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Columnists - Columnists: Jeff Jardine

Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009

Jardine: Once content in the background, Beyer teen gains football fame

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Taylor Lentz once hated gymnasiums.

"I wasn't comfortable with all that noise," the 17-year-old Beyer High School junior said.

Nor was he particularly fond of crowds, large or small. In fact, he rarely mingled with other kids or participated in any group activities.

"He's a gamer," said mom Beth Lentz. "What teenager doesn't game on Xbox 360 or PlayStation? But he was not a social person."

That began to change last summer when the gangly 6-foot-5 lad decided to play football. Football? Yes, football, the team sport in which people recklessly smash into each other, gang tackle, huddle and rely on talking to each other. Basically, all those little social things Lentz had avoided throughout his life.

Yet it became the perfect vehicle for a young man who suffers slightly from autism, a neural disorder that impairs a person's ability to interact socially and communicate with others. Football has helped him break down his social inhibitions, taken him into the end zone, onto YouTube and beyond.

"You're talking about a kid who has come out of his shell," Beth Lentz said. "He's more outgoing now, more willing to take chances and communicating better than ever."

He's a solid B student, but tended to be a loner. He shied away from friendships or even normal banter with other kids. He'd tried contact sports such as wrestling and karate, and played soccer when he was much younger, but never stuck with them.

"I hate to tell you, but I wasn't that physical back then," Lentz said.

Thus, his newfound desire to play football — arguably the most physical of high school sports — caught his parents by surprise.

"My comment was, 'Being a spectator is not a bad thing,' " Beth Lentz said.

But then she remembered they have long told him: "Don't ever let anybody tell you that you can't do something."

Well, except riding his bike on one of Modesto's busier streets to get to the summer passing league games.

Beth and Roger Lentz both work.

See video of touchdown. Story continues below video

"We told him, 'You want to do this, great, but it's all on you,' " Beth Lentz said.

"He said, 'I'll just go right down Pelandale Road.' We told him, 'You'll be a hood ornament.' We had to map out a route and tell him how to get there (safely)."

They did, and he did. During summer weight- training sessions and the passing league, the Beyer players brought him into their fold and his metamorphosis began.

"As a senior, I had kids over to the house over the summer," said John Severe, son of Beyer head coach Doug Severe. "(Lentz) didn't talk very much at the beginning."

After the passing league games, the players would converge on the Severe home to swim, play video games and hang out.

"He takes his Madden seriously," John Severe said. "I was talking a lot of smack and I beat him the first time we played. He said, 'You're lucky.' Ever since then, he's beaten me, and he'll say, 'Watch out, I'll beat you in Madden.' It's really opened him up."

Indeed.

"We'd eat and pray," Lentz said. "I'd never prayed before dinner before."

"We're a really spiritual family," John Severe said. "When we prayed, he asked, 'What are you doing?' I told him, 'Before each meal, we ask for a blessing.' He said, 'Can I try?' Now he prays over his food."

His instructors at Beyer noticed a different Taylor Lentz, too. He spends two periods each day with Leann Jones Cruz, who teaches special day courses for the learning- handicapped. She's noticed a more outgoing young man this year, which she attributes to his joining the football program.