LJ FB: Lifters

Ryan Lennard, Viking Strength and Conditioning

Coach and an LJHS alumnus, presents his program

to parents at football Family Day on campus.

(Photo by Ed Piper, Jr.)

By Ed Piper, Jr.

"A group of freshmen--Phillip Pacleb, Matt Kelly, and Finn Rice--have been off the charts in attendance at workouts from the first day," enthused Ryan Lennard, La Jolla's Strength and Conditioning Coach, about his charges who have taken right to the weights. The three are in the Viking football program.

Some embrace the weights--and the workouts--while some others may have more of a love-and-hate relationship with the resistance work, which literally tears muscle, only to allow it to repair itself bigger and stronger.

Lennard is a product of La Jolla High himself, so he came up through the same channels, though his alma mater didn't have any of the facilities he now can offer to rising sophomores Pacleb, Kelly, and Rice. The three were participating with their teammates in the first annual Family Day on the football turf, not really a day for scrimmages; rather, a morning for parents of present student athletes and prospective students and their families to watch an intense and entertaining practice and to meet the new coaches while being provided with a tasty bite to eat at the close of the program.

Outside of his meeting with parents, Lennard told a funny story about his last name. It turns out that Juan Sanchez, another Viking wrestling star, was, by Lennard's student days at La Jolla High, the head wrestling coach. Sanchez would write Ryan's last name with a capital "D" at the end. It ended up looking like an "O" instead of a "D", and Lennard got introduced as "Ryan Lennaro".

Fast-forward to last January's Holtville Rotary Invitational Wrestling Tournament at the remote Imperial Valley location. The program, listing past winners, spells Lennard's name just that way--"Lennaro".

So, an enterprising sports reporter called up the meet director following the event, and pointed out the spelling error, asking if he could have his mother-in-law, who keeps the records, make the correction. The coach's response: "I've talked with him (Ryan), and he never said anything about it. Yes, I will make sure the change is made."

So, the sportswriter reported back to Lennard that Coach Carl Johnston said he would correct the error. Then the strength coach gave the whole story, going back to Coach Sanchez's "LennarD" antics.