'Ghost football players' return in dream-team lineup

By Doug Smith
Rush News Editor

WHERE HOLLYWOOD MEETS REALITY

Hollywood's famous for reality-based stories - and ones that capture our dreams.

But rather than a Hollywood ‘what if', this summer the Belvidere Rush semi-pro football team will give Belvidere fans their own field of dreams football team. Seventy-five percent of the team's 40-man roster is made up of former Belvidere Buc players, including a half dozen from the 1993 and 1994 State Championship teams. The back-to-back feat was harder because the teams jumped from Class 4 to Class 5 in 1994.

A PLACE WHERE FOOTBALL IS KING

In this sturdy Illinois town of 22,000 (the county is Illinois' 4th-fastest growing county), an F-5 tornado rocked the community in 1967 and made it a household name and won a Pulitzer Prize for its now-defunct newspaper. A former Miss America hailed from this place. And there's always been Football. It's the place where football is king.

"We wanted to give back to the place we came from," co-owner and player Brian Kelly said, who graduated from Rockford College and is now a financial analyst for Amcore Bank. "The team is a love of the game style. We also wanted to play on the field that brought us to where we are now."

In current times, Funderburg Stadium holds a crowd of 3,000 people at Bucs' games, especially when the Bucs face their biggest rival, the Rockford Boylan Titans.

FORMER RIVALS ON SAME SIDE OF THE BALL

The Rush, while about 75% strong of Belvidere alumni, will be made up of players from the area from other alma maters – including NIC-9 schools like Harlem and Boylan. In the Summer of '03, the field will take on a rainbow coalition color that will be funneled into the new suit-up uniform of Silver & Blue.

"At the first meeting, we were asked where we were from," said Ryan "HOS" Hoskinson. "The first 15 guys said ‘Belvidere.' Then I go ‘Boylan.'
Hoskinson's pointed out the two rival schools strong football tradition and style and summed up the common ground goal.

"It's not about that (the mix of Belvidere-Boylan players). I just want to play football," Hoskinson said. "These are guys I trust my life with."


A GAME OF BROTHERS

In one of the many stories behind the Rush, the team is truly a game of brothers not just in spirit, but of the actual.

"My brother (Chuck Leonard) is 7 years older," quarterback Chris Leonard (Christian Life HS 2002) said. "We never had the opportunity to play together and it's been our dream to be on the field together."

Chuck Leonard is one of the State Champion Bucs.

Chris Leonard, who is a freshman in college, is eligible to play college ball in the Fall of 2003 because as a Rush player he is "not making any money." Leonard will play about half of the season under that arrangement.

The Rush's fabled dream story will be chronicled at their website (www.belvidererush.com). The season begins July 5th and runs through September. The team plays in the Chicago-area MFL League.

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