Leach said he knew “coming into this thing” that “we had to do something different,” as the rebrand came about in the past few weeks.
“We got to show the community, one, that we’re here for the long haul, and we’re not just here to move the team somewhere else,” Leach said. “And by that, I mean, like, I’m selling my house in Texas and me and my wife and my high school-aged kids are all moving to Springfield.”
Leach said despite not having a background himself that he has a “love” for the military, and upon researching some military history of Springfield, Leach made a phone call to his partner Shawn Schumacher, a former minor league baseball player.
“I called my partner, I said, ‘We’re going to be called the Half Trax,’” Leach said. “He goes, ‘What is that?’ I told him, and he’s like, ‘Oh, that’s awesome,’ and everything that we’ve gotten feedback-wise has been like, ‘Dude, this is amazing.’”
The Half Trax inspiration comes from International Harvester, a motor production company that moved to Springfield in 1922 and built 13,622 half-tracks from October 1942 to January 1944, according to USA Auto Industry World War Two.
“International did a ton for this country during the war building all the stuff that they built, and I just felt that that tie to International would resonate with the public, and that’s what it was all about,” Leach said. “It was ‘How do I give these people a logo and a name that they can call their own’, right? It had nothing to do with me. I can call us the Bears if I want to, but that does no good. It had to be something that tied into the city.”
The Champion City Half Trax are part of the Prospect League, a Midwestern wood-bat collegiate summer baseball league with 18 teams across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Leach envisions a revitalized ballclub led by coach DJ Neff, who is a former assistant with Wittenberg’s baseball program. The Half Trax play at Carleton Davidson Stadium, which is also shared by Wittenberg.
“It’s like minor league baseball,” Leach said. “You got to think off the cuff, and you got to be creative, and you got to be crazy.”
Leach said he’s had “a lifelong love of baseball and want to own my own business,” and his dream is coming true in the form of the Champion City Half Trax.
Come summer 2026, the Half Trax will take on a new namesake and look in honor of Springfield’s World War II history, and Leach hopes the rebrand can help “make this team successful.”
“This is about the community and it’s about baseball and it’s about bringing the community together,” Leach said.
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