by Kevin Cody
To most of the thousand-plus fans cheering in front of the Rams Draft Experience stage on the sand, south of the Hermosa Beach pier Thursday afternoon, emcee Sam Lagana is the “voice of the Rams” at SoFi Stadium.
But when Lagana welcomed Hermosa Beach Mayor Justin Massey and fellow city officials to the stage Thursday afternoon, it was a meeting of old acquaintances.
To Hermosans, Lagana is “the emcee of the party that was the AVP” during the AVP’s golden era, from 1985 to 2005.
“I’m stoked to be going back to where my announcing roots began with beach volleyball,” Lagana recently posted on his X account.
Last November, at the Hermosa Beach Community Theater, Lagana was inducted into the California Beach Volleyball Association Hall of Fame.
Upon accepting the honor, Lagana said he was more nervous addressing his 500 friends that night in the sold-out theater than he is announcing Rams games in the 70,000-seat Sofi Stadium.
His goal as the AVP announcer, he said that evening, was to ”bring fans close to the players, and bring beach volleyball to America. I made sure fans knew these players were special.”
Lagana has pursued that same goal with the Rams since he joined the team in 2016, when he introduced the call-and-response chant “Whose House? Your House. Our House. Rams House.”
Lagana got Rams fans going Thursday afternoon by asking how many hoped the Rams first round draft pick would be an offensive player. The response was not enthusiastic.
Then he asked how many hoped the pick would be a defensive player. The crowd erupted.
Ram fans knew their team’s defense needs to plug the hole left by Aaron Donald, the Rams 2014 first round draft pick, who retired this year after spending his entire career with the Rams. Donald was Defensive Player of the year a record three times, and a Pro Bowl selection in all of his 10 seasons.
Thursday evening the fans got their wish when Rams General Manager Les Snead, and coach Sean McVay made the call to 6-foot-4, 254 pound Florida State defensive end Jared Verse at his Phoenix home.
Verse, coincidentally, is the first defensive lineman selected by the Rams in the first round since they chose Donald in 2014.
Snead called Verse from the Rams draft headquarters set up in a Hermosa Beach home leased for the occasion.
Hermosa Beach fans watched on the stage jumbotron as Verse took the call, surrounded by family in his Phoenix home.
During a Zoom interview with reporters Verse mentioned he had spoken on Zoom to Aaron Donald during COVID.
Los Angeles Times reporter Gary Klein asked Verse what advice Donald gave him.
“The biggest thing I took away from the questions I asked him,” Verse said, “was ‘You don’t need a huge arsenal of moves. If you have a couple good moves and execute them to the highest level of your ability you will destroy everyone.”
“And aggression beats everything,” Verse added.
The Rams Draft Experience continues Friday with live NFL draft coverage starting at 4 p.m. During the day fans can test their football combine skills at “skills and drills” stations on a 60-yard-long football field on the beach, south of the pier. The Rams cheerleaders and Mariachi Rams will perform throughout the day.
For more information visit therams.com/draftexperience. ER
