Leroy Zimmerman: From MVP to “Coach Z”

The question sounds like one from a sports trivia quiz—Who was the LDS athlete named National Football League “Most Valuable Player” in 1944 as quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, who also pitched fourteen Softball World Series games and won twelve of them?

The answer—Leroy Zimmerman—will stir dusty memories for longtime sports fans. Brother Zimmerman, who serves as high priests group leader in the Madera Second Ward, Fresno California West Stake, has retired—almost—from sports.

An injury forced him to retire from pro football at the age of thirty-two. He then coached both college and high school teams—the last fifteen years at Madera High School. And he is still coaching numerous young people who have worn a bare spot in his otherwise well-manicured lawn by their pitching practice.

That bare spot in the lawn tells a story of persistence. From 2:15 to 6:00 P.M. every day during softball season, “Coach Z” instructs, encourages, and sometimes exasperates one youth after another who wants to improve his or her skills.

Brother Zimmerman is a firm believer in discipline. “Obedience,” he insists, “is the first law of anything you do. I once read that wisdom is knowing what to do, knowledge is knowing how to do it, and success is doing it. And I love seeing kids succeed—seeing them measure up to their own aspirations.”

Brother Zimmerman coached girls’ softball for three years at a local high school. His former students’ daughters and younger sisters are now coming to him for help with their game. “I’ve got a couple of players who come here once a week year-round, rain or shine,” he says. “They’re winners. They’ll do well.”

“Coach Z” doesn’t charge for the half-hour “lessons.” “I’m only passing on to them the love of excelling in sports that my father passed on to me,” he says.

Somehow, it’s not difficult to picture “Coach Z” in another ten or twenty years, perhaps stooped with age, maybe in a lawn chair, calling out words of encouragement to an aspiring pitcher standing on the worn spot in his lawn.

“You don’t truly enjoy anything without loving the people you do it with,” he says. “I love being with kids.”

Photography by James R. Maxwell