Aaron Leeper and his daughter, Elle, are all smiles after receiving a canvas of jersey No. 21 from the Jamestown High School Class of 2025 student council. Leeper, who wore that jersey number a generation ago as an all-state tailback on the JHS football team, was the keynote speaker at commencement exercises Friday night at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater. Photo courtesy of Cameron Hurst

The Jamestown High School Class of 2025 student council presented keynote speaker Aaron Leeper with a special gift at dinner prior to commencement exercises Friday night at the Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater.

The present was a canvas of jersey No. 21, which he wore a generation ago as an all-state tailback for head football coach Wally Huckno. To further commemorate the occasion, Leeper (Class of 2001) and his young daughter posed for a photograph that could very well be the catalyst for a conversation some day in which “Dad” tells Elle not only about his remarkable journey on the gridiron, but also about the professional success he’s had since he put away his helmet and shoulder pads.

It’s a road that even he couldn’t have dreamed of taking.

“Nearly three decades ago I was on these grounds as a 13-year-old,” he told the graduates. “Not in a suit and certainly not holding a microphone. I was tucked away in the kitchen washing dishes. … Back then the notion that I’d ever stand here on this stage addressing a graduating class didn’t even register. It was miles beyond anything I could think and imagine. I was just a kid from Jamestown dreaming about what was for dinner and which coach was about to holler at me for doing something boneheaded.

“But life has a way of making something unimaginable realistic when you meet it head on through hard work and perseverance.”

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In February of this year, Leeper was inducted into the Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame in recognition of his record-breaking high school career and the outstanding beginning to his collegiate tenure at the University at Buffalo. In his first season on the Amherst campus, in fact, he rushed for 917 yards and 10 touchdowns, and was named the Mid-American Conference Freshman of the Year.

Then, unfortunately, “life fired me a curveball,” Leeper said.

“A second shoulder surgery slammed the door on my NFL dreams,” he recalled. “It hurt, for sure, but it also cleared the slate and forced me to ask the bigger question: ‘If football wasn’t my purpose, what was?'”

With his football playbook closed, Leeper pivoted, earning a bachelor’s degree in sociology and history; joining Big Brothers & Big Sisters in Erie County where he worked with at-risk youth; completing his master’s at Canisius University; and serving as a director for the Boys & Girls Club of Buffalo.

Noted Leeper: “My mission was clear: to clear a path to success for those kids I once was.”

Fast-forward to today. Leeper now works for the United States Federal Air Marshal Service.

“It’s a career that has flown me all around the globe more (times) than I could count,” he said. “I’ve been embedded with tactical teams, deployed to disaster zones, stood guard over our nation’s capital in turbulent times and assigned to the NYPD Interagency Task Force.

“In 2023, I became a supervisor, which gave me a chance to mentor new agents. … Today I serve as assistant federal security director for law enforcement, overseeing operations at LaGuardia Airport and three regional airports in the New York metro area.”

Leeper admitted that his job “carries real weight,” but “what fills me goes beyond security protocols. It’s a call to serve, to pour into people and to clear a path so the next kid with a dream can reach higher.”

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During the first week of his Federal Air Marshal Training Academy years ago, Leeper described the time an instructor walked into the room and handed each one of the trainees a ballpoint pen.

“He said, ‘You lose this and you fail today’s drill,'” Leeper recalled. “We all laughed until someone actually lost their pen and got pulled from that training exercise. After every drill, he’d shout, ‘Show me your pen!’ If it slipped from your pocket or disappeared under the seat, it didn’t matter. (You) failed.

“The point? If you can’t keep track of a 35-cent pen, how can you be trusted with a firearm, or a badge or 200 lives at 35,000 feet? That drill stuck with me, not because of the pen, but because of the mindset.”

That type of mindset, Leeper hopes, will serve the Class of 2025 well moving forward.

“Graduates, whatever your mission is — college, career, community — don’t skip the small stuff,” he implored. “Keep track of your pen, do the little things right and the big things won’t take you down. In fact, the little things will lead you home.”

In a bit of an irony, this high school football season will mark the 25th anniversary of Jamestown High School’s New York State Public High School Athletic Association football championship. Despite the significant role Leeper played on that team — he rushed for 2,276 yards and 47 touchdowns, and he was named the Class AA Player of the Year — he never mentioned it in his commencement address.

Instead, as his speech drew to a close, he chose to talk about resilience.

“Failure is a bruise, it’s not a tattoo,” he said. “You’ll have days where the weight feels too heavy … but let me be living proof. Where you are is your foundation, it’s not your ceiling. Success is not about never failing, it’s about standing up, looking around and deciding, ‘I’m not done yet.’

“Lead with kindness, even when it’s not returned, lead with effort, even when no one’s watching and, most of all, be decent. In a world that keeps score with money and titles, compassion is still undefeated.”