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PROFILE: South High coach Lenny Sedlock

By Star Tribune, 10/23/12, 7:00AM CDT

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Pulling a stack of musty South jerseys out of a trash bin and into the laundry, Lenny Sedlock survives the weekly task with a vision of his second life.

Fifty miles north of Minneapolis and up a dirt road in Isanti County, Sedlock finds peace.

"This is my heaven," he said raising his arms and walking through his backyard of six acres in Cambridge.

Running alongside Sedlock is his biggest fan, 3-year-old grandson Davian Miller. Together, they search the coop and the barn for the family chickens that spent the early October Sunday afternoon roaming freely.

The environment is just the opposite of Sedlock's other life as football coach at South High School. The sounds of sirens are replaced by rustling leaves and the concrete school building by lush woodlands.

Sedlock at home in Cambridge

Outside of the frayed Minneapolis South hoodie, football doesn't have much of a place on the farm.

"We enjoy the city, but love our quiet," said Carol Sedlock's, the coach's wife. "He loves his chickens."

It wasn't always this way. The coach is a product of the city; a South High football standout and 1977 graduate. After playing college football at Northwestern, he began his coaching journey that included stops at Henry Sibley, Minneapolis Southwest and Breck School in Golden valley before returning home to South. He will coach girls' basketball this winter at Spectrum, a charter school in Elk River.

His father, 90-year-old Lenny Sr., is also a South graduate and still lives a few miles from the city school.

"A lot of who I am is from [South].," the coach said. "A lot of my values were instilled at South. People want to go back and give where they received. "I knew it'd be hard, but didn't know how hard it'd be. To change the culture over there, is very difficult."

Sedlock with Vice President Joe Biden, who visited a team practice earlier this season.

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