Quarterback Status Sets Tone for Coaches

As spring football practice gets underway this month, the smiling coaches are the ones whose starting quarterbacks are returning. Coaches who appear a little frantic are trying to break in quarterbacks.

“When the triggerman is lost, the whole offense is lost,” said Coach Dave White of Huntington Beach Edison.

White is one of the smiling coaches. He started a sophomore, Brian Shrock, last season, and has him for two more years.

“If they’re mature enough and good enough to play that early, they’re only going to get better,” White said. “Brian did a lot of good things as a sophomore. He’s working hard in the weight room and watching film.”

There are some excellent returning quarterbacks, but the intrigue this spring revolves around top programs trying to find replacements at the most important position in football.

Southern Section champions Los Angeles Loyola, Newhall Hart and Westlake Village Westlake must start from scratch, choosing successors to Scott Deke, Sean Norton and Rudy Carpenter, respectively.

“It’s a guy who touches the ball every play,” Westlake Coach Jim Benkert said. “It’s always good to have a guy who’s learned the ropes for a year or two. If you’d like one position to have a returning guy, it would be quarterback.”

Jason Forcier started at Santa Ana Mater Dei as a sophomore and junior, then moved to San Diego, forcing the program to turn to three players who have never taken a varsity snap.

“That’s what we lost, a two-year investment,” Mater Dei Coach Bruce Rollinson said.

The summer passing season, during which teams play each other in seven-on-seven competitions, figures to be more important than ever for teams with new quarterbacks.

There will be tournaments at Edison, La Verne Bonita, Claremont, Saugus and Mission Viejo that should help schools develop their passing schemes.

But by the end of spring practice, coaches hope to have a better idea who will be calling signals for them this fall.

Hart has produced 19 consecutive seasons of All-Southern Section quarterbacks, and the competition will be intense this spring between 5-foot-11 senior Robbie Moore and 6-5 junior Tyler Lyon.

“It’s open competition, and we’ll decide before summer,” Coach Mike Herrington said. “Right off the bat, they’ll be tested in practice and we’ll see who comes out on top.”

At Loyola, which won the Division I championship last fall, Deke’s likely replacement is senior Casey Frost, who played mostly on special teams last season. But he guided the sophomore team to a championship two years ago, stands 6-3, is quick and has been tutored by former NFL quarterback Erik Kramer.

At Westlake, for the first time in eight seasons, the Warriors will have a home-grown player at quarterback instead of a transfer or a player who doesn’t reside within the school’s attendance boundary.

Competing for the starting job are senior Garrett Mosley, junior Erik Schneider and sophomore Ryan Campbell. None has attempted a varsity pass.

“I think we can win with any of them,” Benkert said.

City finalist Venice must replace Nebraska-bound Beau Davis, but Coach Angelo Gasca seems giddy about senior Robert Ambers, who played a lot as a backup for Davis.

“We think it’s a strength,” Gasca said of the quarterback position. “It’s a quarterback-friendly offense.”

The spring and summer will also serve as an opportunity for any of the top returning quarterbacks to separate themselves and earn the distinction as the best in Southern California.

Mark Sanchez of Mission Viejo, who already has a scholarship offer from USC, showed great improvement last season in his first year as a full-time starter.

Two juniors, Garrett Green of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame and Michael Herrick of Valencia, are coming off spectacular sophomore seasons and have worked hard at improving their speed and strength in the off-season.

Seth Blackamore of Orange Lutheran was unstoppable at times last season, running and passing. With defensive end Brigham Harwell of Hacienda Heights Los Altos moving on to UCLA, Blackamore won’t have to worry about a dominating sack man trying to chase him down.

Much attention will be focused on sophomore Jimmy Clausen, brother of former Tennessee quarterback Casey Clausen, as he takes over the starting position at Westlake Village Oaks Christian.

Defending City champion Carson must find a new coach, but two-year starting quarterback Bo Napoleon returns.

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