Lehnus Set to Retire after 50 Years on the Sidelines

Nate and Pa during Nate's freshman season in 2008

The post below is about our grandfather, Denny Lehnus. Nate and I have both had the privilege of playing for Pa when we played for the BBCHS freshmen team. He is one of the main reasons we now attend Anderson University since we have been on campus for our entire lives, serving as ball boys for the Ravens while he was the coach. He has touched too many lives to count throughout his time on the sidelines and, while he will no longer be coaching after this season, his teachings will always live on in his former players, including us.

It is seven o’clock on a weeknight and Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School in Bradley, Ill. looks dark and quiet. The teachers are long gone and likewise for most of the 2,200 students. However, in the school’s Donald K. Turner Gymnasium there is plenty of activity. The boys’ freshmen basketball team is hard at work, running through drills while the head coach, Denny Lehnus, hollers instruction, encouragement and corrections at various players.

Lehnus is in his 50th and final season of coaching basketball. At 70 years old the only thing that is “old” about Lehnus is the number. He still coaches with the same passion and intensity that he had a half-century ago. The fundamentals still matter to him and he still preaches the same messages to his players. As practice starts, he dons a pullover, gym shorts and Reebok shoes with crew socks. Same thing every day. The gym is home away from home for the coach and there hasn’t been a point in the last 50 years when he hasn’t owned a key to a gym.

Lehnus is something of a local legend in Illinois’ Kankakee County, but his current players were not even born when the coach was at the peak of his greatness. They don’t understand that their coach compiled a 548-115 record at Kankakee Community College and won at least 20 games in all 19 seasons he was there. They do not know that he won 83 percent of his games, took the Cavaliers to seven straight Region IV titles and five national tournaments. They have never heard that 29 of his players from KCC went on to play Division-I basketball. They simply do not know that a Hall of Famer is giving them instructions every day.

So what is Lehnus doing here, in a high school gymnasium with a team full of players who are not even old enough to drive? Why is this the final stop on a long, successful journey?

“There are two reasons to coach at this level,” said Lehnus. “At the time I took the job I could coach my grandsons and I enjoy the teaching part. I enjoy that more than the games. The games had become not as enjoyable, but the idea of teaching young people how to play the right way was appealing.”

The game of basketball at the freshmen level hardly has its perks. The bus rides are long and bumpy, the games are on early Saturday mornings and the team gets whatever practice times are leftover. Yet here is Lehnus with 49 years of experience and nearly 1,000 wins under his belt teaching the game of basketball to young men who may not have the best skills coming in.

“The toughest part of coaching at this level is just trying to cover the lack of fundamentals,” said Lehnus. “These kids have formed habits that are not fundamentally sound. Creating good habits is not as easy when you have to break bad habits. Also, it’s difficult to teach today’s youth with AAU ball because that doesn’t always focus on the fundamentals of the game.”

It might actually be fitting that this is where the road will end for Lehnus because it is where it started as well. Born and raised in Kankakee, Lehnus began coaching in 1965 at Kankakee West Junior High School and after three years left with a 30-4 record. He went on to Chatsworth High School where he went 46-9 in three years and then spent five years at Kankakee Westview High School, leaving with an 83-48 mark.

From there, Lehnus moved into the college ranks and patrolled the sidelines at KCC for 19 years. In 1993 he decided to take the job at Anderson University in Indiana, a Division III school and his alma mater. After 12 years at AU Lehnus retired with a record of 154-155 and now he is in his eighth season at BBCHS back at home in Illinois.

This is not the first time that he has retired. In 2005 he decided to retire from coaching and leave Anderson to come back home. Family called him back to Bourbonnais, Illinois where he was able to take care of his aging mother, Lucille, who passed away last November at the age of 97. He was also able to watch his grandsons sporting events and travel to see his other grandchildren in South Bend, Indiana and Columbia, Missouri.

Shortly after returning home, Lehnus engaged in talks with BBCHS to become the freshmen basketball coach and that is where he has been ever since. It has always been about more than just basketball with Lehnus and his role continues to be more than just X’s and O’s. At KCC the team had a full-time tutor to help the players with their academics.

When he left the program in 1993 he was quoted in the Chicago Tribune as saying, “In the long run, I hope that I am not judged by wins and losses. I would like to be judged on how I helped my players learn how to be successful later on in life.”

That philosophy still rings true today for Lehnus and that is why at the end of practice the high school freshmen gather around the coach, sitting in front of him while he reads from John Wooden’s children’s book Inch and Miles. Wooden, the famed coach of the UCLA dynasty in the 1960’s and the creator of The Pyramid of Success, takes readers through a journey with Inch the inchworm and Miles the mouse to find the definition of success.

