NATCHITOCHES – As twin brothers, Northwestern State baseball players Brooks and Bryce Leonard always leaned on one another.
 
There may not have been a time when the Leonard twins needed that support more than Oct. 16, 2023. That day their mother, Janelle, FaceTimed Brooks, Bryce and their brothers Brayden and Baylor to tell her sons she had breast cancer.
 
"It was a moment of realization where it was like, 'Wow. This is life.'" said Bryce Leonard, a key part of the Northwestern bullpen. "I never imagined a person close to me getting cancer. It's hard to face it whenever it happened, but from there, we just had to figure out what to do with it and how best to treat her with it."
 
Now sophomores, the Leonards – with Janelle in the stands -- will take part in the second #ForkCancer game of their Northwestern State career at 2 p.m. Saturday when the Demons host Southland Conference rival Nicholls in the middle game of a three-game series. The Northwestern State athletic department will have #ForkCancer shirts available for fans while supplies last.
 
The series begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday and features a 1 p.m. Sunday series finale. All three games will air on ESPN+.
 
Saturday's game will come roughly 17 months after Janelle Leonard's breast cancer diagnosis, which coincidentally came on the anniversary of her mother's breast cancer surgery.
 
The diagnosis date came just months after the Leonards began their freshman year of college together, roughly a three-and-a-half hour drive from their hometown of Pierre Part. Adding another layer to this weekend's emotions, Pierre Part is less than an hour from Nicholls' campus.
 
In addition to balancing a new life away from home and the transition from high school to college athletics, the Leonards now had an additional variable factored into their changing lives.
 
The Leonards, though, still had each other.
 
"I can talk to Bryce about anything," said Brooks Leonard, an outfielder who is part of the Demons' right-field rotation. "He can talk to me about anything, especially about our mother. She would do anything for us, and we were able to be together, rooting for her."
 
It is little surprise that Janelle Leonard and her husband, Jody, raised competitive sons.
 
Janelle Leonard is the head volleyball coach at Ascension Catholic in Donaldsonville. Her cancer diagnosis came during the stretch run of the prep volleyball season.
 
Despite hearing the words "you have cancer," Janelle Leonard did not back down from coaching. Her team – like her sons – answered the call and pushed Ascension Catholic to a state tournament berth while their coach battled a personal five-set match.
 
"I had asked the doctor to see if I could wait until the end of the season to have surgery," Janelle Leonard said. "That year, we ended up playing a team at the state tournament whose coach had passed away from kidney cancer the year before. They found out I had been diagnosed. Before the game, both teams prayed together, and they presented me with a rose and a card, saying they were praying for me.
 
"All our fans came out in pink, and their fans were wearing purple, which is the color for kidney cancer. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, seeing two different schools come together for cancer. I'm coaching our game and I look up and see Brooks and Bryce – actually three off my four boys came to that game. It was so very touching."
 
Janelle Leonard's second family proved just as important for her as her biological one.
 
"Her being with those girls she coached, her girls, that made her keep going," Brooks Leonard said. "She always talks about it whenever we're away from home. She talks about how she loves her girls and how she would do anything for them."
 
Brooks Leonard recounted growing up it was Janelle Leonard who drove the boys an hour each way to Baton Rouge three times a week for practices and games.
 
It instilled plenty of memories for both mother and sons, and it carved out a special place in the twins' minds and hearts for their mother – one that was challenged that October day.
 
"It put a bunch of things into perspective for me," Bryce Leonard said. "Life happens. Everything was sunshine and rainbows until it wasn't. Seeing the strongest person you know not be so strong because she can't was like realizing superheroes aren't real. It was a realization that she's human just like we are. We're going to have to be the same parents for our kids, and just the example she set for us has been amazing. Whenever it came to the point where she wasn't strong enough, it was like, 'Oh my God. What the heck?'"
 
The Leonard twins are part of a Demon baseball program whose goals include teaching life lessons through the game.
 
By the time the Leonards made their collegiate debuts in the 2024 season, they had a folder full of those lessons already learned.
 
"It's not a matter of just maturity, but they learn the value of life and family, and they learn the values that we try to teach and instill within the baseball program a lot sooner than maybe some of the other guys on the roster," second-year head coach Chris Bertrand said. "You have the ability to reach them on a pretty special level because of the things they've gone through in their life and the adversity they have gone through. It resonates with them a little bit more when those life lessons are brought up, and they're able to help you with the remainder of the team and give some validity to the messages you're trying to teach them."
 
Janelle Leonard's diagnosis came on Oct. 16, 2023, setting off a whirlwind month in which she was diagnosed, coached in a state tournament (Nov. 12), had cancer surgery (Nov. 14) and celebrated her birthday (Nov. 16).
 
Those various emotions likely will come up at some point Saturday when cancer survivors are honored at Brown-Stroud Field. They may hit a little harder if Bryce Leonard acts on an idea he has had.
 
His multi-colored glove from a season ago had various pink accents, including laces and Rawlings markings. He mused on the possibility of using it if he is called on to face the Colonels on Saturday.
 
"Pink games and cancer awareness are emotional," Janelle Leonard said, "but it also makes me grateful that I'm here to share it. It could have been worse. The words you have cancer were hard, but also being told if there was any type of cancer to have, this is the 'best' one to have, that was good to hear."
 
While reminiscing on the multiple childhood trips to Baton Rouge, Brooks Leonard recounted how his parents raised him and his siblings "right."
 
It has been the Leonards' turn to repay their parents in the years since – one that comes to a bit of a crescendo Saturday afternoon in Natchitoches.
 
"Last weekend at UNO (New Orleans), I was talking to (freshman pitcher) Jacob LeBlanc's mom," Janelle Leonard said. "I had met her a couple of weeks before. The boys talk about Jacob – they love Jacob – and she wanted to introduce herself. We were talking and she said, 'I just want to tell you, Jacob told me that, mom, those boys love their mama so much.'
 
"We went through a struggle this year in our family where they were my biggest support, my biggest fans, my rocks. You think as a mom, you make a difference in their lives, but they made one in mine."