Spreading awareness for a good cause can be as easy and fun as playing kickball.

The ninth annual Bill Leaf Memorial Kickball Tournament will be held Saturday to raise awareness against drunk driving and to raise money for a scholarship in Leaf’s name. A local of central New York, Leaf graduated from Syracuse University in 2002. Nine years ago, he was killed when a drunk-driver going the wrong way hit him head-onon Interstate 81.

The tournament also raises money for a scholarship in the name of Samantha Reynolds, a Liverpool High School student who was killed in 2008 when a drunk-driver struck her family’s car as they were making their way to Florida for spring break.

For Bill’s sister, Maria Leaf, it’s hard to believe her brother has been gone for nearly a decade. But, she is glad that he was able to achieve some of his dream.

“He had a tremendous amount of pride for Syracuse, and it was, like I said, his dream always to go to SU to study broadcasting,” Maria Leaf said. “At least he did get to do that.”

After graduating from SU, Leaf went on to work as a sports and news broadcaster, doing radio work for WSYR and occasionally filling in to do TV work at the now-defunct Channel 5.

After his death, Leaf’s family received a great amount of support from the Syracuse community. Roughly 1,000 people came to Leaf’s funeral visit, much more than his family was expecting, Maria Leaf said.

“I don’t think Bill even realized how many people watched him on TV, and listened to him on the radio and were fans and were so devastated when they found out what happened,” she said.

That community support is still felt today, almost 10 years later, every year at the Bill Leaf Memorial Kickball Tournament.

The main goal of the tournament is to raise awareness against drinking while driving, said Jonathan Hoster, a classmate of Leaf at SU and a board member of the SU Alumni Club of Central New York.

Hoster has always considered drunk driving to be a serious problem, even before Leaf’s death.

“I’ve always thought that this is such a preventable problem, and then after going to school with Bill and seeing what happened to him — a life lost so young — it was just horrible,” said Hoster. “So anything we can do to raise awareness about this and get it on people’s minds so they will take action to prevent something like this is important.”

What started as a tribute to Leaf has become much more in the nine years of the kickball tournament, said Jim Lerch, one of the tournament’s directors and former co-worker of Leaf.

The Bill Leaf Memorial Kickball Tournament is one of the only events in central New York that raises awareness against driving drunk and the effect has been tangible, Lerch added.

“I believe from the feedback we’ve gotten from folks, from the kinds of things people will say to us on tournament day, that we’ve had a profound effect,” Lerch said.

The day of the tournament is both heartfelt and fun. Every year at the tournament’s opening ceremony, local law enforcement members speak about the dangers of drunk driving. Later in the ceremony, Maria Leaf and Tracy Reynolds, Samantha Reynolds’ mother, speak about their lost loved ones.  After the opening ceremony, the tournament begins and the rest of the day is dedicated to kickball.

The proceeds from the tournament fund a scholarship at SU in Bill Leaf’s name, Hoster said. The scholarship must be awarded to a student from central New York who is studying broadcasting, following the same path and dream that Leaf once did.

“He wanted to be a sports broadcaster — his whole life he grew up with that dream,” Lerch said. “It’s nice that his dream goes on through other people through this scholarship — that people get the chance to try to realize that dream by going to Syracuse University.”

For Maria Leaf, what touches her heart every year is that the community has not forgotten about Bill and that they have the opportunity to prevent future tragedies.

Although rain is on the forecast for the tournament this year, the excitement behind the event has not faltered, Maria Leaf said.  In fact, her brother always loved playing “mudball.”

Said Maria Leaf: “If there’s one thing that we can take away from this, it’s that knowing that we’ve managed to help other people through this event is so huge. That’s why every year we’re out there, and rain or shine we hold this event.”

Published on September 4, 2014 at 12:01 am

Contact Brendan: bskrisel@syr.edu