Home-field advantage means a bit more in Wilmington

Mere moments after Wilmington captured an emotional win over Seneca in the quarterfinal round of the Class 2A playoffs, coach Jeff Reents delivered a message to his team that made his entire roster, if not his entire community, smile.

“We get to go home.”

And that just hits different in Wilmington.

When players hit the grassy parchment of land officially known as Becker Field at Jeff Reents Stadium, something almost mystical takes over. That mysticism, coupled with strong fundamental play, helped Wilmington to a 42-7 victory over Maroa-Forsyth in the semifinal round of the Class 2A playoffs Saturday night. That win sends the Wildcats in search of the program’s third state title when it challenges Athens on Friday afternoon at Illinois State University.

“It’s a whole different animal. I mean, all of us have been watching games here since we were super little, like 8 years old. I mean, I’ve been on the sidelines as a ball boy just watching. There’s just just a lot of history here, and playing for this community is just a great feeling, because they always have your back.”

—  Kyle Farrell, Wilmington running back on playing at home

“It’s huge [getting to play this game at home], and obviously tonight a lot is involved with with the semifinals and all, but our kids were fired up right from the get-go,” Reents said. “Last week after the emotional win at Seneca, we were like, ‘Hey you get to play at home this weekend,’ and for the seniors, that was huge.”

Because of the structuring of how teams are assigned home games in the IHSA playoffs, Wilmington was only able to secure a home game in the opening round of the playoffs against Mercer County before hitting the road for back-to-back, daunting propositions against then undefeated teams Tri-Valley and Seneca. And while the key incentive of the postseason is obviously to allow yourself the opportunity to keep playing, a residual benefit of doing so – not at all a small one in Wilmington – was getting one more chance to hit their hallowed ground.

“It’s a whole different animal,” Wilmington running back Kyle Farrell said. “I mean, all of us have been watching games here since we were super little, like 8 years old. I mean, I’ve been on the sidelines as a ball boy just watching. There’s just just a lot of history here, and playing for this community is just a great feeling, because they always have your back. I love playing for this community, and so does everybody in that locker room.”

Reents took over the program in 1994. The Wildcats went 3-6 that season, and in 1995 they missed the playoffs again, finishing 5-4. But in 1996 the Wildcats broke through, advancing to the playoffs and reaching the quarterfinal round, something that had only been done once previously in the program’s history.

They have not missed the playoffs since.

Along the way, an environment has been created that is rivaled by few high school programs around the state. A band of motorcycles, smoke machines and fireworks lead the Wildcats out of the adjacent woods.

Then the players go about protecting the turf they’ve been graciously guided to. It’s something everyone in the program takes seriously.

“It’s special, and I got a little bit to do with it, but a whole lot of other people do, too,” Reents said. “And I love to see the ex-players around the field tonight. I love to see that, and they’re are fired up, and I get a lot of text messages from those guys, and they know what it’s about.”

The comfortable victory was yet another chapter in the consistent success story Wilmington has had at the cozy confines of Becker Field/Reents Stadium, an environment that has its quirks. When Wilmington built a state-of-the-art new high school building in 2008, there was plenty of room to add an athletic complex adjacent to the new building.

That complex is there. But there was literally no consideration of moving the football program there [it is used for soccer and track and field], because as far as Wilmington is concerned, there’s not a place on earth they’d rather go to battle.

“We love the home-field advantage, and obviously our fans came out tonight and the support is great,” Reents said. “We’ve been doing this now for 30 years. And the goal was to make this a special place and to build our program. And everybody thinks it is an intimidation thing. It really isn’t.

“What I love to see is all the young kids in that tunnel, and hopefully they have a moment where they are like, ‘I want to be a Wildcat when I get older.’

“And that’s what I get excited about and get to see. And hopefully we can keep that going.”