By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Jason Gesser threw 20 touchdown passes
in 10 ILH games last season.

---

Call Him Leader

St. Louis quarterback Jason Gesser
has championship lineage and
a knack for winning

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

The fact that he is the great-grandson of an ancient Green Bay Packer who played on three National Football League championship teams between 1929 and 1931 never affected Jason Gesser.

He doesn't know too much about Red Dunn, although he says he feels proud to be in his lineage.

But take Darnell Arceneaux, the Houdini-like scrambling quarterback who led St. Louis to three straight Prep Bowl titles between 1993 and 1995. Now there's a dude who affected Gesser's world.

All he could think of last summer was that he was Arceneaux's successor -- and that was a daunting thought.

"Darnell could get the ball and just make something happen, and I didn't feel I was as good as him," said Gesser, who now stands 6-foot-3, 195 pounds.

"I came into the year (1996) knowing I was going to have the position and carry on the tradition, and everybody was joking, 'Hey, Jason, don't lose it this year.' When we started playing football with full pads, everyone asked who was this guy going to fill Darnell's shoes."

But Gesser found a way to focus on his own game and led St. Louis to its 11th straight Prep Bowl crown in a way no one ever expected.

He threw only one interception in 13 games, a feat that normally understated St. Louis head coach Cal Lee couldn't help calling "awesome."

"You always look for a quarterback who doesn't throw interceptions," Lee said. "Seven or eight is not bad, but one in 200 attempts?"

Gesser remembers vividly the one interception he threw last year.

"It was in the second Punahou game and it was a deflection off a deep pass to Randyn Akiona," Gesser said. "The cornerback popped it up in the air 10 feet and the free safety came over and grabbed it."

Gesser also managed to throw for 24 touchdowns in the 10-game Interscholastic League of Honolulu schedule and 2,185 yards, despite playing only about a half of each game.

Punahou head coach Dan Morrison, whose special area of expertise is quarterbacks, said Gesser has a a "big league arm," a good temperament and a strong mental grasp of the game.

But Morrison said Gesser's accuracy comes from his feet.

"You'll hear Bill Walsh tell you about Joe Montana and he'll say it's his feet that allowed him to be as accurate as he was," said Morrison.

"Quarterbacks throw with their feet," he said. "If you watch good quarterbacks, you'll see they're very balanced with their feet. Feet have more to do with effective throwing than any other part of the body."

Morrison said that Gesser doesn't have the mobility of Arceneaux, "but he's as elusive as anybody."

Lee used an NFL analogy: "Jason's not a Randall Cunningham but a Brett Favre who can run if he has to."

To cap off his 1996 season, Gesser displayed above-average poise and leadership in pulling out a tedious 7-0 victory over Waianae in the Prep Bowl. It was the lowest scoring game of the season for St. Louis and the lowest scoring Prep Bowl since 1973.

"I really don't know what happened in the Prep Bowl," he said.

"I don't think we expected to have a game like that -- we were given something like a 31-point spread. In preseason, they blitzed us. In the Prep Bowl, they were dropping back. We had 18 first downs and they had four or five. We got down into the red zone and could not push it in, due to penalties or misreads."

Despite his apologies, Gesser won the game when he threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to all-state receiver Gordon Schilling one minute and 12 seconds into the second quarter.

He racked up 175 yards on 15-of-21 passing with no interceptions.

But most important, he kept his army together and focused on winning.

"That's what I like most about him, the leadership presence that he carries," said Lee. "He's not afraid to lead."

Gesser gives large credit to longtime St. Louis quarterback coach Vince Passas for turning him into an all-stater in his first year as a starter.

"Coach Vinny always told me, 'Even if you're having a bad game, you can't show it in the huddle.' He said never to show frustration or anger. Keep it positive and make them think all they got to do is block for you and catch the ball."

Gesser heeded that advice when he got into big trouble in St. Louis' second encounter with Kamehameha last season on Nov. 29. The Warriors were ahead, 14-0, in the first quarter and Gesser was sacked twice.

"It was pouring rain -- and I was 3-for-11 going into the locker room (down 14-7), and everyone was wondering what was going on," said Gesser. "But in the locker room, I just got the offense together and told them we got to drop the first half and bust our butts to win the second half."

His square-jawed unwillingness to let down paid off as the Crusaders rallied to win, 21-14.

"Jason has matured so much from his junior year that I mean I'm just excited about what he can do this year," said Lee. "His work ethic was the same in the off-season as it was in season, his arm strength has gotten better, and his anticipation has been refined."

Gesser has raised his bench press from 180 to 225 pounds, a factor that should make his right arm even more powerful.

He'll have veteran slotbacks Craig Stutzman and Kaui Ho, as well as wide receiver Chad Satterfield for targets.

It was accidental that Gesser became a quarterback. His father, Jim, who was a standout receiver at Kaiser High, was training his son to play that position when he was in the seventh grade at St. Louis.

But Gesser broke his arm before the football season began. When it healed, he immediately broke the same bone again.

So he began playing quarterback out of the shotgun formation in intramural flag football while his arm was still in a cast.

There is no doubt about Gesser's desire this time.

"My goal is to take it to two levels above last year and do what no on else has done before," he said.