David Olano spent his sophomore year at Naperville North playing with his older brother, Pablo, on the school’s powerhouse soccer team.
All the while, though, he had a plan to change sports. In his spare time, he was practicing kicking footballs.
“I started kicking with some buddies of mine who play football,” Olano said. “I went out and did pretty well. They had mentioned me to one of their trainers. I went over there to train and he told me, ‘You have the leg.’
“So I wanted to experiment with something new. I’ve been doing this for about 6-7 months now, and I’m not looking back.”
Olano has made all nine of his point-after attempts through two weeks. He also made his first field-goal attempt from 30 yards in Friday night’s 36-31 DuPage Valley Conference loss to Glenbard North.
“He is a weapon,” Naperville North coach Sean Drendel said. “We’re always trying to find ways to use him.
“Any time you have a kicker that can kick the ball like that, it adds to what you can do.”
The 5-foot-11, 145-pound Olano showcased quite a leg against the visiting Panthers (2-0, 1-0). Five of his six kickoffs went for touchbacks, including one from his own 35.
Two-way star Luke Williams first got a glimpse of that talent last spring.
“David would always call me and say, ‘Want to go to Nike Park or Knoch Park and catch some kicks?'” Williams said. “I was like, ‘Sure, David.’
“I didn’t think he was it, but then he’d kick a 50-yard bomb and I’d be like, ‘That’s our guy right there.'”
Soccer was Olano’s sport for most of his childhood. His lone season on the varsity last spring was memorable because he got to team up with Pablo, who now plays for Mount Olive, an NCAA Division II school in North Carolina.
“I haven’t played in the same jersey as him in I can’t even remember how long,” Olano said. “It was a great experience. It was very special for my parents and I.”
Williams continues to show how he’s a special player, helping the Huskies (1-1, 0-1) score 28 points in the third quarter to rally from a 24-10 deficit.
He returned an interception 27 yards for a touchdown — his first career pick six — to tie the game at 24, then made another interception on the following possession, returning it 22 yards to the Glenbard North 10.
Two plays later, he caught a 10-yard TD pass from Aidan Gray and Olano added his fourth extra-point to give the Huskies a 31-24 lead after three quarters.
“Luke’s just kind of a kid that makes plays, and at times it looks like it’s effortless,” Drendel said. “He’s pretty smooth and just does a lot of great things. He works hard at it and he’s fun to be around.”
The comeback was fun, but the end result was not for the Huskies.
Justin Bland tossed a 6-yard TD pass to David Petty as the Panthers pulled within 31-30, then recovered their second onside kick of the game.
Damarion Elliston, who rushed 39 times for 295 yards, delivered a 33-yard run with 4:36 left to finish the scoring. The Huskies advanced to the Panthers’ 45 before a bad snap and a fumble ended the drive.
Williams, whose older brother Zeke scored on an 82-yard kickoff return, said the comeback was amazing but not enough.
“We’ve got to seal the deal,” he said. “We can’t be satisfied with a touchdown at the end of the third quarter. We’ve got to finish it off in the fourth.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.
