Cale Lorenz is a senior at Watonga High School and is looking forward to graduating and becoming a SWOSU Bulldog. Cale is involved in football, baseball, and a number of academic clubs. He is a valedictorian of the 2022 graduating class, and he has a passion for helping people.
His favorite sport is football, which he grew up around. His dad was a coach, and even coached Watonga football when he first moved here in the third grade. He started in middle school, and after growing a few inches and gaining a few pounds as he got older, he soon found that he was a natural football talent. By the time he was a sophomore in high school, he was in the starting lineup. “It was kind of expected of me to play … but once I learned how to hit then I’d say I was pretty natural,” he said.
Coach Maynard had a big influence in his football career. “He taught me everything and he was the main person to mentor me,” Cale said. Him and the previous football coach had a great understanding for one another, and Cale attributes his strong mentality to help from him. “He taught me to keep my head on straight.”
His high school career was riddled with injuries, leaving Lorenz out of multiple games throughout multiple years. His sophomore year he tore his labrum in one of the opening games of the season, but continued to play until the season ended. He had surgery, but was back on the field his junior year. His shoulder gave him no trouble, but after having his knee buckle during a game, he found himself on the sidelines once again. “I stepped out for a play and tried to jog it off and then went back in,” he said. His knee buckled once more and he stepped off for good. His anterior cruciate ligament was torn. “My senior year I came back, started the first game, and then the second game of the year, it was the third quarter and I had been playing and it was all fine. I took a helmet to my other knee,” he said. There he got a fracture in his leg that put him out for six weeks.
Cale got to play the last two games of his senior year, a bittersweet end to the long road of challenges behind him. “Especially since the expectations that had been on me, coming from a coach’s family, and being a starter throughout high school … I’d say it was hard,” he said. Support from his friends and family is what really helped him through the many injuries he had. “There were times when I was at a pretty low point from it, but you just gotta keep going. I’d say it helped my mental toughness,” Lorenz said. The biggest thing that football and his injuries have taught him is that “your mind is the strongest part of your body.” It gave him the mindset he needed to never give up in life.
Another person that’s helped him through life in general over the past recent years is his girlfriend Julien Roman Nose. “She’s stayed with me throughout all of my mistakes and my low points with my injury history,” he said. She’s always been his biggest supporter and aly through life. His family was also always there for him through anything and everything. His brother Chase was another mentor figure and has “made me a better person throughout high school,” Cale said.
Football is something he isn’t planning on doing in college, at least as of right now. Graduating is definitely nerve-racking for Cale, and he thinks he may be “lost for a time” after he does. However he’s ready to graduate and make something of himself. He intends on going to Southwestern Oklahoma University to major in psychology, minor in criminal justice, and eventually join law enforcement as a FBI private investigator. “I feel like the world is in a bad place right now, and if I can make it better then I’m gonna try to,” Cale said.
Cale Lorenz, 18
Grade- Senior
Family- David and Christie Lorenz (parents), Austin and Chase Lorenz (siblings)
Activities- Football, baseball manager, NHS, OHS, FCA, STUCO, Band, Scholastics, Academic Bowl, Gifted and Talented
Hobbies- Hanging out with girlfriend Julien and chilling at home, theater