Springfield Sacred Heart-Griffin under head coach Ken Leonard (below) taught players the value of working hard and being held accountable for their actions in an encouraging and welcoming environment. Most of the kids he coached during his 39 years with the Cyclones would never go on to play collegiately or get paid as professionals.
Instead, Leonard had shown his players tough love and taught them that there is more to life than football. Everything he instilled in his program was done for the team’s sake.
“Our banquets — no matter if we were in a state championship or not — the only people mentioned were the seniors,” Leonard said. “You had to make it all the way to be a senior. To do that, we had zero awards, so there were no most valuable players.”
“There was no best running back, best lineman, all that stuff,” Leonard continued. “We believed it was a team, and if you’re going to talk team and then give out all these awards, I think you’re kind of defeating the purpose.”
The team-first approach worked wonders, as the Cyclones had 35 playoff trips and won six state championships under Leonard. While the coach was thrilled with transforming SHG into a perennial power, Leonard cited his coaching staff among his proudest accomplishments. Most of his staff was comprised of former players who had been brought up through the program and knew the system, and the rest were coaches from other schools deserving of a second chance.
“Our coaching staff stayed together, we had probably 12 to 14 coaches that stayed and had been with me for 15, 20 years or so… a lot of my coaches were ex-players, so they knew the system and when you have that, you can just carry it over every year. It’s nothing new, you make adjustments. That makes a big difference and I was blessed to have that,” Leonard said.
That consistency paid dividends during the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the virus bringing unprecedented challenges to the sports world, buy-in from players was at an all-time high as they “never quit working” through a limited number of allowable contact dates and Zoom workouts.
Leonard felt that his 2020 team — which played in the spring of 2021 — was arguably the best of his tenure. SHG went 6-0 in the shortened pandemic season and all of their games were won by double-digits, highlighted by a definitive win over crosstown rival, Springfield High School.
Two years later, the Cyclones won a state championship by going 14-0 to send Coach Leonard out on top. Leonard’s final team was “unselfish” and a “very talented group.”
“Those kids were very good athletes and I tell people, probably my eighth and ninth skill kids would have started on any team I coached in 47 years,” Leonard gushed.
Even though the players were critical to the on-field success, the parents also held significant roles in helping their kids become the best versions of themselves. The mothers were in charge of fixing the pregame meals every Thursday night, and the fathers would make breakfast before Saturday games during the playoffs.
Players could express gratitude for their parents in the form of letters, which Leonard called “tremendous” and was proud of himself and his staff for initiating it. The first was the father-son love letter. If a boy did not have a dad, one of the coaches or whoever was close to them would step in.
“It wasn’t about trying to be cute. It was to tell them how they really feel. A lot of times, those kids heard their dad tell them they love them for the first time, and that was very touching.”
Every player was required to write a letter to their mother because “sometimes they don’t tell their mother they love them.”
The genuine respect and admiration for everyone involved in the SHG football program from the parents to the coaching staff is why Leonard retired as the winningest football coach in IHSA history.
