Venice Has Its New York Story

Motivated by a desire to play big-time high school football in Los Angeles, Ryan Wichard convinced his parents to pack their bags and move from New York in July to the Venice area.

He brought his New York accent and New York attitude to Venice High, where he has become a starting linebacker. He hasn’t looked back.

Wichard walks around Venice Beach with no trepidation.

“It’s a very interesting place, with a lot of characters,” he said.

He works out at Gold’s Gym in Venice.

“I didn’t see Arnold Schwarzenegger but saw his bodybuilding pictures on the wall,” he said.

Friends in New York told him about living in California.

“All Californians are into surfing, have blond hair, wear Oakley sunglasses and walk around with bottled water,” he said.

All Wichard cares about is football. He’s a 6-foot, 225-pound senior who obviously didn’t do a good background check on what he was getting into by enrolling at Venice.

He’d heard about the school from attending a football camp and meeting former Venice players. They neglected to mention to him that four starting linebackers were returning.

But Wichard was so good Coach Angelo Gasca moved one returning starter to defensive end. Wichard is a big reason Venice is off to a 7-0 start and has improved its defense.

“Ryan has been accepted by the guys,” Gasca said. “He has such a tremendous work ethic and has their respect and attention.”

Wichard was a top player for Harborfields High, a 937-student school on Long Island, but during summer visits to Los Angeles to attend camps and hang out with his uncle, NFL agent Gary Wichard, he became intrigued by the idea of testing himself against the best.

His parents were thinking of moving to the West Coast one day to join the rest of the family, so he convinced them to speed up their schedule. They left behind New York suburbia, their synagogue and friends to move into a two-bedroom apartment in Marina del Rey.

“If you were walking [on Long Island] in October, you’d see the leaves turning orange, the Halloween decorations going up and the crisp air,” Wichard said.

Now he attends a high school that has 3,100 students.

“The school is like a city to me,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘Man, this is different. You’ve got to make it work.’ ”

It’s almost as if Wichard began college life a year early. Everything revolves around his commitment to football.

“The hardest part of the transition is I had to leave a lot of kids I grew up with,” he said. “I was captain of the football team. It was a place I had to leave to go to a bigger pond. I’m surviving. I’m going out every day and working to get better.”

There are no off days in football as far as Wichard is concerned.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s my favorite thing in the whole world. Almost every day over the summer when I got here, I got up at 6 in the morning and did speed work, then headed over to Gold’s Gym and pounded the weights.”

Venice players came up with Wichard’s nickname, “New York.” He’s still adjusting to life in Southern California.

“I see some of the kids walking around campus with sweatshirts and I think they’re crazy,” he said. “I go, ‘You think it’s cold? You don’t know what cold is.’ ”

Wichard has played high school football games in the snow, so he’s ready for rain and mud.

“We haven’t seen a drop of rain since we’ve been here,” said Wichard’s father, Alvin. “We used to go to games with rain gear, extra coats, blankets, gloves. You never knew what you’d get.”

But perhaps the biggest adjustment for Wichard and his family is the driving in Southern California.

“I think L.A. traffic is worse, because if you give an L.A. driver three quarters of a car length, somebody’s taking that spot,” Alvin said. “The drivers here would make New York cab drivers shake.”

Added Ryan: “I actually stare in shock how fast they’re flying past me.”

Wichard has worked out with several of his uncle’s NFL clients, including defensive end Terrell Suggs of the Baltimore Ravens.

“These guys show me what it takes to be a freak on the field,” he said. “I want to turn into a machine.”

The player Wichard has used as a role model is another client of his uncle, former USC running back Justin Fargas.

He remembers Fargas being asked, “How do you like being new to USC after breaking your leg a couple times?”

“He said, ‘I got no choice. I have to perform.’ I had no choice. This is what I wanted to do and I was doing it. That’s my motto and it’s driving me,” Wichard said.

Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.