Julian Finds the Speed to Keep in Step With Family Tradition : Football: La Quinta running back overcomes knee injury to follow in athletic footsteps of his father and uncle.

There has never been any doubt that Trent Julian, La Quinta High School’s running back, would be a good athlete. He apparently has the genes.

His father, Tom, was the Garden Grove League player of the year in 1967 as a senior tailback for Bolsa Grande. He received a scholarship from Arizona State, where he played defensive back.

His uncle, Randy, who also played football for Bolsa Grande, was the state champion in the 440-yard run in 1965. He went on to the University of Kansas and ran with Jim Ryun, who held the world record for the mile run from 1966-1975.

The problem was, although Trent Julian inherited plenty of heart and desire, he appeared to have come up short on speed from the family gene pool.

“I was praying I was going to get it,” Julian, 17, said. “I was working really hard on it, doing a lot of stretching, lunges and jump roping and just working hard on it.”

Finally, at the end of last summer, just in time for his senior season of football, Julian got his gift.

While Julian received one thing, another was taken away. He dropped his 40-yard time two ticks to 4.7 seconds, but he tore a cartilage in his knee in a scrimmage the week before the season opener. That injury has caused him to miss two games, plus two days of practice each week. His accomplishments this season are even greater considering that he’s playing hurt. He will have surgery to repair the cartilage after the football season and plans to play varsity basketball this season.

Julian is the top offensive weapon for La Quinta, which plays Valencia in the opening round of the Southern Section Division VI playoffs at 7:30 tonight at Valencia. In eight games he has rushed for 508 yards in 97 carries, caught 24 passes for 424 yards and scored 16 touchdowns.

“He has great peripheral vision and a real feel for where the defenders are,” La Quinta Coach Roger Takahashi said. “He makes unbelievable cuts at the last minute, which either breaks open a run or gets him an extra three to five yards.”

It is that cutting ability and his offseason work habits that make the 6-foot-2, 185-pound Julian such a dangerous runner.

Julian doesn’t think of himself as a slashing type of runner and he says he doesn’t have the ability to stop on a dime. He attributes his success to good vision.

“That first guy I see doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I know I can get by. It’s that second and third guy I pay attention to. If I can kind of lean them to one way, I can juke pretty good from there.”

As Julian goes, so goes La Quinta’s offense. And his is not a bad frame to build an offense around. Against Rancho Alamitos he scored on a 34-yard run and a 65-yard screen pass the first two times he touched the ball.

“He was a one-man show against us,” Rancho Alamitos Coach Mark Miller said. “You can stop him 10 times but on the 11th time, BOOM , he breaks it.”

Miller teaches at Rancho Alamitos with Julian’s father and has been a family friend for several years. He has seen a marked change in Julian’s speed.

“When I first saw him against us as a sophomore, he didn’t really stand out speed-wise but he was just a young kid out there,” Miller said. “I think he just physically matured and grew a couple of inches. (This year) I noticed in the films him running away from people and running by people. Before, he was not slow but he wasn’t the breakaway threat. Last year he was a quarterback so maybe he wasn’t in a position where he was able to show his speed.”

Julian is following a tad slower, but he is following in his father’s footsteps. Both were versatile, standout athletes in the Garden Grove League. Trent also plays varsity basketball. Like his father, he was a quarterback his junior year, then a running back his senior season.

Julian, one of La Quinta’s team team captains, is an extremely level-headed young man, Takahashi said. “He’s a really good kid, not arrogant or selfish,” the coach said. “He always congratulates his offensive line and quarterback . . . he sets a good team example.”

Julian, whose parents are divorced, lives with his father, who coached La Quinta’s freshman team to a league title in Trent’s freshman year. “I’ve been playing football since Day 1,” Julian said. “My first birthday I got a Nerf football and ever since then that ball was never out of my hands. I just love football and whatever it takes, that is what will be done.”

Julian has been contacted by several colleges and plans to play in college, which is one reason he trains so diligently in the offseason. And when the going gets tough, he turns to his dad.

“My dad, he really knows how to motivate me about work habits and football and school. He always tells me, ‘Trent, if you don’t want to do it, there is probably someone in Oklahoma or Kansas or Tennessee who will want to do it even more.’ ”