Renaud Hits Right Notes for Loyola

Bo Renaud is eliciting standing ovations on two stages--football and singing.

As Los Angeles Loyola High’s senior tailback, he has rushed for 132 and 170 yards in the first two games.

“He’s having a great year so far,” Coach Steve Grady said.

As a singer, his voice is so special that friends are urging him to join the next “American Idol” competition.

“I’ll be up all night voting for him,” quarterback Adam Gonzalez said.

Renaud had the lead role in last spring’s school production of “Motown MacBeth.” To say he made a positive impression would be an understatement.

“It’s perhaps the most beautiful voice I’ve had in my 14 years of teaching,” said Walter Wolfe, Loyola’s theater director. “I rarely tell my students to pursue an avenue of theater, but my advice to Bo is it would be a shame if people didn’t hear his voice. It’s got an ease and natural beauty that people would gasp when he [sings].”

Linebackers might gasp when seeing Renaud plow toward them at full speed, undeterred by an impending collision.

“He’s like a big bowling ball coming at you,” Gonzalez said.

Renaud is 5 feet 8 and 190 pounds with a shaved head. Don’t ask him to choose between football and singing.

“I love both,” he said.

He has demonstrated star quality since he was 6 and tried out for a school talent show. He performed “Edelweiss” from “The Sound of Music.”

At 7, he started playing tackle football in Lakewood. By 11, he was running and training with his uncle and uncle’s teammates at Lakewood Mayfair High. He’d run with the players to a riverbed and hear it from them when he ran too fast.

“They were mad because they wanted me to slow the pace and used to yell at my uncle they were going to beat him up if I didn’t stop [finishing] in front of them and making them look bad,” he said.

He wanted to play running back, but he was a lineman for many years in youth football.

“I always wanted the ball,” he said. “Everyone told me I couldn’t because I was a lineman. I ran every day until I became fast enough. Finally, they gave me a chance.”

Whether scoring touchdowns or singing, Renaud is at ease. From rock to rap, from country and western to hip-hop, he’ll gladly try anything.

“I can sing pretty high and sing pretty low,” he said.

Renaud has concluded that football and singing offer similar challenges.

“Being on stage is a rush and it hits you like a ton of bricks,” he said. “You’re trying to remember your lines, you get them mixed up and forget. The challenge is you don’t want to look dumb on stage.

“In football, you’re trying to find a seam and break to the hole and think a mile a minute. If you miss a line in a show, you have to improvise. In football, if somebody misses the block, you have to find some way to get around it and make it work.”

If Renaud messes up in theater, he’ll get a tongue lashing. But if he does the same in football, the wrath of Grady is worse.

Gaining a Grady compliment is his goal.

“Lord knows I’ve been trying to do it for a long time,” he said.

Grady saw Renaud and fullback Chris Randle sing in “Motown MacBeth.”

“They were fantastic,” he said.

There’s the compliment, Bo.

Still to be decided is whether Renaud pursues football or singing in college.

Wolfe wants him to keep singing.

“If there’s justice in the world, we’ll be paying money to hear him one day,” he said.

But Renaud isn’t ready to end his football dreams.

“I thank my stars every day that I’m extremely blessed with a lot of gifts,” he said, “and it’s my duty to share what I have.”

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.