Leavans leads by example
Tommy Leavans demands respect from his teammates on the Niagara Junior Varsity Spears football team.
“He’s Tommy first off and no one on the offence says anything to him,” Spears head coach Bill Crawford said. “At eight years old, he started throwing bales of hay and he is man strong and he’s the leader on our team. Where he goes, we go. All the kids follow him and follow his direction.”
Crawford has been impressed with the Grade 11 student at Centennial right from the beginning.
“He started last year as a first-year player and that says a lot because our team was loaded with linemen.”
The 5-foot-11, 230 pounder plays offensive guard for the Spears and is comfortable in a leadership role.
“I try to show my leadership by being the hardest-working guy on the field and trying to do every play at 100 per cent,” said the 16-year-old Welland resident.
Crawford loves everything about Leavans, who won a silver medal this spring in junior boys shot put at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations’ track and field championships.
“He is an amazing athlete,” Crawford said. “He’s an offensive lineman but I could use him as a H-back (halfback) or he could be a linebacker. He could play a lot of positions on the field.”
Leavans has been getting used to a new role this season.
“He started on defence this year and was going to play a little O line, but as the season went along he knew we needed better blocking and he was more than willing to take on full time offence and lose all his defensive reps,” Crawford said “He is selfless and he has been that way ever since he was young. I’ve coached him since he was eight years old.”
Leavans was more than happy to move to the other side of the ball.
“I could see myself going on in football more as an offensive lineman compared to a defensive lineman,” he said. “I just feel more skilled and better at it.”
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t like playing defence.
“I miss defence a little bit because it is always nice when you get a big sack on the quarterback,” he said.
Leavans and fellow offensive guard Noah Chase will be key players when the Spears travel to London Friday night to take on the unbeaten Junior Mustangs in Ontario Provincial Football League playoff action.
‘They are going to be pulling and lead blocking,” Crawford said.
Despite losing 43-21 to London in the regular season, Leavans is still confident in his team’s chances.
“I think we have a good chance if we start out running the ball,” he said. “They don’t blitz a lot and if we run the ball we will do really well. And if our defence keeps playing how they are, we will be fine.”
