Who is David Venegoni?

If columns came with background music, this one would be playing "Who Are You?" by The Who.

I jokingly asked that question of David Venegoni when we met for our interview on Monday afternoon. But the truth is, I already knew that he's Carmel's shifty, elusive, run-first quarterback who masterfully directs the team's potent option offense.

I did get the sense, however, that this question is one that Venegoni sometimes has to ask himself.

"Who are you? Who, who, who, who?"

The third oldest of four children in the Venegoni family, David is the second of three brothers, which invites that classic middle child quandary better known as the "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha" syndrome.

Remember Jan Brady from the "Brady Bunch?" You're not the oldest, you're not the youngest. Then, well, who are you?

"Who, who, who, who?"

Of course, Venegoni's older brother Mark is a legend at Carmel. All he did was quarterback the 2003 football team that won the school's first and only state championship. He's currently on the scout team at Illinois.

Meanwhile, Venegoni's younger brother Luke is a star linebacker on the freshman team. Some people believe he might be the best football player in the family yet. And this is a family in which the patriarch, John, also played football at Illinois.

Welcome to David Venegoni's reality. He's got a tough act to follow -- and a tough act to precede.

"David's always saying that when he first came to Carmel, he was known as Mark's little brother," Luke Venegoni said. "Now, he says that he's known as Luke's big brother."

Then again, some people know him simply as Luke.

"All the freshmen at Carmel think that I literally am Luke," David Venegoni said with a half smile and a shake of his head. "They'll actually call me Luke in the halls. I don't know, people don't know who I am for some reason. All I can do is just go with it, I guess."

That's all he can do sometimes in the locker room, too. Every now and then, Carmel coach Andy Bitto also slips up.

"Coach Bitto calls me Mark a lot," Venegoni said. "I don't know why, it just comes out. The first couple weeks of the season, he was calling me Mark. The first game, he called me Mark like three times at halftime."

Venegoni shakes his head again and laughs, like being called the wrong name happens so often that it's almost a surprise to be called by the right name.

"Coach Bitto would probably deny it," Venegoni added of the name bungles. "But it's true."

Also true is the fact that Venegoni is determined to distinguish himself once and for all. And he thinks that being the quarterback of his own state championship team would be the perfect way to chip away at this somewhat comical, yet very real identity crisis of his.

Already, with his fierce work ethic and fast, scrambling feet, he's guided the Corsairs to a 4-1 overall record and a tie with perennial power Joliet Catholic for first place in the rugged East Suburban Catholic Conference.

Carmel is looking for its fifth straight win today against St. Patrick at Hanson Stadium.

"The championship team that Mark was on had like 10 Division I players. They were really good the year before and everyone expected them to win state as seniors," David said. "No one expects us to win state this year because we're pretty young.

"But I think we have the skill and the personality to actually go far, maybe even the state championship. To kind of surprise people and win it like that would be cool because that would give me at least one thing over Mark."

For now, though, David is lovingly reminded about what he doesn't have over his older brother.

"David is pretty sarcastic and has a dry sense of humor and he likes to get into verbal sparring matches with me," Mark said with a laugh. "But any time we start with that, I just get out my state championship ring."

David Venegoni says that the pressure to get his own ring, to be better than his brother, to finally stand out can be grueling at times. But the quest has made him the driven person he is.

Venegoni is also a starter on the basketball and baseball teams -- the only senior in the entire school to start three sports. He trains relentless for all three sports on his own.

In the classroom, he maintains a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average.

"David has worked really hard to get to where he is," said Carmel offensive lineman Mike Schafernak, one of Venegoni's best friends. "It wasn't just given to him because he's a Venegoni. He worked for it.

"He's always arguing with his brother about who's the better football player. He's motivated to be the best."

David has had that motivation for quite some time. Before he even got to high school, he was already a self-starting workhorse, lifting three times a day in seventh grade.

"I was psycho about it," David said. "I've always been like that. I really push myself hard. I push myself everyday to get better in everything I do.

"Where does that drive come from? Maybe from being a little (tired) of living in Mark's shadow. It's not that it's bad to be compared to him. He was a really good player and he got the job done.

"I just want to be my own person."

Now, there's the answer. That's who.