Canoga Park’s Randy Uzoma: From under the radar to flying high

If the Canoga Park High School football coaching staff had one wish for the new school year, it would be telling its biology department “to clone Randy Uzoma,” offensive coordinator Kevin Carlsen said.

At Canoga Park, a neighborhood school with around 1,500 students, coaches are still trying to figure out how the 6-foot-2, 198-pound Uzoma escaped being lured away to one of the public- or private-school football powers in the West San Fernando Valley.

The answer is that no one knew about Uzoma when he enrolled four years ago. He had never played football. His Nigerian-born parents sent him to the neighborhood school because of academics.

“If you get a C, you’re grounded for a cool three months,” Uzoma said. “C is not a word in our dictionary.”

He went out for football, and each season, his athleticism and skills got better. By summer, when he scored the highest number in the nation in an athletic fitness test known as SPARQ, college recruiters took notice. San Jose State, Nevada, Idaho and Air Force made early offers, wanting him to play receiver, defensive back or linebacker. The fact that he returned five kickoffs for touchdowns as a junior added to the evidence of someone with “an upside that’s through the roof,” Carlsen said. Uzoma ended up committing to Nevada.

What’s so intriguing is how influential and important Uzoma has become to Canoga Park, one of the oldest public schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Its coach, Ivan Moreno, took over the football program in 2007 when the beloved Rudy Lugo became sick with cancer. He and Carlsen, an ex-Canoga Park player, have worked countless hours trying to teach and develop players. They converted an old leadership room into a new weight room, helped by donated weights from New Community Jewish School and the Los Angeles Police Department.

The rise of Uzoma as one of the best athletes in the City Section offers inspiration to teammates, classmates and others.

“It puts us on the map and lets people know if you come to Canoga Park, you will be noticed, that you can excel and we’re doing the right things as a football program in order to take these young men to the next level,” Moreno said.

Uzoma understands what he means to the program.

“If I went to another school, this wouldn’t have happened to me,” he said. “This shows the dedication I put in. The compliments I get for the good things I’m doing, it inspires me to do more. The school roots for me, and that gives me a good feeling. It makes me want to do greater things.”

With a 3.7 grade-point average and the ambition to study medicine and become a plastic surgeon, Uzoma is the type of well-rounded teenager coaches dream about.

“He’s one of the nicest, most honest, hard-working young men that I’ve ever met,” Moreno said. “He really deserves it.”

Canoga Park is 1-2 going into a tough game Friday night against neighborhood rival Woodland Hills El Camino Real. Last week, Uzoma caught six passes for 102 yards in an overtime loss to Los Angeles Fairfax. He caught a 99-yard touchdown pass that was nullified because of a penalty. It would have been the longest pass play in Canoga Park history.

That’s the kind of athlete and impact Uzoma has made at a school that appreciates his loyalty and commitment.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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