CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illlinois senior wide receiver Raphael Leonard ranked sixth in the MVFC in touchdown receptions (5) and earned All-Newcomer team honors in 2017. He finished the year with 34 receptions for 530 yards and five touchdowns. The Starkville, Mississippi native was second on the team in receiving touchdowns and yards per reception.

You were a three-sport star in high school. What made you settle on football?
I played football, basketball and baseball. I quit baseball after my sophomore year to focus more on football. Basketball is my first love, but with my height and ability and knowing I wasn’t going to grow any taller, I just knew football was going to be the sport for me in the future.

After high school, you played one season at Florida Atlantic. What were your takeaways from that season?
It was a great learning experience for me. I played as a true freshman and not many people get to do that. 

Your next stop was at East Mississippi Community College where you led the team in receiving and won a national title. What areas did you make your greatest growth?
It’s the best juco in the nation and there’s a lot of competition there. It can humble you a lot. There are so many great players there, so you’re spot isn’t safe. 

You also were involved in the Netflix show Last Chance U. Take us behind the scenes of what it was like to be on a documentary TV show.
It could be annoying at times. With the cameras being around all day, every day, you just had to get used to it. Once you get used to it you can enjoy it. Some people will try to not be themselves in front of the camera, other people would get the wrong idea from it, they’ll get a different narrative from what the documentary is actually trying to show. The show was mainly about the competition and how juco life is. It was about how you can find so much football talent in a small town in Mississippi.

What brought you to Southern Illinois?
I had other Division I offers, but Coach (Nick) Hill recruited me out of high school, so we already had the connection when I was at East Mississippi. I trusted Coach Hill, liked his offense and knew this would be the spot for me to flourish. 

Describe your game, your strengths as a receiver.
I feel like I have the best hands in the nation. I’m athletic, feel like I can be a deep threat, I have a great catch radius so anything in my vicinity I tell the quarterback to throw it to me and there’s a great chance I’ll catch it. I can make any catch thrown to me.

You’re known to put in a lot of extra hours to sharpen your game. What are some examples of things you do?
I just go by the motto I learned from one of my high school coaches — he used to say, if you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse. Every day I try to find something to get better at, whether we have practice or we don’t. When we watch film, I look to see what my mistakes are and I try to get better at that the next day. Nobody is perfect, so I try to keep working to perfect my craft.

What goes through your mind when you’re working one-on-one against a corner and you know the ball is coming your way?
Just win. Coach (Nick) Williams tells us to win the one-on-one matchups out there, beat the guy in front of you and catch the ball. 

How are you able to make so many acrobatic plays?
I feel like it’s just a God-given talent that I have and being blessed with great athletic ability.

The offense looks like it has a lot of playmakers. Give us the scouting report on who you think will be some of the top weapons this year, besides yourself and Darrell James.
We feel like we have the best receiving corps in the nation. Sam (Straub) is getting back healthy and we feel like we have the best quarterback as well. We have a new receiver Matt (Quarells), Landon (Lenoir) is coming back from injury, we have Sam Bonansinga, and the running back corps as well. We’re just trying to polish everything and get ready for the fall. 

I know the NFL is on your radar. What do you need to show scouts to demonstrate you can play at the next level?
I need to show that I’m a big, strong receiver that can use my strength to win the one-on-ones against a bigger corner, that I’m fast enough to be a deep threat and that I can do anything I’m asked to do as a receiver.

Who are some of the biggest influences in your life?
My mom and dad and three older sisters — my mom will do anything for me. I want to make it to the league so I’m able to give her anything she wants and return the favor. I have three older sisters and two nephews who look up to me and I just want to be a good example for them and return everything to them.

What are your hobbies and interests away from the game of football?
I still like to play basketball every now and then and I’m a real video game freak.

If confirmation from another source is required, Jose Martinez suggested the team trainers because they heard his prediction as Paul DeJong stepped into the batter’s box in the sixth inning about to hit one of the longest home runs in years for the Cardinals.

 

Here’s the link to the story at St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

INA, Ill. – Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: We are not saying Ronnie Henderson was perfect when he played basketball for the Rend Lake College Warriors in their early days – the 1971-72 and 1972-73 seasons.

We do have to admit, though, he was pretty good. Good enough, for sure, to be remembered fondly and welcomed 45 years later into the RLC Sports Hall of Fame.

And if the old axiom is true – you know what “they” have always told you about “Practice makes perfect” – then you should be impressed by what his Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame mentor, Jim “Hummer” Waugh has to say about the relationship between practice and Henderson. Keep in mind, Waugh won 501 games as a coach over 36 seasons, played three major sports for Indiana State University and served for many years as a color commentator for Sycamore basketball telecasts.

There was no doubt Henderson was a team leader, “very quietly though. He didn’t say much,” said his Juco Coach.

Ronnie Henderson

“The thing about Ronnie I would have to say, he practiced as hard as anybody I have ever been around.”

It rubbed off on his teammates. “You get a guy like that,” continued Waugh, “you learn real quick you had better practice hard, too, or you are going to get knocked around a lot.

“A lot of players don’t always give it their all as Ronnie did. He was a tenacious rebounder because he went after it so hard. It was not that he was a great leaper or unusually quick, he was just very aggressive.”

On Saturday, April 21, Henderson will team up with another Mt. Vernon product, Catcher Scott Wagner (1978-80), and another cage star, Tracy Hyatt Steed (1986-88), to comprise the 19th Class to be inducted into the Rend Lake College Sports Hall of Fame. Ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Student Center on the Ina campus.

The public is invited. Registration in advance for the banquet is required through the Athletic Department – (618) 437-5321, Ext. 1250, or by email to oxford@rlc.edu.

