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Trevan Leonhardt 15 Stories 1 Team

The Lion's Heart

15 Stories. 1 Team. — Trevan Leonhardt

1/26/2026 9:00:00 AM

By Jason Erickson

When Trevan Leonhardt returned home from a two-year mission, Division I basketball felt distant. He was a preferred walk-on without a scholarship, two years removed from organized competition, trying to figure out if he belonged. Three seasons later, he was the starting point guard on a 25–9 Utah Valley team that won the outright WAC regular season championship at 15–1, reached the program's first-ever WAC Tournament championship game, and earned a bid to the National Invitation Tournament. Now in 2025–26, he is the leader of a program chasing March, guiding a group off to one of the best starts in school history while protecting one of the nation's longest home win streaks.

The surname Leonhardt traces back to Old High German and combines "leo," meaning lion, with "hard," meaning brave or strong. Over centuries it came to signify lion-hearted and was associated with strength, loyalty, and leadership. Variations such as Leonhard, Lenhart, and Lienhard spread into the United States, where the name continued to carry the meaning of courage and perseverance.

Trevan did not think much about the meaning of his name growing up. That changed during COVID in 2020 when both of his parents became sick. His father spent much of that time studying the family name, lineage, and history. It sparked something meaningful about identity and responsibility inside their home.

After Trevan returned from his mission, his father shared what he had learned through a simple gift.

"He got these necklaces and said, 'Our last name is Leonhardt and we need to have a heart of a lion. Being part of this family comes with responsibility, looking out for each other and looking out for others.'"

The pendant features a lion's head inside a heart and represents their name, their values, and the belief that strength is rooted in character.

"It is cool to have a dad say, 'Yeah, you are part of this family and you need to show it and it is not just about you.'"

Leonhardt does not always wear it during games, but he wears it often in everyday life. It is quiet and steady, much like the way he plays.

Leonhardt grew up in Kaysville in a home where competition was part of the furniture.

"It was very competitive," he said. "Every Sunday night you are playing tackle football in the kitchen and probably putting holes in the walls."

His father was his first coach and the loudest sports voice in the house at first. Over time his siblings and grandparents added to that energy. The result was a strong support system that pushed him, challenged him, and kept him grounded.

"My dad is the best example of discipline. He has a routine that blesses him so he can bless others."

What separated Leonhardt from most of his peers was not bravado or volume, but quiet intensity.

"I am competitive quietly," he said. "My edge is I am competitive against myself. When I am holding myself accountable and doing what I need to do, that is when I am at my best."

At Davis High School, that approach helped him lead the Darts to the 2020 6A state championship game, where they fell just short of the title.

"It makes me mad thinking about it," Leonhardt said. "We lost by three in the state championship to Fremont. We beat them twice in the regular season and we should have won."

He pauses, then offers perspective that sounds wiser than his age.

"Looking back, yeah I would change it, but maybe that made me hungrier."

In 2020, Leonhardt left basketball for two years to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, spending time in Scottsdale, Arizona due to COVID travel restrictions, and eventually in Chile before completing his mission. During that time he did not play organized basketball.

"I do not think I was competitive once in two years playing basketball," he said. "You take two years off of something you did every day and then come back and try to play at a Division I level. It was challenging."

The mission, however, changed him in ways that prepared him for the next stage of his life.

"The most important thing was my relationship with Jesus Christ. I really came to know Him. And I came back more grateful," he said.

After returning home, Leonhardt assumed a junior college was his most realistic option, especially after two years away from the game. Then Utah Valley head coach Mark Madsen called. Madsen had seen enough on high school film and had heard about Leonhardt's competitiveness to extend a preferred walk-on invitation. For Leonhardt, it was an unexpected opportunity and a meaningful vote of confidence.

Leonhardt joined the Wolverines on a redshirt plan during the 2022–23 season, traveling with the team and practicing daily by guarding future pros in practice. That group would make the NIT Final Four and included players who would later sign contracts in Europe, the G League, and overseas. The speed, physicality, and decision-making were unlike anything he had experienced.

"When I first got home and watched that NIT team, I would be like, 'Too fast, too athletic, too strong,'" he said. "I would be on the end of the bench thinking, 'I do not know if I can go out there.'"

Progress came slowly and in small wins. Guarding pros in practice. Contributing off the bench as a redshirt freshman. Earning trust from coaches. Earning a scholarship from head coach Todd Phillips. Earning the keys to the offense as a sophomore starter.

"I fell in love with it again," he said of his redshirt season. "It was the first year where I was like, I want to get better every day."

He learned to study film, strengthen his handle, read defenses, and play with pace. Eventually, he learned how to run a team.

Today, Leonhardt is one of the most efficient point guards in the country. He holds Utah Valley's single-season assist record (178), passing one of those future pros he practiced against during his redshirt season, Trey Woodbury (174), who is currently playing with his third professional team overseas. Woodbury's professional career has included stops with Brose Bamberg (2023–24), Aris Thessaloniki (2024–25), and U-BT Cluj-Napoca (2025–present).

"As the point guard you are kind of the quarterback," he said. "Every night you are getting a different look, so you have to be prepared to make adjustments."

Preparation has become his signature.

"I work hard. I put in a lot of effort before the game with film, body, ball handling. I am prepared to make the right play."

There is also trust built into everything he does.

"If there are two guys on me, someone on my team is open and ready to make a play. I am lucky to have teammates who can do that."

Ask him his favorite pass and he grins.

"It was a backcourt inbound at Seattle. I threw it from half court, Carter Welling was sealing in the post, and it literally ended up in his lap. But the TV broadcast came back from timeout and you never saw it. I was so mad. It was perfect."

Leonhardt is clear about what he wants to accomplish at Utah Valley.

"The goal is to win the league, win in Vegas, and get to March Madness," Leonhardt said. "Being the first Utah Valley team to make the NCAA Tournament would last forever. That is legacy."

But legacy is not just banners and records.

"Relationships are the most important thing to me," he said. "That is what you will remember, the friendships."

That includes his fiancée, Milly Keetch, a former Utah Valley women's soccer player who played for the Wolverines during their 2024 WAC regular season championship run.

"I am very lucky," Leonhardt said. "I am so excited to have a life with someone that completely supports me and someone that knows sports are not everything."

Their wedding is set for May 23.

When asked what he is most proud of, Leonhardt does not mention assists, wins, or titles.

"I am most proud of not giving up," he said. "There were multiple times I could have just stopped. And I did not."

It is a quiet sentence with no theatrics. It reflects the build of his career: steady, intentional, and rooted in something deeper than statistics.

Because long before the scholarship, the records, and the goals he still chases, there was a young walk-on in an empty gym, trying to become a better version of himself.

That is what it means to have a lion's heart.
 
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