Harry Leyland remains in coaching for the same reason he got into coaching.

"I like the game and I like the kids," the Butler resident said.

Leyland, 72, coached in the Butler Area Midget Football League for nearly 50 years, has coached seventh and eighth grade basketball at Butler Catholic for 45 years and will be an assistant coach for Butler freshman football this year.

A 1949 Butler graduate, Leyland played guard and linebacker for the Golden Tornado.

"I was walking down Short Street one day (in 1954) and saw the South Side team practicing in a field," Leyland said. "I knew the coaches and they asked me if I wanted to help out.

"After my first year, those guys were gone and the Midget League asked me if I wanted to become head coach. I've been coaching ever since," he added.

Leyland, who worked at Armco for 41 years, has coached thousands of youngsters and won nine BAMFL championships. He's coached a few eventual Butler High School quarterbacks - Reno Regis, Lenny Codispot, Jimmy Meehan and Rick Galante among them.

He joined Dick Collodi in starting the Butler Catholic basketball program in the late 1950s.

"I remember watching St. Michael's lose a game, 24-0," Leyland said. "I thought nobody gets shut out in basketball.

"I went to a parents-teachers meeting and they were merging that program with Butler Catholic. They needed a coach and I took the job," he added.

Since then, Butler Catholic has won numerous section championships, won the diocese championship twice and advanced to the state tournament twice.

When asked whether he liked coaching football or basketball more, Leyland replied: "I like them both."

"He screams more on the basketball court than he does on a football field," said Louise Leyland, his wife of 50 years.

The couple has seven children, most of whom played football or basketball while growing up.

Margie Leyland helped coach girls basketball at Butler Catholic, son Mike Leyland coached grade school basketball in Westerville, Ohio, and daughter Dana Leyland coached cheerleading at Center Township Elementary.

"Margie coached with Dutch Angeloni," Leyland said of the Butler Catholic girls basketball program. "He started girls basketball in this town.

"There were no teams around for Dutch's girls to scrimmage, so they scrimmaged against our boys," he added.

Hank Leyland, Butler High School's defensive backs coach, began his coaching career as an assistant to his father with the BAMFL's South Side Blue Streaks.

"It was everything," the younger Leyland said of his father's influence on his career decision. "I watched Dad coach when I was young. When they had coaches meetings at the kitchen table, I sat next to him."

Hank Leyland coached with his father for five years.

"He never stops learning," Leyland said of his father. "That's how he's been able to adapt and keep on going.

"Dad is as young as he's ever been. When he retired from the steel mill, he learned how to play the piano. That's just his makeup," he added.

Leyland remains active in coaching 23 years after his induction into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981.

When it comes to coaching, Harry Leyland has no ego.

"Once Hank started coaching high school kids, he was farther along than I was," Leyland said. "I ask him questions now."

When it comes to coaching - combining quality and longevity - Harry Leyland also has few, if any equals.

"He's an excellent coach," longtime BAMFL coach George "Red" Slater said. "We've had a lot of good battles over the years.

"The kids like him and that's the key. That's why he's been so good for so long," he added.

"Dad's honesty and his directness with his players are his strongest assets," Hank Leyland said. "It's not what you know, it's what you can teach your players.

"Kids listen to what he says because they know they're hearing the truth. The kids see his passion and love for the game, and it rubs off," he added.

Art Monteleone has known Leyland since 1960. He coached with him at South Side for five years, then coached against him for 20 years with Institute Hill.

"He can tell talent, and position-wise, he knows where kids belong," Monteleone said. "And he knows how to handle kids.

"Harry is one of a kind. He does this all for nothing and he'll never give it up. He'll be coaching until the day he dies," he added.

"I can't imagine him not coaching," Leyland's wife agreed. "I've never known him when he wasn't coaching."

Monteleone said Leyland has such passion on the sidelines that Leyland literally jumped on his back to stop him from berating an official during a BAMFL game.

"I kept yelling and took three unsportsmanlike conduct penalties," Monteleone said. "Harry got tired of telling me to shut up and finally just jumped on my back to keep me quiet."

Leyland admits he can't see himself quitting.

"I know as much as I used to, but my methods aren't as well-received now," he said. "Kids don't like my demands of perfection through repetition, doing it until we do it right. But that's probably society as a whole.

"I got into coaching in the first place because of the lack of coaching I had. I'll keep doing it as long as I feel like I can."

The Leland File

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A synopsis of Harry Leyland's coaching career:

Will assist Butler's freshman football team this year at age 72

Served as head coach or assistant in Butler Area Midget Football League for nearly 50 years

Was an assistant coach for BAMFL champion South Side Blue Streaks in 1954, 1958 and 1959

Won BAMFL titles as head coach of South Side or East Butler in 1966, 1972, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1988, 1989 and 1991

Has been coaching seventh- and eighth-grade basketball at Butler Catholic for 45 years

Inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1981