2019 Friday Night Drive Coach of the Year: Richmond-Burton's Mike Noll

Richmond-Burton football players learned something early on about their new coach, Mike Noll, when he took over in May of 2018.

“From the start, he always told us he would give us honesty about everything,” Rockets lineman Nick Ross said. “He doesn’t sugar-coat anything, which I enjoy about him. He’s always been, ‘We want to play good football, we want to play physical football, and we want to play our best football in November.’ That’s what he’s trained us to do and that’s what we did.”

R-B played so well that it never trailed in a game the entire season. The Rockets finished 14-0 for the first time and won their second state championship in school history.

The Class 4A state championship was void of any drama as the Rockets controlled things the entire game, rolling to a 50-14 victory over Murphysboro.

Noll was chosen as Northwest Herald Football Coach of the Year, Chicago Bears Coach of the Year and now is Friday Night Drive Coach of the Year, selected by the staff. The Rockets were the only team in the eight state championships that had a running clock (with a 40-point lead).

“I was not surprised because we were playing so well,” Noll said. “I didn’t think we’d running-clock them. I was very confident in the way we were playing. When you have good practices, you get even more confident.”

The Rockets knocked out three-time state champion IC Catholic, 24-14, in the quarterfinals. They then delivered a message across the state with a 30-0 win at No. 1 Coal City.

Noll, who is 249-73 in his 30-year coaching career, won big in his first title game.

“He will give you honesty,” running back-defensive back Tyler Anderson said. “He was always trying to make everybody better. He just wanted to see everyone succeed. He gave you brutal honesty. If you needed to pick it up, you picked it up. You wanted to give 100% for him.”

Ross appreciated that, as an offensive and defensive lineman, he was always coached by Noll the last two seasons.

“He is a really demanding force,” Ross said. “He’s always demanding perfection. He never wants us to be satisfied with anything. That and his knowledge of the game (make him successful). Whenever people ask me what it’s like (playing for Noll), I respond with, ‘He’s a genius.’ He really does know the game and knows how to coach a team.”

Fullback-linebacker Dalton Wood, whose father Steve is Noll’s defensive coordinator, appreciated Noll’s ability to push his players.

“He knew the potential that each of us had and he wanted us to reach the top and win every single day,” said Wood, a Class 4A Illinois High School Football Coaches Association All-Stater. “It’s tough. He does expect a lot. But it’s a good kind of tough. He can help you reach points where I don’t know if the athlete thought they could get to.”

McHenry hired Noll as its head coach when he was 25. He proceeded to take the Warriors to the playoffs for 16 consecutive seasons, winning 14 Fox Valley Conference titles. He then coaches for 12 seasons at Glenbrook South before retiring as head coach, then as a history teacher.

R-B brought Noll into a program already rich in tradition. The Rockets had reached the playoffs 11 consecutive years when Noll arrived, then reached the semifinals in 2018 and won it all this year.

“The buy-in, the commitment level from our players is always a key ingredient to success,” Noll said. “The coaching staff did a great job in our second year together. We’re all on the same page. Our kids are talented. You add those things up and it leads to a successful season.

“(The players) showed up all the time, offseason, summer, in-season. They were really just easy to work with. The coaching staff was able to coach them hard. They’re very coachable. That’s 90% of the deal, you show up and do what your coaches want.”