End of an era for Wilmington’s Kyle Farrell, father Chad

BLOOMINGTON − When Kyle Farrell put on his Wilmington football helmet and took the field at the 51st annual Shrine Game on Saturday, representing the Wildcats for the final time in his high school career, his father Chad Farrell had a different perspective than he usually does.

Since Kyle was 7 years old, if he was on the field or on the court Chad could almost certainly be found on the sideline or in the dugout as a coach.

But Chad was in the stands Saturday to watch Kyle take part in the all-star Shrine Game at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Tucci Stadium. And with Kyle’s time as a Wilmington athlete now at an end, so too is the era the Farrells have spent as a coach-player duo, at least in an official capacity.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Kyle said. “The communication gets interesting at times, trying to deal with dad and coach, but I think we worked it out really well. It was always so much fun.”

For Chad, being able to coach Kyle was always something he had in mind. He had grown up with his father, Mark, coaching him in multiple sports. Once Kyle got into sports, Chad knew he wanted to be around to coach him as well as the friends and teammates Kyle was growing up with.

“My dad coached me since I was little, and I was able to go through and have him coach me until I was in high school,” Chad said. “With me being a football coach in high school and a baseball coach in high school, I knew at some point they would be up here. All the memories we got to do on the baseball trips, the basketball games, the football games, and enjoying every second of it.”

Of course, it was not always easy to share the same field for practices and games and then go home to the same house. A rough game or bad day of practice would sometimes carry over for the Farrells.

“Going from practice to home, you’re always seeing each other, so you’re always going through it together as a team in a sense,” Kyle said. “When your team is having a rough day and you come home and you’re both in the same house, it’s a rough day for everybody.”

While the tough days were sometimes unavoidable, luckily for Kyle and Chad, there were more good days over the years.

The Wildcats saw tremendous success in basketball, baseball and football over the past several years with the Farrells. The basketball team had back-to-back 19-win seasons for the first time in decades, and Kyle helped lead the baseball team to consecutive sectional titles the past two seasons, with a third-place finish at state his junior year.

The football team won a state title Kyle’s freshman year in 2021, and then just two seasons later when he was starting as a junior, Kyle helped lead the Wildcats to another state title. Kyle later became the program’s all-time leading rusher in his senior season.

These major moments generated lifelong memories for the Farrells. Chad particularly remembers how Kyle and his fellow underclassmen were hesitant to take a photo with the trophy for their first state title, since they had not played much.

“You’re on the team, you’re freshmen I know, but I said, ‘Take a picture, because you don’t know if you’ll do it again,’ ” Chad said. “Of course in 2023, we got to do it again. That was unbelievable, watching kids that I was able to coach since they were 7 years old make that happen.”

Chad will be back coaching for the Wildcats going forward as Kyle moves on to play baseball at Joliet Junior College, as his fellow seniors that grew up under Chad’s watch also move on.

“I love these guys,” he said. “I’m sad to see them go, but back at it with some more kids and I’m going to enjoy that, too.”

For Kyle, the sense of family he felt growing up in Wilmington went beyond his household.

“I always felt like our whole team, and Wilmington as a community, was always family,” Kyle said. “Even if my dad was coaching, all my friends and the other people coaching me felt like family, too.

“I’m just really proud to be from this town, to play with my friends and finish up my career as a proud Wilmington player.”