St. Charles High has come to a bittersweet time since Coach Bob Leonard is retiring from teaching and coaching next year. Leonard has served with us as the head football coach as well as a strength training teacher, amongst other things. He has developed a great relationship with those he has coached and has produced great talent at the school. His desire to retire at the end of the year has gotten many to question the reason why.

“I’m retiring from coaching to spend more time with my family. I have grandchildren that’s really involved in sports and being a head football coach you just don’t have time to go to their games,” said Leonard.

From what Leonard has said, being a head coach is very time consuming. He has done his job well with students and deserves to retire from his duty as coach.

“I like working with the students here. I met a lot of really good kids and without question, working with the young people here has been very rewarding,” said Leonard.

The athletes he has coached looked up to Coach Leonard, he always pushed them to be the best they can be. 

“He was a nice guy, he always pushed us to be the best we could be,” said sophomore football player Seth Richard.

Leonard has even coached future D1 athletes like Marquis Gracial, and he’ll be going to Mizzou next year. He has coached numerous other athletes who will have bright futures ahead of them. 

“As a coach, Leonard helped me improve as a football player and he pushed me and inspired me to do better and also sparked me to never give up,” said sophomore football player Bobby Hayes.

Coach Leonard will definitely be missed. While it is bittersweet to see this great leader retire, it’s for him to spend more time with his family. Now that’s a true leader.