PLAYOFF PROFILES : Familiar Turf for Lochard

It’s football practice at Reseda High, when Armone Lochard looks into his past.

He glances across the street at the public park and sees kids playing flag football.

Lochard, who currently carries the ball for the Regents, realizes he hasn’t strayed far from his football roots.

He was a 7-year-old quarterback in a flag football league at Reseda Park, just a football heave from his high school.

“I look at all those little kids and say, ‘Man, I used to play over there,’ ” Lochard said. “It feels good to look at them and say, ‘I’m still playing.’ ”

Lochard, a senior, has played his way into Friday’s City Section 3-A Division championship game between Eagle Rock and Reseda at Birmingham High.

He has rushed for 1,440 yards and 15 touchdowns in 225 carries, including a 135-yard performance in 28 carries against Monroe in last week’s semifinals.

The 5-foot-9 1/2, 175-pounder also has intercepted six passes at cornerback.

“We wouldn’t be where we are without him,” Reseda Coach Joel Schaeffer said.

Schaeffer would know. For the past two seasons, he was without Lochard, who transferred to Alemany after his freshman year at Reseda.

But Lochard failed to amass the numbers he wanted at Alemany--he hovered around the 400-yard mark as a junior--and transferred back to Reseda before this season.

He’s not sorry.

“It’s exciting,” said Lochard, who gives more credit to his offensive line than to himself. “It feels good to run through a hole instead of getting hit at the line. Or behind the line.”

Lochard, who likes to draw cartoon characters in his spare time, would be hard-pressed to diagram his rushing attempts, which usually end after a twist, a turn and, sometimes, a touchdown.