The trio will bring the total number of individuals to be so honored since the Hall’s inception in 2000 to 50. Membership also includes 11 teams and four Track relay quartets.

Henderson, who would later become a Correctional Officer at Big Muddy River Correctional Center, now retired, was the quiet “Enforcer” for Waugh’s Warriors. Neither friend nor foe challenged the 6-foot-4 Forward/Strongman, a two-time All-Southern Illinois College Conference First-Team selection.

Thanks to his record 367 rebounds as a freshman and career mark of 604 (206 offensive and 378 defensive), the Warriors went 38-17, with a best-to-date slate of 20-6 and SICC crown (7-1) in his final season.

His career rebound standard stood for 23 years before it was overcome by National Junior College Athletic Association First-Team All-America and RLC Sports Hall-of-Famer Bryant Lowe; the single-season high mark of 367 was still standing long after that.

He averaged 14.4 points per game (417 total) and 12.7 rebounds as a rookie, when he also led at 75.6 percent from the charity stripe (101-132), then matched that 14.4 a year later (374 points in three fewer games), settled for 9.1 rpg while sharing the boards with 6-9 mate Roy Rieckenberg and 6-5 HOF predecessor Randy Lemay, with 2.3 assists per game.

In the 20-win Warrior campaign in 1972-73, Henderson & Co. started 8-0, then came out on top in 10 of the last 11 before dropping its second post-season outing. The record-setters broke the 90-point bar on 13 occasions and yet still managed to establish a defensive record-low yield at 72.2 ppg as well. The first and last of those six setbacks were by two points.

The two teams powered by Henderson and offensive leader Sonny Wyatt established six Game and 11 Season records while scoring 80-plus points in two-thirds of their games. Exciting to watch? In a wild display against Lockyear Business College out of Evansville, IN, RLC set records for Field Goal Attempts (107) as well as Rebounds (75).

Wyatt, who finished his career with 896 points compared to the 791 for Henderson, and the towering Rieckenberg joined the “Enforcer” on the ’72-73 All-SICC First Team.

Henderson would go on to average 17 ppg and 10 rebounds as a junior transfer and 11 ppg / 7 rpg as a senior for the Marion Titans. Marion College changed its name in 1988 to Indiana Wesleyan University and recently captured the 2018 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Division II Men’s Basketball Championship for the third time in the last five years.

Do not forget something very important, Waugh insists. “He had a lot of good teammates. You don’t win 20 games without good players . . . That team had Ronnie, Lemay, Rieckenberg, Wyatt, (John) Kretz and several others.

“I think Ron became a better college player than he had been as a high school player. He had always been pretty strong physically, but I think he got a little better as an offensive player, too, because he had more freedom to move around.”

Henderson would not have had the ability to get to campus on a daily basis were it not for his own personal “taxi” services provided by Coaches Waugh, Mike McClure or Wayne Arnold.

His truly is a success story.

“I do not believe he would have achieved what he did if he had not come to Rend Lake College,” Waugh said, refusing to pat himself on the back. “By that, I mean we were there for him, but he was the one who had to take advantage of that, and he did. He was ready to go every day when we would pull up to get him. I am very proud of what he has been able to accomplish in his life.”

The HOF Gang of 50 Individuals includes former teammates Lemay, a two-sport star for the Warriors, and Brad Weathers, who was inducted in 2013 for his accomplishments as an Alumni Coach, plus Waugh and Assistant Coach McClure, former Baseball Head Coach who was one of four HOF Charter Members in 2000.

Yet another teammate, Ron Smith, was named RLC Foundation “Alumnus of the Year” in 2011. Smith, a longtime coach at the high school and college level, was a much-valued Men’s Basketball Associate Head Coach under his mentor, Rich Herrin, for the SIU Salukis and a successful entrepreneur as Owner/Operator of USA Sports Tours and Events. He also was an Assistant Coach at Northern Iowa and Iowa State universities.

·         Wagner earned First-Team All-State recognition as a college freshman after hitting .373 (28-75) in Spring ’79. For an encore, he upped that average to a best-ever .450 (27-60) the following Fall and helped McClure’s ninth squad post his 250th win and gain a share of its third SICC championship. He was named All-SICC.

The 6-2, 195-pounder produced a team-record 60 RBIs in as many games (41-19) and a record five home runs in the combined Fall/Spring ’79-80 campaign. Overall, the sophomore batted .369 (65-176) with a .551 slugging percentage. The athletic backstop also stole 21 bases and scored 51 runs as the ’79-80 Warriors set five new standards, including Wins. Individually, he added All-Great Lakes and South All-Stars to his credits.

Also worth noting: Wagner’s 69 bases-on-balls and six triples during a career in which he hit .371 after a slow start in Fall ’78; by comparison, he struck out just 34 times in approximately 400 total plate appearances.

Career totals for teams that were a composite 68-43 included a .335 batting average (109-325), 80 runs scored, 82 RBIs, a .492 slugging percentage thanks to 31 extra-base hits and a .452 on-base percentage.

·         Hyatt was the leading scorer both seasons for the winningest teams back-to-back in Lady Warrior annals – 26-5 in ’86-87 and 25-8 in ’87-88 under Waugh, who by then had requested a shift to the distaff side.

She left RLC as the No. 2 scorer all-time for a program in its 11th year of existence. Her career total of 1,026 points puts the 5-10 forward in select company along with new HOF “teammates” Susie Woodward, Rebecca Harris, Cheryl Weis and Amanda Willoughby. The two-time All-Great Rivers Athletic Conference pick was All-Region XXIV as a sophomore. She averaged 15.7 ppg as a freshman and 17.8 ppg as a returnee.

She is married to former Carmi-White County athlete Tim Steed and is a teacher in that system. She has been serving as the Lady Bulldogs High School Basketball Coach but recently submitted her resignation.