Quarterback Sante Gasperoni wants to make his own legacy at Warren De La Salle

Who was the Lansing Everett basketball player who replaced Earvin (Magic) Johnson?

Who was the Kalamazoo Central shortstop who replaced Derek Jeter?

Who was the Dearborn Heights Robichaud running back who replaced Tyrone Wheatley?

Who was the Detroit Mackenzie running back who replaced Jerome Bettis?

Those are trivia questions that will stump virtually everyone you ask.

Sante Gasperoni is in the process of becoming an answer to another trivia question: Who is the Warren De La Salle quarterback who replaced Brady Drogosh?

Drogosh reached legendary status at De La Salle last fall when he led the Pilots to their third consecutive Division 2 championship game and second straight state title.

The difference with this replacement scenario is Gasperoni doesn’t want to be the answer that virtually no one can produce.

Gasperoni, a junior, is doing all that he can to make his own star turn.

In his first season as starting quarterback, he has the Pilots (12-2) playing in the D-2 semifinals Saturday at 1 p.m. against Waterford Mott at Troy Athens.

Drogosh was the Dream Team quarterback last season, and you don’t need to rattle off a list of his accomplishments to Gasperoni.

“He was very big here at De La Salle,” Gasperoni said. “He did a lot of great things here.”

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Gasperoni isn’t trying to be another Drogosh. He wants to be his own man, with the help of Drogosh.

“I’m trying the best that I can,” he said. “Brady, previously, when I was behind him last year, he helped me a lot. Just watching him play and seeing what he does and what he sees on the field, it really helped me and picked up a vision of the game, too.”

So far Gasperoni’s vision of the game appears to be 20/20.

Heading into the semifinals, he has been terrific. In 12 games, he has run for 903 yards and 14 touchdowns on 136 carries.

Although he has the stats of a run-first quarterback, he is zeroing in on 2,000 yards passing, completing 135 of 214 passes for 1,922 yards and another 20 TDs.

“He’s actually passing the ball a lot better than Brady did,” De La Salle coach Dan Rohn said. “He’s not quite the runner Brady is. But he’s averaging 235 yards a game right now between passing and running.”

Once the championship game trophy was presented last November, Gasperoni devised a plan to make sure he was this year’s starting quarterback.

“I was ready to work going into the offseason,” he said. “I knew I had to work, study the playbook, get ready with my receivers, offensive line. I was ready to get prepared and ready for the season.”

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Drogosh is now a freshman backup quarterback with Cincinnati in the Big 12. He keeps track of the Pilots on a weekly basis and he has been impressed with Gasperoni.

“He’s surprised the hell out of me this year,” Drogosh said. “He’s thrown some great balls, he’s run the ball hard. I think he’s thrown for more passing yards than I had.”

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Gasperoni that he has been so efficient this fall. It isn’t an accident that he and his receivers are on the proverbial same page.

“This offseason, I definitely worked with my receivers a lot, training and running routes, just getting that chemistry with them,” he said. “I was also doing a lot of offseason work like throwing, trying to get ready for the season.”

Actually, the process of being prepared to be the varsity starting quarterback began a couple of years ago.

“I’d already been close with them, talking-wise inside of school, outside of school," Gasperoni said. “And I’d been playing football with them since I was a freshman. The relationship has been very good and we keep on building.”

Phoenix Glassnor is a junior receiver who has seen Gasperoni grow into the position over the last two years.

“My freshman year, we both came here together so it’s been fun to build and grow with him through the years,” he said. “This year’s been a lot of ups and downs, but I feel we’ve gotten better for sure.”

Glassnor is emphatic that Gasperoni is playing at an all-state level in leading the Pilots to the state semifinals.

“He’s done great for a first-year quarterback, a first-year starter,” he said. “He’s one of the top five quarterbacks in the state, for sure. He’s right with all those other guys.”

While Glassnor may sound like an enthusiastic teammate, he knows exactly why Gasperoni is so effective.

“He can run, throw, pretty much everything you want in a quarterback, he’s got,” Glassnor said. “And he’s a lefty. He just makes plays. It’s something different. Like I’ve said, I’ve been playing with him since I was a freshman, so it’s second nature.”

Before the season began, Drogosh had a heart-to-heart talk with Gasperoni, lending some advice on how to survive the rugged Central Division of the Catholic League.

“I told him not to be nervous, don’t try to do things out of his control,” Drogosh said. “Take control of the game, don’t turn the ball over, make sure he managed the clock, don’t have any delay of game penalties, don’t have any stupid penalties. Get to ball to his playmakers and let them do the rest.”

Those playmakers have made Gasperoni’s job significantly easier with the ability to make defenders miss and turn a short gain into a touchdown.

“He’s got great playmakers on the outside with Damion King and Phoenix,” Drogosh said. “They’re great guys to get the ball to. Get it in their hands and let them do the rest. I think he’s done a great job of that this year.”

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Gasperoni has been remarkably effective, but the starting job was not simply handed to him when Drogosh graduated. There was an intense competition for the quarterback job that wasn’t decided until game week.

“All along we felt Sante was pretty special, but there was a true battle for quarterback,” Rohn said. “We didn’t make our decision until Wednesday or Thursday of game week of who was going to be the starter.”

Once he got the job, Gasperoni held on for dear life. But he has not played scared, fearing a bad throw here or there would send him back to the bench.

“He hasn’t done anything to force us to lose games and he’s constantly making throws that gives us opportunities to make big plays,” Rohn said. “We thought he was always going to be more of a running quarterback because he’s so big — 6-3, 215 — but he’s actually really, really developed his passing game and that’s allowed us to grow as a team because we’re now on our fourth-string running back.”

Oh, yes, the running back spot.

The Pilots have been hit with a series of injuries at that position that has sent the coaches searching through the roster for someone who can carry the ball.

That makes Gasperoni an even more valuable member of the team.

“I’ve definitely got to step it up more running the ball more,” he said. “But we’ve also got other guys we can put at that position who can run the ball hard and also get us some yards and win us some games as well.”

One of the reasons why Rohn and his staff decided to go with Gasperoni was his character and personal makeup.

He seems like someone from a bygone era when kids could be screamed at during practice and not fall into a black hole and fall apart during a game.

One of the biggest differences coaches today face is dealing with parents, who don’t believe a coach should raise their voice when speaking to their child.

If coaches lose their temper and verbally go off on a player and hurt their feelings, it often leads to the parents storming the school and demanding a meeting with the principal, athletic director and coach because their kid was yelled at during the course of a practice or a game.

“He allows you to coach him really, really hard, which is nice in this day and age,” said Rohn. “You can yell at Sante and you can coach him hard and he doesn’t drop his head. He takes the coaching really well. That comes from kind of the mentality of his family.

“They’re hard workers, they’re committed, they’re dedicated people and he’s got that same mentality, almost like a blue-collar quarterback. You just love watching him.”

And Gasperoni loves being De La Salle’s starting quarterback, even if he had to follow in the footsteps of the greatest player in school history.

Better yet, Drogosh believes Gasperoni can be every bit as successful as he was in leading the Pilots.

“I definitely think he has the ability to be me, for sure,” Drogosh said. “He’s definitely got to keep working hard in the weight room and on the field going into to the game. He’s got a great coaching staff behind him. I think he’s done a great job this year and I think he can take them all the way to the state.”

Mick McCabe is a former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at mick.mccabe11@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Order his book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Warren De La Salle QB Sante Gasperoni determined to make own legacy