Moorpark’s Russian Nose Guard Has Bear of Appetite for Food, Sacks

If Vladislav Kasurskin ever gets a knack for this football thing, the NFL might come calling.

Kasurskin, a backup nose guard at Moorpark College, is a 23-year-old Russian bigger than the Kremlin. He’s 6 feet 6, 325 pounds and can squat 605 pounds and bench press 510, easily the top marks on the team.

But he had never played football and has limited knowledge of English, which makes it more difficult for him to learn the sport.

“In the beginning, everyone would gather around and then they would run away,” Kasurskin said through an interpreter. “I didn’t understand where they were going.”

He grasped one of the main concepts immediately, however. “I love to kill the quarterback,” said Kasurskin, who has lived in Hollywood since arriving from Kiev two years ago. “I can’t fight in the street because I’ll go to jail. But on the field, it’s necessary [to be aggressive].”

Kasurskin says he has gained 85 pounds since coming to the United States. His favorite food?

“ Vsyo ,” Kasurskin said.

That’s Russian for “everything.”

What a kick: All the legwork Adolfo Perez did after he was named men’s soccer coach at Mission College a few months ago already has paid off.

“I spent a lot of time recruiting,” said Perez, 26, a former defender at Cal State Northridge and the El Camino Real High coach last season. “We are trying to establish something. These boys are committed.”

Going into Tuesday’s game at Oxnard, the Free Spirit was 6-1-4 and 1-1-2 in Western State Conference play, a significant improvement over last season’s 0-11-1 finish. Mission tied Santa Barbara, the state’s top-ranked team, 1-1, on Friday and its only conference loss came three days earlier against Glendale, 3-0.

Perez, who is assisted by older brother Jose, a former Northridge forward, has 17 freshmen on the 21-man roster. But the young players are not bashful about their goals.

“They think they can win conference,” Perez said.

Looking for a change: Rhaina Echols, an all-area cross-country selection at Glendale High last year, is continuing a family tradition by attending The Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Echols, 16th in last year’s Southern Section Division I cross-country championships, timed 11 minutes 33.47 seconds in the 3,200 meters in track. She wanted to experience a new school environment as a senior and that led her to The Academy of the New Church, her mother Gabrielle Reynolds said.

Reynolds, her parents and her maternal grandmother also attended the academy.

“[Rhaina’s entire senior class] is smaller than one of her typical classes at Glendale,” Reynolds said. “So she’s going through some culture shock. But she seems to be enjoying it.”

Although the academy does not field athletic teams, Echols is allowed to run as an independent in the Lower Moreland township school district.

Easy does it: Even though the Cal State Northridge men’s basketball team doesn’t have a player taller than 6-7 and figures to play an up-tempo game, it won’t be too up-tempo. The Matadors won’t be replicating Paul Westhead’s shoot-every-four-seconds offense.

“I tried that once and it was the biggest disaster of my coaching career,” Coach Pete Cassidy said. “I’m more conservative than Rush Limbaugh when it comes to basketball.”

Quotebook

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“She has come so far in the two years she’s been here. She has no clue where she’s going because she’s going there so fast.”

-- Cal State Northridge men’s and women’s swimming Coach Barry Schreifels on junior Andrea Stevenson, the Matador’s top distance swimmer.

By the Numbers

Valley College wide receiver David Eastham had four receptions in a 46-16 victory over Harbor on Saturday and moved into second place on the school’s all-time receiving list with 87, behind Brian Comer with 139.

Things to Do

Cal State Northridge plays host to UCLA in a nonconference women’s soccer game tonight at 7 at North Campus Stadium.

George O’Mara meets Justin Fortune in the co-main event of a five-bout boxing card at the Warner Center Marriott tonight at 7:30. Both fighters are coming off losses against former world champions: O’Mara to Mike Weaver and Fortune to Lennox Lewis.

Compiled by Fernando Dominguez. Contributing: Fernando Dominguez, Jeff Fletcher, Mike Hiserman, Paige A. Leech, John Ortega.