Cary-Grove banking on new baseball coach Kyle Williams

The more the ballplayer dressed in banker clothes analyzed the situation, the tougher the decision became, until it suddenly was a no-brainer.

Don’t get Kyle Williams wrong. As a commercial banker, he enjoyed making informed trading decisions and generating profits for his employer and clients.

It’s just ... he would rather make baseball decisions and focus on trying to generate success for young ballplayers.

He just sought a change of scenery, a dugout instead of a desk.

So Williams, Cary-Grove’s first-year baseball coach and a C-G graduate (Class of 2008), traded his tie and sport coat for a baseball cap and stirrup socks. At the age of 32, he set aside his career in futures trading and banking.

He used coaching as his exit strategy.

“It was a huge leap to make,” said Williams, who played played baseball for Millikin University, McHenry County College and North Park University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in business with a concentration in finance. “For me, futures trading had run its course, and I felt like I needed to make a change. I didn’t really know exactly what, so I was like, ‘Hey, I’ll coach baseball. That’s where my network is.’ ”

Williams, 35, served as a volunteer baseball coach at Crystal Lake South in 2023, coached C-G’s JV team last spring and was named longtime Trojans coach Ryan Passaglia’s successor over the summer. Passaglia, who’s also a Cary-Grove graduate (Class of 1994), won 96 games and three regional titles in five seasons.

Williams is in his second year of teaching business education at C-G. He substitute-taught for District 155 the previous year.

After graduating from North Park, he dabbled in coaching, gave private instruction and strength training, and even helped with a youth softball team.

“I just kept getting pulled to coaching,” Williams said. “I enjoyed my job [as a banker]. I enjoyed banking. I enjoyed all the people that I worked with, but I just found myself at the bank thinking all day about what coaching I was going to do that night, and that’s my passion.”

Pounding a pen on a desk? Or pounding fungos on a diamond?

“At the point, I was 3-4 years at the bank and starting to really climb the ladder there,” Williams said. “I had the sense that it was now or never. If I’m going to make a move, I got to pull the trigger now, and I did. And I’m more than happy that I did. I’m fortunate to be in the position I am now.”

Cary-Grove fell to 6-5 with a 12-3 nonconference loss to Wauconda on Saturday and has Fox Valley Conference games this week against defending Class 3A state champ Crystal Lake Central and perennial power McHenry. But Williams’ previous successes, as a banker and a ballplayer, taught him perseverance and patience.

Not all winning cultures are developed overnight.

Williams is realizing his dream of coaching and appreciates the support he’s had from family and friends when he decided to make a career change. Being single with no children gave him the freedom and confidence to bet on himself that now was the time in his life to take a chance.

“I just felt like it was what I was meant to do,” Williams said.

He’s banking on it.