Published: October 27, 2009 01:32 pm      

Leopard pride is family tradition for Nichols

For Shane Nichols, being a Leopard is in his blood and it’s a tradition he is passing on to his children.

Nichols, a 1988 graduate of Gainesville High School, is the current president of the Gainesville Leopard Booster Club, a group of parents and fans who provide support to all the athletes at GHS, both financially and otherwise.

Nichols grew up a Leopard fan. His brother Jeff, who graduated from Gainesville High School in 1981, was a standout player for the Leopards of the late 1970s and early 80s. His sister, Shari, was a Leopard cheerleader in the 80s and his wife Penni was also a GHS cheerleader. His nephew Kolby Kuykendall, was a part of the Leopard team that won the Class 3A state championship in 2003. Now his son Dakota is a junior on the Leopard varsity, while his daughter Kenedy is a seventh grade cheerleader who also plays volleyball and basketball at GMS.

Add in the fact that his brother-in-law Chris Lewis is a Leopard coach and his nephew Kielyn Lewis is the Leopard starting quarterback, and you can see why he gets so excited when talking about the tradition of the Gainesville Leopards.

“Even thinking about it now I get goose bumps,” he said. “I don’t know how to describe it. On Fridays, I just get so excited. It does help that Dakota is on the team, but I’ve always gotten excited to watch the Leopards play. I guess it’s just the memories of watching my brother play in the late 70s and early 80s and that kind of set the tone for me and other family members to play. Now Dakota is there and it’s exciting. It’s just a tradition and it’s a spirit thing that I get excited about.”

As president of the Booster Club, it is Nichols’ mission to rally support for the athletes of GHS in all sports, not just football.

“We’re just trying to instill pride back into the athletes and the kids as much as we can. We’re limited in how much we can get involved with the actual students,” he said. “Our thrust as a booster club is to try and provide the nice things that they need to excel and do better and to have that pride and know that somebody cares about them and pays attention to them. Like one thing we did for the volleyball team is they needed equipment bags, so they came up with these Mizuno backpacks and we had the ‘G’ logo embroidered on it so on game days they have their bags to carry all their equipment in.

“It’s just stuff like that,” he added. “The cross country team came to us and asked for a canopy. At their cross country meets they don’t have any protection for shade or rain or whatever happens. One of their parents bought one for them, but we’re going to buy them another one so they have two. It will be a red canopy and have a ‘G’ on it.”

Another thing that Nichols and the other members of the booster club want to change is the attitude and perception of Gainesville High School and the entire athletic program. He says he can see that attitude starting to change.

“Very much so. I think it’s a mindset,” he said. “Unfortunately, you’ve had people out there that don’t really know what’s going on. It’s kind of like the old grapevine. You hear one thing and you kind of run with it even though it’s not true. We have good administrators up there and we have good teachers. We have good facilities. The kids realize that it’s an attitude thing and it’s definitely changing. It’s got a long ways to go to get back to where it was when we were in school.”

Like many other Gainesville fans, Nichols has mixed emotions about the final Leopard football game to ever be played at Leeper Stadium. Friday’s game with Argyle will be the final chapter for the historic stadium which dates back to 1925. The team will be moving into a new stadium next year just north of the Gainesville High School campus on Interstate 35.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Nichols said. “I guess for me it’s bittersweet because there are a lot of things that have been done in that stadium. There has been a lot of cheering and a lot of playing. Now as a parent, a lot of work has gone into it. I hate seeing us not be there anymore. There are a lot of memories there. But at the same time, I’m very excited for the kids to have a nice facility that they can play on.”

The new stadium will feature FieldTurf, which is artificial grass that looks and feels like real grass, but doesn’t require maintenance and should help prevent some injuries.

“Deshawn Franklin (a GHS player who tore the ACL in his knee this season) is a prime example,” Nichols stated. “That night that he got hurt, there is a good chance he never would have gotten hurt if he had been on a turf field. It was so muddy and so sloppy that night. When he went down, there is a good chance he never would have gone down (on a turf field).

“I am going to have mixed emotions,” Nichols added. “I told this junior class and actually all the kids that are on this varsity team. I told them that they have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Ya’ll are the last varsity team to play in Leeper Stadium and ya’ll will be the first varsity team to play in the new stadium. Nobody else has that.”

Despite the tremendous support the Booster Club has enjoyed this year, their president says they still need more people to join to help support the kids of the school district.

“I went through this at our Leopard Gala Saturday night when I thanked them for their support because it’s extremely important, not only financial-wise but just manual labor,” he said. “We ran the concession stand for the Celina game and it took at least 10 people. There are so many things we do that people don’t realize that we do. So all the people we can have help, the man power is just needed so bad. There are so many things that you want to do and of course you’re limited as to what one person can do. We have people running the volleyball concession stand which sometimes is while other things are going on, like Friday night. We have to have people to be out there while we are at the football game taking care of stuff there.”

To find out more about how to join the Gainesville Leopard Booster Club, contact Shane Nichols at 736-8574.