Prep Friday : Division VI Football Playoffs : Leasure Makes Quite a Name for Himself at Valencia

Keef Leasure, Valencia High School’s standout running back, gets lots of questions about his unusual first name.

“I made it up,” said his mother, Linda Eastwood. “I wanted something different, but not real different, and simple. That’s what I came up with.”

When Leasure played Little League baseball and Pop Warner football in junior high school, kids teased him about his name, Eastwood said.

Because it rhymed with Keef, “He used to get, ‘Where’s the beef?’ a lot,” his mother said. “But he has always been big for his age, so I don’t think he got teased too much.”

These days, Leasure is being touted, not teased. Last year, as Valencia’s leading rusher, he helped lead the Tigers to their fifth consecutive Orange League title and the Central Conference championship.

In this, his senior year, Valencia won the Orange League title again and meets Fullerton in the Southern Section Division VI semifinals at 7:30 tonight at Valencia High School. Leasure has rushed for 1,306 yards and 16 touchdowns this season. Not bad for a kid who, as an offensive tackle in seventh and eighth grades, sat on the bench during Pop Warner games.

“I didn’t really get started until my freshman year and that was my first year as a running back,” Leasure said. “I thought it would be exciting and more fun than just blocking.”

He has come a long way, rushing for nearly 3,500 yards in 3 seasons at Valencia.

“I am very impressed with him this year,” said Western Coach Jim Howell, whose Pioneers lost, 29-8, to Valencia, when Leasure rushed for 155 yards and a touchdown. “He is just a steady, hard-running back; probably bullish is the way to describe him.

“I wouldn’t say he is really spectacular, but he is somebody who is always there to get the job done. I am glad he is going to be gone.”

Anaheim Coach Ted Mullen calls Leasure a “proven outstanding back with versatility.

“He is a punishing-type runner as well as a breakaway threat, and I think he has been the answer to why Valencia has been tough the past 2 to 3 years,” Mullen said.

It certainly hasn’t hurt Leasure to play for Mike Marrujo, the winningest coach in Orange County the past 6 years.

Leasure has fit in well with Marrujo’s team-oriented approach.

“He is a good solid kid, a hard worker, a team player,” Marrujo said.

“He runs pretty hard. Some kids you think of float and are more finesse-type runners. He is a physical kid. He breaks a lot of tackles, but he has good speed and is able to go wide as well.”

Leasure, 5-feet 11-inches and 190 pounds, has had an outstanding career, but he’s not the best back to play at Valencia.

Ray Pallares, who played at Valencia from 1982-85, is the all-time Orange County rushing leader with 5,398 yards.

Leasure was on the freshman team during Pallares’ senior year. He patterned his style after Pallares’.

“I am more of a straight-up runner,” Leasure said. “I don’t like to do a lot of fancy stuff. I just like to run up the middle, run over people. Pallares was pretty much the same way and I look up to him.”

Leasure compares favorably with Pallares, Marrujo said.

“He is a different runner than Ray, but ability-wise, they are really close. We ran the ball a lot more when Ray was here. We’ve gone more to mixing it up. We don’t run as much as we used to.”

Though his dream of breaking Pallares’ record did not come true, Leasure is not disappointed.

“I have been very fortunate to be on the varsity 3 years and to win the league championship every year,” he said. “I think that is something to be proud of.”