OLSH is home to amazing sports teams and many intelligent students. With that winning combination, one will find an impressive number of student-athletes. A notable one is Luke “The Sig” Saftner. So what does it take to represent OLSH as a student-athlete?

Luke lives the OLSH way by demonstrating a Catholic lifestyle of faith and service. He often spends time eating lunch with the Felician Sisters and volunteering at OLSH and in his parish. He’s also the ideal partner for school projects and study groups. Luke is an excellent scholar and a great team player. He maintains better than a 3.8 GPA and along with his mega-schedule of AP classes, his name is on a plaque in the Hall of Community for his 2015 “Geo Bee” performance. When Luke’s not hitting the books, he’s hitting the weight room, the track field, or running backs. Luke has succeeded in his first two years at OLSH on the field, on the track and in the classroom. In track and field, his speed has done nothing but improve and impress. For the school football team, he’s been a contributor at Cornerback and Wide Receiver. In one football game, he helped lead the Chargers to a Section Championship in a game against the then number-one-ranked Rochester Rams by catching a “wounded duck” pass in the corner of the end zone, which led to a victory and a fantastic birthday present to himself. With this type of success, Luke is the definition of an OLSH student/athlete. So how does Luke handle this level of academics as well as participation in sports?

In a recent interview, Luke talked about life as an OLSH student-athlete life. The first thing he said was, “school comes first.” He made a valid point saying that he can’t play sports if his grades aren’t kept up. Being a student-athlete can at times be stressful, but Luke explained that he just doesn’t stress too much about school work by enjoying the sports he’s playing and then studying after practice. “Resting is key,” he said explaining that if you don’t take the time to rest and you’re going non-stop, you’ll eventually go insane. When he has free time, he uses it to sleep.

For an OLSH student-athlete, leadership is an expectation. Some of Luke’s greatest motivators were his former football teammates. He said Matt Schnarre, Dante Trombetta, Weston Roberts, and Nick Gamcik were all incredible leaders and role models for him. He has the utmost respect for those four players and hopes to follow in their footsteps. Additionally, he said that the greatest role model for him is his brother, Brock Saftner. Brock is an extremely talented athlete as well a bright student, and Luke is determined to remain stronger and faster than his little brother. While motivated by some sibling competition, he’s also proud of Brock representing the family name. He said, “Watching Brock transform these past two years has been really awesome. He has grown and matured so much, and I couldn’t be more proud of my little brother. Playing with him is great because we always push each other especially in the offseason. For example, we’ll go back and forth talking about who lifted more or who is strong and really it just makes both of us that much better.” In many ways, Luke is already the leader and motivator that his former teammates were to him.

When asked to offer some advice to current and future OLSH athletes, Luke said, “Do multiple sports. Cross training is the best thing you can do for yourself, and pick a sport that will actually help you. Not only is this good for your personal fitness, this is also a great way to make friends.” If anybody would know the perks of being a multi-sport athlete, it would be the track star/football player. After Luke’s time at OLSH, he plans to attend a four year institution, although he is undecided upon which college. He hopes to play football in college as long as it won’t affect his academics. After that, he’d like to go into either politics or political science. He made it clear that OLSH has influenced him and motivated him to live out his dreams and said, “OLSH taught me teamwork and leadership, especially with football.”

Luke’s determination and attitude for succeeding in both academics and sports is what makes him a fine example of an OLSH student-athlete. Luke made his priorities clear: faith, family, school, sports – and that’s what it means to be a Charger athlete.

Number 15 Luke Saftner awaiting the snap
Photo Credits: Carolyn McAndrew