A few summers ago, Justin “Boogie” Leavy started training at the Greenville Christian School field house. At the time, he was all by himself.
Leavy, a 30-year-old assistant coach at GCS, was working to keep himself in great shape in case he received an opportunity to play professional football. Leavy is a former star quarterback at GCS who played for Delta State. At 6-foot-4 with a chiseled frame, he still looks like a professional athlete.
It didn’t take long for Coach Leavy’s workouts to start drawing attention. One by one, youngsters in the Greenville Christian program began asking if they could workout with him. They wanted to be part of his enthusiasm and optimism.
Coach Leavy told them that they were more than welcome to join him, but they would have to keep up.
“I think what they loved about it was that I was training with them,” he said. “They love that I am competing with them, and I am going to push them. I am 30 years old, but I can still beat them at all the drills. They know that I have put the work in.”
Fast forward a few years later and Coach Leavy’s summer workout program, affectionately called ‘Built by Boogie’ is more popular than ever.
This summer an average of 30 young athletes workout with the coach each morning. These athletes include both college and high school football players, each with lofty dreams of reaching great heights in the game.
Josh Edwards, for example, is a 21-year-old football player from Atlanta. This fall Edwards will be playing at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff. Edwards has been training with Coach Leavy for a month, and he said is in the best shape of his life.
“Coach Leavy knows how to push you,” Edwards said. “He does it with you and does it better. He is not one of the trainers who tells you what to do while he sits back and watches.”
Marlon Palmer, a Greenville Christian star who will be attended Coahoma Community College this fall, has been working out with Coach Leavy since the training sessions began.
“Training with coach has meant a lot,” Palmer said. “I turned my body around in a couple of years. I can bench 315 pounds now 15 times. The best part about him is that he is same person when people are around him or not around him.”
Deshaun Scott is another Greenville Christian football player who has benifitted from Coach Leavy’s training. Scott will be a freshman at Jones Community College this fall.
“Coach is like a second father to me,” Scott said. “I look forward to coming out here every day because I am trying to get better. He just does not sit back and tell you to do something, he is going to do it with you and that gives us motivation.”
Coach Leavy hopes that he cannot just turn his young trainees into better athletes but better people as well.
“I am joyful for what Jesus has done for me in my life and that is just the honest truth,” he said. “We treat each other the right way. They don’t curse because I don’t curse. We hold kids accountable. If you show the kids you love them they will run through a brick wall for you, and I will run through a brick wall for them.”
