I’ve known Luke Lachey since he was a little kid running around in Grandview. When my youngest son was a senior on the Bobcats’ football squad, Luke was in grade school and helped out with the varsity on the Friday night sidelines. 

We all knew he was going to be a talented athlete. His three older sisters and his older brother had all been standouts for GHHS in whatever sport they played. What we waited to see was how good the “baby” of the Lachey clan would be.

It didn’t take long for the answer. The first thing I noted about him was on the middle school football field. He was unafraid to catch balls over the middle, even when the throws were a little high or behind him. His speed after the catch and his increasing height became a couple of the talking points at the DK Diner counter.

In high school, he played tight end and defensive end in football, power forward in basketball, then ran the 400 and high jumped in track. He got to play football his senior year, but his basketball season was cut short and his track season was canceled because of COVID.

In football at the high school level, he did everything on the field. When injuries sidelined the first two quarterbacks on the depth chart during his senior year, the now 6’6 “kid” took over the position, receiving the snap and just running down the field, either eluding or knocking down would-be tacklers.

In basketball, he glided to dunk the ball easily with two hands. The Bobcats were about to play in the regional finals when the season was called in 2020, maybe the best chance Ray Corbett and crew had to win a state title in the Hall of Famer’s career with the Bobcats. Luke received offers to play at the DI level.

Luke never got to participate in the state track meet his senior year. He did his junior season, finishing fifth in the 4×400 relay and third in the high jump. He was the top seed in the high jump, having leapt 6’06 before the state meet, where he jumped 6’04. He was undoubtedly the biggest to compete in that event “muscle-wise”.

So what happened at Iowa, Tight End U, that would make him two draft picks ahead of “Mr. Irrelevant” in the seventh round? He missed almost all of his junior year after being injured early in the campaign. When he came back for his senior year, the transient Iowa quarterback prowess lent itself more to handing the ball off than putting it in the air. No one saw what he could do.

So why do I think that the Houston Texans got perhaps the biggest steal of the NFL Draft? Simply said – Luke Lachey is an incredible athlete with a big-time motor and work ethic who might be the most coachable player coming out of college this year. And aren’t NFL teams concerned about coachable right at the moment?

Oh, and in all these paragraphs, I haven’t mentioned that his dad, Jim, is a former Super Bowl champ and All-Pro offensive lineman who can help his son quietly navigate the world of professional sports. After all, Jim wrote an autobiography entitled “The Ultimate Protector”.

Final point – I really want Luke to succeed. He is a good kid who could have big-timed Grandview and gone to a larger ‘burb to play. Instead, he wanted to compete with his childhood friends and play three sports. Most important, he did it all with a humility we wish for all of our children. Congrats, Luke. We’ll continue to cheer for you for a long time to come!