Junior Michael Drenner has played a wide range of sports, including basketball for a year, baseball for five years, track since the fourth grade, and football since the third grade.

Although Drenner has participated in many different sports, he said that football is his favorite. “Honestly it’s just… a different energy,” Drenner said. “Football is a real team effort. There’s a wide variety of backgrounds, people, and personalities [on the team]. It’s a really good time.” 

Drenner started playing football with La Salle his freshman year. He found himself on both the defensive and offensive lines, and still plays these positions on the varsity team today.

In eighth grade, Drenner played football for the Cleveland Warriors Youth League. He said it was an experience that allowed him to learn, make lots of friends, and grow his love for football. Even today, he holds onto a memento from his time with the Warriors Youth League.

“It’s kind of a little corny thing I do… [but] I have the red cleats I used to wear every game, and they just sit in my locker,” he said. “I look at them [before games] and just get into the right head space.”

One challenge that Drenner experiences comes from his attention deficit disorder, also known as ADD, which can make it difficult for him when he’s learning and remembering plays. “I have some really bad ADD sometimes, so it’s really hard for me to focus,” he said. 

Drenner said that he is inspired by his family and friends when pushing through the challenges he faces. He has five biological siblings and five step-siblings. One of his brothers, Colby, played baseball at Franklin High School and broke the batting record in the time that he was there. This has been an inspiration for Drenner throughout high school sports. “I’ve kind of wanted to live up to him since I was a little kid,” he said.

When the entire football team faces challenges, Drenner said that working with his teammates is most important. He learned this when the team played against Del Norte High School in California and fell short. “We stuck with it and we worked hard,” he said. “We had little mistakes here and there, and they cost [us] the game, but it was still a good game for me.”

When Drenner isn’t working hard at one of his practices or games, he likes to relax with friends. “I’m usually pretty tired from the games,” he said. “During the week I go from school to football to doing homework for the rest of the day, so I don’t really have [free] time.”

After high school, Drenner said he wants to pursue engineering. “Computer engineering is something that my brother did in college and he’s a genius,” he said. 

Drenner is unsure about his plans for the future. “College sports would be really difficult, but it’s always a dream,” he said.

Correction: October 24, 2019

An earlier version of this story misstated the opposing team in the first image. It was Pendleton, not Putnam.