Notre Dame High track standout Austin Lietz is making up for lost time in football

The story of Austin Lietz, a football and track athlete at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High, could be made into a Disney film. Or a segment for Comedy Central. It’s a coming-of-age tale that provides valuable insight into the high school sports experience.

It starts when Lietz was a 14-year-old freshman at 5 feet 11 and 125 pounds. He had been playing football and running track before reaching high school.

As a freshman receiver, he suffered a sprained knee ligament. End of his season after a couple of games. He came back as a sophomore.

“I tried out for quarterback,” he said. “That didn’t go well. Then I moved to receiver. I had a good seven-on-seven season. Then the pads came on. I broke two of my fingers.”

End of his season. No games.

Lietz came back for his junior year and made the varsity — as the fourth-string quarterback. The season came and went. He never attempted a pass.

“I was the person with the colorful armband on the sideline doing the signals,” he said. “I was supposed to go in against Birmingham and then the referees ran out the clock.”

Last fall, for his senior year, Lietz was again ready to play quarterback. He had grown to 6-3 and 155 pounds. He had great stats in seven-on-seven competitions. But he went back to receiver.

“I learned my lesson,” he said. “I was on special teams. The first day of practice, I broke my toe.”

End of his football season.

“He got stomped on in a scrimmage,” said Joe McNab, an assistant football coach and the track coach. “It ended his football career but helped his track career blossom.”

At the Mission League track finals two weeks ago, he ran the anchor leg on victorious 400-meter and 1,600-meter relay teams, won the 400 in 48.22 and won the 300 intermediate hurdles in 38.42. He could win four events at the Southern Section Division 3 track finals Saturday at Cerritos College. He has a 4.2 grade-point average and is headed to Iowa on a track scholarship.

Notre Dame coaches will never forget him.

“He’s a guy dedicated to his friends,” football Coach Kevin Rooney said. “He’s one of those kids, anything we needed, he’d be happy to do.”

He would have been a first-team all-league sideline signaler, if that award existed.

“All-CIF,” McNab said.

The fact Lietz continued to show up to every football practice his senior year when he couldn’t play showed how much he appreciated being a part of the team.

When he shows up at snowy Iowa, he’s making big plans to be an intramural star in football.

“I’m good running and turning left,” he said.

He also intends to become the fastest bio-medical engineer.

First, though, he wants to do big things in the 400. He’s a glutton for punishment. The best 400 runner in the nation is Michael Norman of Vista Murrieta.

“It is a race for second, but being in a race with him is an honor,” he said. “If I can get second to him, it would be an accomplishment.”

Lietz is a breath of fresh air with a self-depricating personality that’s off the charts.

Asked if his parents were happy football is over, he said, “Happy would be an understatement.”

So now he gets to run without anyone chasing him.

“I’m a slender dude, so I don’t have a lot of muscles in my arms,” he said.

Wait until he starts eating Iowa corn.