Capital Area nominee for the Bantam Volunteer Award is Leonard Gervais, Head  Coach of the Leo Hayes
Junior Lions. Leonard is a certified Level I coach and will be taking his Level II Technical in April, 2002.
Leonard was an assistant coach with the Fredericton Southside PeeWee Red Bombers in 1999 and 2000.
He was co-Defensive Coordinator for the 2000 Red Bombers team that finished 11-1 and went all the way
to the provincial championship game. The Bombers defense allowed only 90 points in 12 games or just
 7.5 points per game.

In 2001 Leonard took over as Head Coach of the Leo Hayes Junior Lions. The previous (2000) season the
team went 0-9 giving up 428 points and scoring  only 52. They lost the North-South Bowl game to the
Fredericton Junior Black Kats by an almost unbelievable score of 104-6! Needless to say, Leonard was
taking over a team that had hit rock bottom.

Coach Gervais' first step was to go out and recruit the best players from Leo Hayes and the two middle
schools that feed LHHS. Armed with brochures and posters he spent many noon hours recruiting at the
 three schools. Next he went out and found four new coaches to help him with the Lions. The team was
 in need of new helmets. He organized the kids to do bottle drives, car washes, bag groceries, sell garbage
 bags, do BBQ's and sell "peeler cards". The result was 40 new Riddell VSR-4 helmets, navy blue with
white stripes and "Leo the Lion" decals on each side. The team also bought 50 porthole mesh practice jerseys.

On the field the turnaround in the team was amazing. The Lions went 6-5, scored 235 points and allowed 169.
They lost the 2001 North-South Bowl to the Black Kats 26-0. They lost 38-3 to the Kats in the Capital Area
championship game. The Kats would go on to beat Hampton 31-7 and Tantramar 32-8 on their way to the N.B.
championship. The Lions had gone from being the worst team in the province in 2000 to being one of the best in 2001.

For 2002 the Lions are already out raising money. The goal is to buy 40 pair of navy blue nylon game pants.

Leonard also serves as Vice President- Fredericton Northside on the Capital Area Minor Football Association executive.