This tiny college is a coaching cradle for high school football around central Illinois

Football is known for successful coaches producing coaching trees — think the late San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh. But there is a cradle of coaches across central Illinois with roots back to one place: Illinois College.

Some knew they wanted to be head coaches long before they stepped foot on the small Division-III campus in Jacksonville — but others were influenced into the profession by their time with the Blueboys.

Three current head coaches in the Central State Eight Conference — along with a fourth already hired to take over another program next year — as well as two area head coaches played and graduated from Illinois College. They all say they were shaped in some way from their experience there.

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"I could write a book about (his time at IC),” Rochester's Derek Leonard said. "You have to love football to play Division III. The people in the era — from (Mark) Groundsy to us — we love football and at Illinois College, we had great coaches and great people that motivated us.

"We weren't there because of scholarships, we weren't there because the guys were the most athletic guys; all the people there loved football. We had such great coaches and we loved football that so many of us wanted to do it."

Leonard, an eight-time state champion coach, Jacksonville's Mark Grounds and Springfield High's Jon Hebb will all meet on the sidelines this season with IC ties. John Allison, the Sacred Heart-Griffin offensive coordinator, will join that club next season when he takes over as the Cyclones’ head coach following Ken Leonard's retirement. Second-year coach Ryan Gardner and North Mac's Patrick Bowman also credit their time at Illinois College with their development into the head coaching ranks.

Many more IC products are on the sidelines as assistant coaches. "Going to coaching conferences is like a class reunion,” Allison said.

Derek Leonard, like Bowman, didn't need IC to know he wanted to coach. Both had legendary and influential coaches as fathers: SHG's Ken Leonard is the all-time winningest coach in Illinois, while Dan Bowman won 232 games at Greenfield from 1980 through 2011.

But Bowman said his time at IC clearly didn't hurt matters. He echoed Derek Leonard's belief about the mindset of playing at IC.

"I played at the University of Illinois (from 1997-98) who were on scholarship and some of them said, 'I'm only here because I get paid to play,’ and I think that makes a big difference," said Bowman, who played at IC from 1999-2001. "At Illinois College, you are playing because you love the game so much you want to keep going."

The throughline of IC isn't the coaching staff. Grounds played for Bill Anderson. Leonard, Bowman and Allison played under Tom Rowland; Hebb for Rowland and Aaron Keen. Gardner played for Garrett Campbell. Ray DeFrisco — whom played at North Park University when Grounds was an assistant there — has been the Blueboys’ head coach since 2016.

Grounds, who is able to keep a close eye on IC, graduated from Eureka (Missouri) High School. When it came time to figure out his college future, he had other plans.

"It’s the last place I wanted to go,” Grounds, who went to IC from 1987-91, remembered. "My uncle went there, my grandmother was a dorm director there so I knew Illinois College most of my life. I’d come to visit … and we’d go watch Illinois College football games.

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"My uncle made me promise after I looked around at a lot of places that I would visit Illinois College and from the moment I walked on the campus and met the guys and met coach Bill Anderson, it was one of those things you knew based off the culture it was the place to go."

Grounds points to IC's reputation as a good school for future teachers. Most schools look for a coach who is able to teach in the building, so that's helped IC develop future coaches. But IC isn't the only place with degrees for educators.

"Illinois College is a regional liberal arts college that gives opportunities to a lot of kids within 100 miles of campus,” Grounds said. "It gives them an opportunity to go to school, it gives them an opportunity to play sports and the coaches put an emphasis for their sports, and then they have a good experience."

Allison agreed.

"IC in particular, a lot of us wanted to play football and it's one of the most cost-effective private schools,” Allison said. "If you're looking to play football and not pay a ton of money, it's a good option.

"We were allowed to do a lot of the coaching on the field back then in terms of plays and decisions, and I think it got us thinking about the game a little bit."

Gardner's first coaching icon was longtime Auburn coach Dave Bates. Like Leonard and Bowman, Gardner knew what path he wanted to take before he applied at IC. He said Campbell's impact came on the type of coach he'd become.

"He made the point of making every one of his players or recruits feel like they were the most special person in the room,” Gardner said. "I just gravitated toward him; his coaching staff was same way. All of them made you feel like you weren't just a player to them but special to them.

"Whenever I was going through that process and I met coach Campbell and his staff, I learned quickly this is what players are looking for in a coach."

Hebb and Allison did not expect to be coaches when they entered college. Both took a few years post-college to determine their future. Hebb majored in communications and worked in finance before deciding to go back and pursue the credentials to teach. But his time there continued to be an influence.

"A lot of it has to do with the coaches we had. Coach Keen … was sort of young and brash but he showed us the organizational side of it,” Hebb said. "I remember thinking it was so structured and regimented. The coaches we played for had such a great impact on us, it's almost like why would we not want to do that? It's a tough job, we all know it's a tough job, but it's a lot of fun."

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Hebb is grateful for those experiences.

"The thing I maybe missed out on in college was the big-game atmosphere type thing, but hindsight being 20/20, I don't think I'd change anything,” Hebb said.

While the coaches say their shared experience forges a brotherhood among fellow coaches, when they see another IC product across the sidelines, no quarter is spared.

"Of course, we are all competitive and even when we'd play pick-up basketball games in the gym at IC, we wanted to beat each other," Allison said, "and that doesn't change."

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Football sidelines around Springfield filled with Illinois College grads