{"id":3905,"date":"2012-01-23T14:39:53","date_gmt":"2012-01-23T20:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/?p=3905"},"modified":"2012-01-26T14:27:44","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T20:27:44","slug":"coach-leonard-inspires-all","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/?p=3905","title":{"rendered":"Coach lives dream of playing professional ball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- This is the embed code for the Vimeo video your entered into the manual entry box, please delete this code to remove the video --><\/p>\n<p><object width=\"660\" height=\"440\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" data=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=35706403&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=&amp;color=000000&amp;fullscreen=[object Object]\" ><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/vimeo.com\/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=35706403&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=&amp;color=000000&amp;fullscreen=[object Object]\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p><!-- The Embed code for the Vimeo video ends here --><a href=\"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/?attachment_id=3969\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3969\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3969\" title=\"Screen shot 2012-01-23 at 2.31.45 PM\" src=\"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-shot-2012-01-23-at-2.31.45-PM-300x232.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"232\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-shot-2012-01-23-at-2.31.45-PM-300x232.png 300w, https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Screen-shot-2012-01-23-at-2.31.45-PM.png 904w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>From the time he was young, Coach Steve Leonard always enjoyed working hard and pushing himself to his limits.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was told I was too short to play basketball,&#8221; Leonard said. &#8220;So I just had a point to prove to everybody that a little guy could go play something and be successful.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Like so many of us, Coach Leonard was inspired to go somewhere and be someone.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If I wanted to get away from here,&#8221; Leonard said. &#8220;Then I&#8217;d want to go to a place where I guess people didn&#8217;t know me and there&#8217;s just a fresh start.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Even though he was a small player, Coach Leonard lived his dream of becoming a semi-pro football player. He played for eight years for teams in Memphis, Louisiana and south Arkansas.<br \/>\n&#8220;I was pretty successful. I was the lead MVP and scored like 18 touchdowns,&#8221; Leonard said. &#8220;I consider that an accomplishment, being that age and still being able to play like that.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Though Coach Leonard had a successful football career, time took its toll and he soon had to retire.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;After 17 surgeries, you realize you&#8217;re to old and you can&#8217;t do it anymore. So I ended up giving it up because of that,&#8221; said Leonard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the time he was young, Coach Steve Leonard always enjoyed working hard and pushing himself to his limits. &#8220;I was told I was too short to play basketball,&#8221; Leonard said. &#8220;So I just had a point to prove to everybody that a little guy could go play something and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,21],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-3905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports","category-video","tag-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3905"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4113,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3905\/revisions\/4113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}