Fans see Friday nights on the football field.

Parents see everything that goes into it.

Katie Leh remembers driving her son Shane and his friends to those early weight lifting sessions in the summer. The trips to games before Shane was even at the varsity level and all of the work that went into getting ready to play varsity football.

She remembers thinking that it would all pay off and that Shane would be able to achieve his dream of playing in those Friday night games. When the opportunity finally came, it vanished quickly when Shane went down with an injury in his freshman season.

“I watched him put in all of that work and thinking how it was going to pay off,” said Katie Leh. “Then it happened. The first game he went down with an injury, and it was horrible. He was able to get back out for the last two games, so it ended on a high note. But it was horrible, especially after seeing all of the work these kids put in for practices, the lifting nonstop over the summer, and then that happened.”

When Leh made it back on the field for the last two games of his freshman season, things were back on track.

By the time Leh’s high school football season came to an end, he had accomplished more than he might have dreamed of at Northwestern.

Another dream for student athletes is to get to play for a Division 1 football program: another lofty dream. That dream also came true when Leh committed to play at Marist University.

“It’s always a process for any football player to come up through the youth programs and middle school programs, and JV and then up through varsity. It’s even more of a process when you’re a quarterback,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “To be as good as he is, Shane had to develop a little faster mentally and physically, grasp things a little bit better and work a little harder, and Shane did that.

“He progressed beautifully through the years, and it turned into an excellent career. He had one of the most efficient seasons a quarterback has ever had here at Northwestern.”

Leh was the starting quarterback in three state championship games for Northwestern Lehigh and over his career completed 64.6-percent of his passes, a Northwestern career record.

He also finished second in passing yards (6,070), passing touchdowns (79), completions (624), and attempts (624). His senior season was filled with accomplishments, including setting the school’s season record for passing yards (2,660), completion percentage (68.4%), attempts (234), and completions (160). He also put himself in the number two spot for passing touchdowns with 31 on the season.

“It’s always in the back of your mind to accomplish all of these goals,” said Leh. “I remember going into my freshman year thinking ‘I want to play in a state championship; I want to win a state championship.’ It’s always a lofty goal, but with the hard work that we put in as a team and all of the things we accomplished, we really believed that we could reach those goals. It feels good to have set those goals and then be able to reach them.”

College football will bring another new challenge. The coaches at Marist believe that Leh has the skills to shift to wide receiver. The move is something that Leh has accepted and will put everything he can into proving the coaches at Marist right.

“They believe in my athleticism to make different cuts, run routes,” he said. “They’ve seen me catch the ball and I did a little workout up there, so they know what I’m capable of and I’m ready to show them that I’m capable of playing wide receiver. I believe that I have the resiliency to change positions and learn new things.”