football anyway, and probably succeed.
“He’s a leader by example,” Lango said. “There’s a time and a place for everything. He knows when to raise his voice to get the guys going. He knows how and when to turn the switch on and off.”
Vertin wants to make one thing perfectly clear – he doesn’t look at himself as any better than anyone else.
“I like to think of myself as someone who works hard,” said Vertin. “That’s the way I was raised. I always had to work hard for everything. I don’t talk a lot. I think it’s my work ethic that shows best.”
Vertin, an honor student at Live Oak, was voted the first-team all-league center his senior season. He was also one of the team’s scholar-athletes
Vertin took last week’s 21-7 loss to Solano hard, even blaming himself for “underestimating their (defensive) line. They came off (the ball) better than we thought. We need to do a better job of blocking.”
The Rams visit Modesto Junior College, which is coming off a 23-10 win over Delta. The Pirates run a spread offense with a lot of multiple sets. They have a big running back, 6-1, 245-pound Stephan Ortega, and a smaller, quicker returnee from last year, 5-11, 190-pound Brandon Crawford. And they have a big receiver in 6-4, 205-pound Cruz Flores.
There will be changes for Gavilan this week. Sam Moultrie and Will Kilday will both see time at quarterback. Justin Sweeney, Matt Perkins and Mike Ginther will rotate at running back.
Sweeney, the former Gilroy High star, is coming off a solid debut when he rushed for 84 yards and had three kickoff returns for 104 yards, a 34.7 average.
“We kind of beat ourselves,” Vertin said of the opener. “We know we can do a lot better. I’m disappointed, but at the same time I think we learned from it (defeat). I expect this team to win and I believe we can contend for a conference championship.”
Lango knows it won’t be easy this week against a team he believes is better than Solano. At the same time, he knows that the Rams can play better and will have to be at a higher level to be competitive against Modesto and other teams on the schedule.
