FRESH FACES—The Westlake High football team will feature five new starters on its offensive line this season. They are, from left, tackle Tony Mekari, guard Javier Aguilera, center Jordie Hannel, guard Anthony Davanzo and tackle Keith Ramljak. Only Ramljak, a junior, has varsity experience. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers But what about the offensive line?

High school football fans throughout the Southland have certainly heard all about Westlake High senior quarterback Nick Isham, a spectacular playmaker with game-breaking ability behind center or outside the pocket.

They’ve more than likely read of senior wide receiver Nelson Spruce, the pass-catching dynamo with stick-em hands and a backpack full of scholarship offers.

Senior tailback Tavior Mowry has gained his share of positive publicity, too. And for good reason. Mowry mows through would-be tacklers like Warrick Dunn on the turf in Tampa.

On the defensive side, behemoth junior tackle Justin Solis and junior end Johnny Stuart anchor a stout unit that can be as stingy as any group in the county.

Top-shelf talents such as Isham, Spruce, Mowry, Solis and Stuart are key reasons why MaxPreps.com ranks the Warriors as the No. 1 program in the state heading into the team’s regular-season opener Sept. 10 against Oxnard.

But what about the offensive line?

That’s the big question in Warrior Country.

Coming off a 14-0 campaign in which the program won Marmonte League and CIF-Southern Section Northern Division crowns, Westlake is primed for another alltime season—assuming, of course, the offensive line can hold its own in the trenches.

Four starters from the 2009 line have graduated. The only returning starter, senior Zach Miller, is out for the year due to an injury, a setback WHS head coach Jim Benkert called “devastating.”

Enter five fresh faces: tackles Keith Ramljak and Tony Mekari, guards Javier Aguilera and Anthony Davanzo, and center Jordie Hannel. Ramljak is the only member of the group who took varsity snaps last year, and those were fairly limited. Mekari is a sophomore. The rest are juniors.

These young men—in addition to the team’s talented but raw backups—can make or break Westlake’s season. They know it, and they relish the challenge.

“We watched the linemen before us for three years, and they were like our role models,” said Hannel, who carries a 4.5 gradepoint average. “We just have to come up and fill their shoes and do what we can to make it seem like we’re the ones who are returning starters.”

All of the starting linemen measure in at between 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-4, with the group weighing a combined 1,307 pounds. Big dudes, indeed.

They’re smart, too. In addition to Hannel’s 4.5 GPA, Davanzo carries a 4.3 and Ramljak a 3.7. Mekari and Aguilera are both hovering above 3.0.

Andy Flores, in his seventh year coaching the offensive line at Westlake, has been training the new players since January. He appreciates the way this unit puts its collective heads down, stays grounded and goes to work every day eager to improve.

“There is no superstar mentality,” Flores said. “We’re kind of like old-school Penn State. If one guy wears a tie, then we all wear a tie. If not, then take it off. These guys stay humble. They don’t believe in the hype, don’t believe in the rankings. Every day is just another day at the office. . . .

“We like to use the analogy that defensive linemen are like cats. They’re worried about sacks, tackles and individual stuff. The offensive linemen, they’re like dogs. They take care of each other, and they’ll love you to death. They’ll gel together, and we will protect our quarterback.”

Isham, who’s received offers from Air Force and New Mexico State, understands that the big guys up front—the ones that are unlikely to see their names in the box score—are the most vital cog in the Westlake engine.

“The line is the key to our success as an offense,” Isham said. “They are what gets us down the field. These guys have shown unbelievable promise since we started in the spring. They’ve done nothing but work hard.”

With a small sample of varsity action under his belt, Ramljak can attest to the vast difference in skill level from junior varsity ball to the varsity stage.

Bigger, stronger, faster, better— it all applies now.

“I’ll tell these guys that you can’t slack off at all and get the job done,” Ramljak said. “You have to go 100 percent on every play at the varsity level or else you’re going to be on the ground. If that happens, the coaches will yell at you and it’ll be on film. You don’t want that to happen.”

As good as the Warriors’ skill players have been in recent seasons, the offensive linemen know it falls on their shoulders to help the playmakers produce during a season in which a large target has been firmly planted on the stars’ collective backs.

“Those guys are phenoms, but they’re nothing without an offensive line,” Davanzo said. “We have to maintain that. If you have an all-state quarterback and an all-state wide receiver and they don’t have a line, they’re nothing.

“Is there pressure? Definitely. But we have to provide for those guys. They support us, now we have to support them.”