By MARIO AGUIRRE | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Sean Landez “loved being on the field” so much, he never wanted to come out. Not for a breather. Not for a sip of water. Nothing.
“I knew it wasn’t going to last forever,” he said, “so I practiced hard in order to be ready to play the whole game whenever they needed me.”
Landez was a Swiss Army knife, of sorts, for Sharyland High, playing inside slot receiver, safety and returner. For a Rattlers team that was known to have the complete package in all three phases, Landez was the one constant.
He excelled in each area, recording 75 tackles (36 solo), one forced fumble, seven big hits, 10 interceptions, five pass breakups, six tackles for a loss and two defensive touchdowns. He also had 15 kickoff returns for 338 yards while returning 19 punts for 437 yards, totaling three TDs.
He tallied 215 all-purpose yards on offense for two scores. And he was recognized by the Associated Press as a Class 5A all-state first team defensive back, and as the All-Valley All-Purpose Player of the Year, as well.
“It’s really great to see all the hard work pay off,” Landez said. “This is as much my teammates award and my coaches as it is mine. They helped push me 110 percent.”
At an early age, Landez understood the importance of preparation and anticipating the next move on the field. His fathered drilled it in him.
“For every action, there’s a reaction,” Landez remembered him saying. “He helped me think ahead to what might happen. Just the knowledge, like a chess game, (he said) ‘They’re going to bait you. You’ve got to stay disciplined.’ That’s pretty much where it came from.”
That approach, coupled with Landez’s feel for the game, is what helped separate him from everyone else.
“What’s great about Sean is, he’s got the ability to disguise coverage,” Rattlers defensive coordinator Craig Krell said. “Most quarterbacks read safeties. But he’s got that ability to cover up what we’re doing.”
His ability to return kicks and punts was a big asset, too. The mere threat of his long runs — one of which made ESPN’s “Top 10 plays” segment in 2012 — was enough to force opposing coaches to rethink their entire approach with special teams.
“We knew if they’re going to kick it to us, we knew we had a good chance of scoring a touchdown as much as our offense did,” Krell said. “(With Landez), a lot of teams try to kick it out of bounds. They’d end up with short kicks because they didn’t want to kick it to us. Kicks that were less than 20 yards because they angled it out of bounds. That was huge.”
During his three years on varsity, Sharyland went 29-1 in the regular season, winning three district titles and advancing to the third round of the playoffs each year. Whatever the situation, Landez made his presence felt in games and in practice.
He was relentless in his training, so much, in fact, that the coaching staff usually had to keep a watchful eye over him.
“He trains like a savage,” Sharyland coach Ron Adame said. “He trains hard in the summer. He’s one of these guys that you know he’s going to come in condition to start the year. Sometimes with him, you have to tone it back. You have to be smart with how much conditioning you put on his plate.
“After a while, you have to take care of the player’s legs and make sure they peak at game time and they don’t leave it all on the practice field.”
Landez developed that reputation over the course of four years, never letting up. He had his foot on the pedal and never let go.
“He’s always been a leader,” Krell said. “Even when I got there at the end of his sophomore year, you could tell he was a leader. A lot of times you’ll find a kid that’s special like him that has their senior year where they don’t work as hard because they’re special and they know it. You didn’t see that with Sean. He has bigger and better things he wants to do, and his work ethic proves that he’s going to continue to keep getting better.”