ORANGE PARK, Fla. – Just try to keep up with sports photographer Randy Lefko.
He gave our videographer Marco Monge a workout.
First, Randy was in the thick of it on the sidelines at Middleburg High School, then, capturing on camera, special moments from his front-row seat, he was right on the edge of the mat, during a big district wrestling match-up.
If you have played sports in Orange Park or anywhere in Clay County, you’ve probably seen Randy, and he’s got a slew of breathtaking photos to prove it.
He’s spent 40 years with the Clay Today newspaper.
You can still feel the joy Randy has, for what he said is a calling.
“When I watch a sporting event, I see minuscule pieces of time that nobody else can see. And I think that’s my God-given gift,” he said.
Like a quick glance from a Blue Angels pilot mid-flight. Or, each bubble flowing from a swimmer’s face. And like some of these seasoned athletes, Randy uses life challenges as motivation like this past summer when a heart attack sidelined him.
He got emotional talking about being in the hospital.
“I must say, the Keystone Heights football team all went to church for me, and they said, You can’t go yet. We got things that you need to photograph. And that’s what keeps me, you know? I mean, it’s just, I mean, I would feel bad if, like, Fleming Island wins the state soccer title and I wasn’t here,” he said.
The community has rallied around his award-winning work like the time he went underwater to photograph a swimmer.
Sharing his skill with the next generation of photographers brings his joy full circle.
“And I always tell them, I will coach you up so that you can do what I do, almost, almost. I don’t give them all the secrets,” he said.
Some of those secrets are too deep to share.
“I might get emotional because I lost a child, and I always thought she would be a great athlete,” he said. “But it didn’t happen. And so I think that’s God’s plan was, you know, do it for somebody else.”
In his younger days, Randy played sports. He said he was good enough, nothing spectacular, but he’s been right there with the top athletes in the world for four decades.