Lewisville found its football coach. He’s back where he ‘fell in love’ with his calling
Chester County was the first place he ever played football. And now it’s a place where his “dream has finally come true.”
Leon Boulware has been hired as Lewisville High School’s next football coach. This is the first football head coaching job of his career — a milestone he’d been working toward “all my life,” he said, and a full-circle moment he couldn’t help but get a bit emotional about.
“I remember my dad was the assistant wrestling coach at Chester High School,” Boulware told reporters at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. “I didn’t have a choice but to be there. That’s where I fell in love with athletics. And then from there, I played minor-league football in Chester County. My first time ever playing football was in Chester County. And now my first time being a head coach is in Chester County.
“I never thought it would happen, but things happen for a reason. So I’m looking forward to it.”
Boulware replaces Will Mitchell, who was told by the school that it wanted to go in a “different direction” with the position after 10 years coaching there.
You’ve probably heard of Boulware before — just not in the football realm. He is a well-known wrestling figure across South Carolina.
Boulware graduated from Rock Hill High and attended Limestone College. After that, he went headlong into his coaching calling, steadily working his way around York, Chester and Lancaster counties. He was an assistant wrestling coach at Lewisville before taking the head wrestling coaching job at Lancaster High. He later was the coach at Nation Ford, leading the Falcons to their first playoff appearance in school history.
He then went to Indian Land as a head coach and won back-to-back 3A state championships there. And then, in 2020, he coached at Northwestern and delivered success in one year that the program hadn’t attained in decades. (He left Northwestern for the wrestling head job at North Myrtle Beach in May 2021, but personal matters and a desire to “be around family more” pushed him back west, Boulware said.)
But in his over a decade of being a wrestling coach — amid all the success — Boulware desired to be a head football coach.
Everywhere he went, he was an assistant football coach, learning and sharpening his craft. At Lancaster, he was the offensive line and junior varsity football coach. At Nation Ford he had the same roles. At Indian Land, he was the offensive coordinator under Horatio Blades, and at Northwestern, he was the special teams coordinator under Page Wofford.
And now he’s back at Lewisville.
Back in Chester County.
With big dreams, still.
“I want to make sure that we’re shutting down Richburg,” Boulware said when asked what he wants Friday nights to look like. “I want everything shut down. I want everyone in the community excited about being there on Friday nights. That’s going to be from the coaching staff, the players — to bring back the excitement to the community.”
Lewisville legends endorse Boulware
Boulware said he will implement a spread offense and play fast. When speaking on his defensive philosophy, he used descriptors like “tenacious” and “aggressive” and “in-your-face.”
But one thing he talked a lot about on Thursday was the “tradition” of Lewisville football.
“It’s a special place when you have one high school, one middle school and one elementary school,” Boulware said. “We can implement the same system throughout and be successful across the board. That’s the goal — not just to have a strong high school team, but to develop a program that’s going to be winning and continuing the tradition here on out.”
That talk of tradition was music to the ears of Lewisville’s coaching selection committee.
Principal Tammy Snipes, athletic director Rusty Pemberton, LHS softball coach Jerry Thomas, longtime coach Bennie McMurray, and former Philadelphia Eagle and Lewisville alum Sheldon Brown were the members of that search committee.
And they all were present for Boulware’s introduction on Thursday.
“Small-town football needs a small-town coach — not only a coach, but a fixture in the community,” said McMurray, who coached at Lancaster while Boulware was there coaching wrestling. “And all those adjectives fit coach Boulware to a tee.”
Brown said he thinks Boulware can make the Lions a “contender” soon — something that would only have positive impacts on the school that changed his life for the best.
“It shapes and molds kids, it shapes and molds a community when you contend,” Brown said. “If your football team does well, then the rest of your school year, it’s just smooth sailing.”
Said Snipes: “To say you are the head football coach at Lewisville High School says that you stand in the footprints of legends. … When you coach here, you don’t just coach individuals. You coach the sons and grandsons of state champions who understand the role of football and the foundation of this community.”
‘They’ve been here their entire lives’
Pemberton, the AD, said he and Snipes thought it was crucial to involve McMurray and Brown — two Lewisville legends — in the hiring process.
They are crucial to the football program’s tradition, he said — something that’s too valuable to lose.
“They are able to keep you focused on what we’re looking for as a coach in this community because they’ve been here their entire lives,” Pemberton told The Herald. “I have to have Bennie McMurray and Sheldon Brown here. Coach (Jimmy) Wallace, when he comes to the press box and calls games (on the radio), he just talks about stuff that happened during his time at Lewisville — and that’s huge.
“So if you lose that, you lose the tradition, and you don’t ever want to lose folks like that.”
Boulware has been at Lewisville as an In-School Suspension coordinator for about a month, he said. But between his experience as a wrestling assistant coach over a decade ago, and his month here — Boulware is ready to be a part of this Lions’ tradition, he said.
“I’m excited, I’m grateful,” he said. “This is something I’ve been working for all my life, wanting to be a head football coach. And my dream has finally come true.
“But it doesn’t stop here. Now it’s time to get to work.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 8:35 PM.
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