Throughout the book Inch and Miles encounter several different animals who give them a building block to The Pyramid of Success. It is a story about learning to be a better person and the 15-year-old kids in front of Lehnus are actually quite receptive to the reading of a book that is intended for children five to eight years old.

“I remember my freshman year we finished practice and he told us all to sit down and listen up,” said Tim Smith, a senior in college who is now a part-time assistant for the varsity Boilers. “He pulls out this children’s book and I’m like, ‘what is this?’ But he got us all to listen and take in the lessons the book was teaching.”

Lehnus believes in the teaching of Wooden and has applied several of his principles into his own coaching. When the book was released Lehnus liked the messages included in it and thought it would be good for his team. He’s been reading it every year since coming to BBCHS and, as silly as it may seem, his players haven’t forgotten the themes of the children’s book.

“Because it’s a child’s book you immediately have their attention,” said Lehnus. “The lessons taught in the book help them not only in basketball, but in life and I’m trying to help make them better men. If I just gave them the Pyramid of Success then 90 percent of them would have just thrown it away. The book is an attention-getter.”

“It may have been a children’s book, but I think that’s why it stuck with me,” said Smith. “That’s just one of those things you won’t forget about being on a team. When I think of my freshman basketball season Inch and Miles is one of the things I remember.”

Beyond the reading, Lehnus has also been known to leave notes of encouragement in players’ lockers before big games when they are at the sophomore and varsity levels of play. He has given his teams articles to read that have a focus on improvement in basketball and life and he has given laminated wallet cards with inspirational quotes to his teams.

“He bought me a book to read before the summer of my senior year about achieving true excellence and that’s when I really understood how much he cared for his players,” said Smith. “He cared about me as a person beyond the year he coached me and that spoke a lot to me. I’ve never forgotten that.”

The impact stretches beyond his players. Lehnus’ coaching tree is extensive, with several former assistant coaches running their own programs now in some facet, whether it is the head coach or an athletic director.

Jamy Bechler was Lehnus’ assistant for three years at AU and considers his mentor a legend and hero. In a Kankakee Daily Journal article from 2007 Bechler praised Lehnus’ coaching style. "The way he really cared about his players, the way he conducted himself and lived his life," Bechler said of Lehnus' biggest impact on him. “A lot of coaches talk about caring about their players, but then behind closed doors, you see that that is not true. He is not like that. He is very genuine." Bechler is now the head women’s basketball coach at Martin Methodist College in Pulaski, Tennessee.

Lehnus’ top assistant during his time at AU was Tom Slyder who assumed the head coaching duties after Lehnus’ departure in 2005. Slyder was on Lehnus’ staff for 12 years and said he is the coach he is today because of his former boss. “I learned organization and detail to a trade and he taught or reinforced the values of honesty and integrity in me,” Slyder said. With a laugh he added, “I think I also learned how to turn stubbornness into a positive which you need in coaching.” Slyder left AU for North Park University in Chicago, Ill. last year and he is currently the head coach for men’s basketball there.

Today, Lehnus is in touch with several of his former players and assistant coaches. While the games are usually the focal point for the public, it is the behind-the-scenes memories made with a team that Lehnus relishes.

“The games cross my mind frequently but what I remember most is all the other things that came with being on a team. When I see a former player the games come up in discussion but it is all the peripheral things that we mostly talk about,” Lehnus said. At a reunion for Anderson basketball in 2010 several former players came back to campus and shared memories with Lehnus. The same can be said for a KCC basketball reunion in 2008.

One of Lehnus’ former players at KCC, Alex Renchen, is now Lehnus’ boss as he holds the varsity head coaching job at BBCHS. Renchen has had plenty success in his own right, but has enjoyed collaborating with his former coach.

“To say that he will be missed when he retires would be an understatement,” said Renchen. “He has so much experience, knowledge and probably the most important aspect is he is a great teacher of the game.”

Renchen’s praise for Lehnus extended beyond just that; “I always wanted to be a coach and could not have been more fortunate than to have played for him,” he said. “I admired how he coached and ran a team, along with how his family was a part of the program. I learned so much from him about the game of basketball and what it takes to run a program. He was without question outside of my family the biggest influence in my life.”

He certainly will be missed once this season is finished. Like any other successful athlete or coach, the door is always cracked for a return and no retirement is final, but this might just be it for Lehnus. However, just because he is done coaching doesn’t mean he is stepping away from the game for good. There are still plenty of ways to be involved and he hopes that he remains involved in some fashion.

“I would guess that I will still be involved in the game in some way,” Lehnus said. “I’m going to leave the everyday coaching, but I would hope there would be coaches that ask me to come in and work with their team. Also, if I’m going to criticize the AAU program then I have thought about looking for a place where I can teach those kids the right way to play with a focus on being a good human being.”

His goals remain unchanged through all these years. While basketball is important, Lehnus has always realized that the biggest game is the game of life.