Gahr flying high

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The Gahr football team’s high-flying aerial circus is in full swing this season.

The Gladiators (3-0) have beaten two teams, Artesia and Cerritos Valley Christian, each by a score of 62-42, and the results harken back to what Coach Greg Marshall’s teams used to do -- but in basketball.

Marshall, Gahrs’ athletic director, used to be the Gladiators’ girls’ basketball coach and once served as a boys’ basketball assistant at Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.

‘We’ve always had explosive kids, but I never expected anything like this,’ Marshall said with a laugh. ‘That’s 124 points in two games. We scored 38 the week before that. We were like, ‘What happened?’’

Not to worry.

After beating Cerritos by only a 38-7 score, the Gladiators broke loose again and took it to Artesia on Friday.

Contributing to the outbursts are junior wide receiver Aaron Bradley and senior running back Chester Woolen, the two basketball players on the football team. Bradley, the Southern Section Division III fourth-place finisher in the 300 high hurdles and the fifth-place finisher in the Division III long-jump competition last season, is the Gladiators’ second-leading receiver with nine catches for 232 yards and four touchdowns. Woolen is the top rusher -- when he gets the chance in Gahr’s pass-happy offense -- with 26 carries for 302 yards and four touchdowns. He averages nearly 12 yards a carry and also has six catches for 150 yards.

The Gladiators’ success is a far cry from the 2000 and 2001 seasons, when the Gladiators went 0-10 and 0-9, respectively. It also indicates they should be a factor this year in the San Gabriel Valley League, which they rejoined last season after spending four years (2002-05) playing a freelance schedule.

Gahr went 5-5, 1-4 in their first season back in the league in 2006. As they have this season, they won their first three games before meeting Trabuco Hills. The Gladiatiors fell to the Mustangs, 33-26, in overtime last year but all indications are they will do better when the teams meet again Friday at Trabuco Hills.

‘We have a pretty good basketball team, and they basically run up and down the court, shooting three-pointers,’ Marshall said. ‘It’s the same kind of thing with us. We’re not beating up on anybody. We’re just scoring points.’

- Lauren Peterson