Boys’ Lacrosse: Sailors’ Lenk driven to succeed
As a kid, Blake Lenk wanted to be a professional off-road racer. He grew up racing with his family.
The race that almost ended Lenk’s athletic career involved one four years ago on his own wheels, not from those on his race car.
After running the mile as an eighth-grader at Ensign Intermediate School, Lenk passed out, woke up, and then started throwing up. His mom, Julie, rushed him to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, where for 3 1/2 hours, Lenk’s heart rate mirrored the number a Formula One car reaches on the speed gauge while on the straightaway.
“My heart rate was at like 220 [beats per minute],” said Lenk, who learned that he had an irregular heartbeat and needed to undergo heart surgery weeks later. “What they did is they made two incisions … right below my belt [area], and they put lasers and probes up through my arteries and went into my heart with like cameras. They were looking in the heart, lasering out anything that wasn’t supposed to be there.
“Once they did that, I just had to really work on my cardio, getting a superior cardio.”
The best way for Lenk to build up his cardiovascular system was to run. In his freshman year at Newport Harbor High, he picked a sport that involved a lot of running.
Lenk joined the boys’ lacrosse team. By his sophomore year, he began to take it seriously, forcing him to take a break from racing when the Sailors called him up to varsity. It wasn’t easy for Lenk to stop racing in the desert.
“It’s almost like you’re in a space shuttle, you can barely move,” Lenk said of being inside a modified trophy kart. “All you can do is move your arms to steer and shift your car. It’s extremely loud, full of speed, extremely action packed. A lot of jumping, a lot of drifting, a lot of rolling over when you get hit.”
Lenk found out there are some of those off-road racing elements in lacrosse. The sport definitely got Lenk’s heart rate going, and in his senior year, he went on a memorable ride.
It started out bumpy, much like an off-road event for Lenk, the team going 2-6. But the motto with this year’s team was “Be Remembered” and the Sailors definitely will be. They became the first to claim an undefeated Sunset League title in the program’s history.
Lenk, a long stick midfielder, led the way to Newport Harbor winning all eight games in league to run away with its first league crown in eight years. Four days after finishing perfect in league, the season ended for Lenk in the opening round of the U.S. Lacrosse Southern Section South Division playoffs on Tuesday.
The No. 11-seeded Sailors lost at No. 6 Trabuco Hills, 11-2. The setback marked the Sailors’ first since March 27, when they lost to rival Corona del Mar, 15-2, in the Battle of the Bay at Davidson Field. From that point on, Newport Harbor ripped off nine straight wins. During the winning streak, the Sailors won one more game than they had the previous year, when they placed second in league, one game back of Los Alamitos.
This year, the Sailors managed to edge the Griffins twice, 9-8, early in April, and then 6-4 late in April. That proved to be the difference in Los Alamitos not winning or sharing first for only the second time in the last eight seasons. Lenk, who finished with 53 ground balls, 33 takeaways, 25 knockdowns, two goals and one assist, played a vital role in handing Los Alamitos its only two league losses.
“Each game throughout the 2015 season Blake was assigned to defend the most dangerous scoring threat of each of Newport Harbor’s opponents, regardless if it was at the attack or midfield positions,” Newport Harbor Coach Mark Todd said. “His size, strength, athleticism, accurate checks, stick work and lacrosse IQ were the [skill sets] that made him one of the most versatile defensive players to ever wear a Sailor uniform.
“Blake is fearless and was up for every challenging matchup we assigned him to, a skill set he no doubt developed as a .. Baja endurance race car driver.”
While the lacrosse season is over for Lenk, Newport Harbor posting an 11-7 overall record, matching the school’s best win total from six years ago, the racing is still on hold. He’s not done with lacrosse just yet.
Lenk said he plans to be a walk-on player at Towson University in Baltimore, Md. The school is Todd’s alma mater, and without Todd, Lenk said he’s certain he wouldn’t have had a future in lacrosse, let alone try to become the first player from Newport Harbor to make an NCAA Division I lacrosse program.
Todd has been supportive of Lenk, understanding his irregular heartbeat condition. Lenk said the last time he had episode was toward the end of his sophomore season. He came off the field and rested a quarter, before returning to action.
“I was really scared, especially freshman year playing lacrosse,” Lenk said. “I would have a few incidents where my heart would be racing. I’d get scared of that. I felt like I’d pass out again. I would run myself so hard and then I would get those irregular heartbeats. Instead of getting two beats, it would be three.
“[My doctors] said once I started feeling that irregular third beat really like kicking in, because I can feel it, I just needed to stop as soon as possible and get off the field.”
While he’s not racing competitively right now, Lenk knows how to shift into high gear in lacrosse.
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Blake Lenk
Born: Nov. 12, 1996
Hometown: Newport Beach
Height: 5-foot-11
Weight: 190 pounds
Year: Senior
Coach: Mark Todd
Favorite food: Carnitas burrito
Favorite movie: “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Favorite athletic moment: “Scoring my first goal at Trabuco Hills.”
Week in review: Lenk led the Sailors to their first undefeated Sunset League title in the program’s history.