The Ravenna community will assemble to honor the memory of longtime football Coach Joe Leigh in a Celebration of Life Ceremony on May 9 at the Ravenna High School Auditorium on May 9 at 2 p.m.
“It is for anyone who was associated with Joe Leigh,” Ravenna Athletic Director Joe Lunardi told The Weekly Villager on April 15. “Whether it be in the classroom or on the football field. If he impacted you, you will probably be there.”
Leigh served as the Ravens’ football coach for 19 seasons from 1971-1989, amassing a 119-73-2 record with two conference championships and two shares of the league title, which made him the school’s winningest football coach for 22 years. He also served as the Ravens’ head track & field coach for five years, leading the program to two league titles.
The 1963 Hiram graduate passed away on March 23 in Chincoteague, VA but Ravenna High School will honor his memory with a special ceremony.
The Celebration of Life Ceremony will allow friends and family who knew Leigh to share some of their fondest memories of the one of the most successful football coaches in school history.
In addition to a successful coaching career at Ravenna High School, Leigh’s success continued at Mount Union College, where he worked as an assistant coach from 1998-2005, serving on seven national championship teams. His final coaching position was at Chincoteague High School in Virginia before he finally stepped down in 2017.
According to Lunardi, the Ceremony will offer the community closure in saying goodbye to one of the original architects of the culture of Ravenna football.
“For the people that knew him, it is helpful to them as well to be able to have some sort of closure and camaraderie for Coach Leigh,” Lunardi noted. “When this happens, you get together and talk about stories of Coach Leigh, so it is a healing process.”
Although Leigh coached his final football game for Ravenna in 1989, Lunardi said that his presence was never forgotten, as his fingerprints still lingered not just in the program but also in his line of successors, including Lunardi, who played for Leigh when he attended Mount Union College.
Lunardi acknowledged that he sought guidance from Leigh when he took over as Ravenna’s football coach in 1996.
“When I was teaching and I first got a job here and was teaching elementary school, I was the defensive coordinator and had his grandson down at the elementary school, so Joe and I continued to have a good relationship,” he said. “When I became the head coach, one of the first people I reached out to was Joe Leigh and I had a lineage of questions that I needed to ask him and get his advice.”
“When somebody paves the way for you or helps mold the tradition, it is your job as the next head coach to do your homework of what traditions were created when Joe was here or other coaches that had an impact on kids,” Lunardi added. “There is a reason why they are called traditions that you want to continue to do it over and over again.”
Even while living in Virginia, Leigh remained connected to the Ravens’ football team as the coaching staff allowed him to have access to game film via HUDL. Lunardi said that Leigh would often send emails complimenting and critiquing Ravenna’s performance.
Lunardi said the community that will attend the Ceremony will not just be showing their dedication to Leigh’s memory but also their commitment to each other as a tight-knit community.
“The proof is in the pudding when it is someone is so impactful like Coach Leigh,” he said. “It shows how close we are as a community and that is why something like this is so special.”
Lunardi said that Leigh’s memory now joins the company of several former coaches he worked with either at Ravenna High School or Mount Union College.
“He is in the big football field in heaven,” he said. “There are quite a few coaches who have coached here and coached with him that are gone as well and they are guys that were down at Mount Union when I was down there. I feel like Joe is building a coaching staff up there of Mount Union and Ravenna coaches.”
