St. Ignatius reaches new heights after restarting program 16 years ago

Mike Hurley saw the beginning of the renaissance of St. Ignatius football.

The school’s athletic director was a student at St. Ignatius when its administration decided to bring back football in the early 2000s since it had been stopped in 1964.

At the time, Hurley and his friends didn’t realize what they had been missing. Football hadn’t been part of the school community for so long, it was hard for them to know what they were missing.

He watched as his friends built the program from the ground up, its first varsity season in 2005, to the current team, which has set a new standard with the program after it finished the regular season 8-1 and is the No. 2 seed in the lower half of the Class 6A bracket.

The Wolfpack host Bremen in the first round at 7 p.m. Friday.

“To be able to watch the growth since a lot of those growing pains at least 15 years ago, it’s just been phenomenal,” Hurley said. “It’s been so cathartic to see so many people put a lot of hard work in the program, to see it succeed, that’s all the way from the top down.”

At the beginning of the new century, the school’s administration decided it needed to bring back football in order to offer a full experience to its students. The lack of participation and success had hampered the program when it shut down, but the administration wanted to make sure it invested in the program by putting turf and lights on Fornelli Field and expanding the school’s facilities.

The program’s build was slow at first — it qualified for the postseason for the first time in 2010 with a 5-4 regular season record. St. Ignatius qualified for the postseason in 2015 and 2016 under John O’Connor but he suddenly resigned from the program in May 2017, forcing the school to make a quick interim hire.

That’s when the name Matt Miller came up. Miller had been an assistant coach at St. Patrick and Lane Tech before he joined St. Ignatius in 2015 and became the offensive coordinator. O’Connor asked his coaches if anyone would be interested in the job and Miller thought this was his chance.

He had played in the Catholic League with Holy Cross and despite not having enough experience, Miller knew he needed to take his shot.

“These opportunities, they don’t come around that much,” Miller said. “There’s a lot of guys, I played in the Catholic League as a player, that were head coaches against me that are still there. These jobs don’t come around that often and I need to take the opportunity even though I don’t feel like I’m ready yet.”

The Wolfpack finished the 2017 season 7-2 under Miller but lost 42-14 against Cary-Grove in the first round of the playoffs. St. Ignatius won three games in the Prep Bowl tournament before losing to Simeon in the Prep Bowl game.

That first playoff experience helped Miller realize what he needed to do to make his team competitive like Cary-Grove: They needed to grow. At the time he took over, his entire program on all levels had 52 players. He had eight or nine two-way players for each of his first few seasons.

“You take a peek into what next-level teams are like and you realize you’re kind of not there yet,” Miller said.

St. Ignatius’ entrance exam was shortly after the Prep Bowl loss so Miller didn’t have enough time to reach out to families and programs, but he laid out his plan after he became the permanent head coach.

He started educating both current and prospective students and families about the program and football. Miller explained how seriously they take player safety and concussions, assuring families that they’re not just going out there to hit heads.

Miller also started selling St. Ignatius the school, it’s top academic standing among private Catholic schools in the state and the financial help the school offers for students who have the grades to attend St. Ignatius. He attended grade school games over weekends wearing his school shirt, taking questions from parents about the program when they approached him.

The program also started hosting a grade school camp over the summer. Once a family made initial contact with him, either through an open house, shadow day or some other means, Miller reached out to families and continued to build its database.

What many people realized as they talked with Miller is how much he cares about the players and the program, which made it easier for it to grow.

“I think Matt is a really strong connector with our kids,” Hurley said. “Our kids really look up to him, respect him, our families obviously really love him as well. He’s a terrific football mind. He’s really brought a great scheme and strategy to our program that excels with the type of student athlete that we get and really trying to maximize how successful we can be on the field.”

Junior Jack Byrnes transferred from St. Rita before his sophomore season because of the St. Ignatius community. He watched as his teammates put in the work both on the field and off it, and how well that reflects on the school.

“It’s unbelievable being a part of something that I’ll be able to look back on and remember I did this with a group of my friends and knowing we’re only setting a better standard for future St. Ignatius sports and academics, which makes me happy for the school,” Byrnes said.

The program continued to grow both literally and in the win column. St. Ignatius now has 127 players in the program through all levels and is expected to replace a 14-member senior class with roughly 35-50 freshmen next year.

The Wolfpack won 28 games from 2005 to 2014 before Miller arrived as a coach. St. Ignatius has won 31 games in the four seasons he’s been head coach and made the playoffs each year with the exception of the 2021 spring season, which didn’t have a postseason.

All of the growth has led to the team’s success this season. St. Ignatius started many sophomores in the spring season where it went 2-4. The players gained varsity snaps, which helped them for a historic fall season.

Miller and his players started to think this would be a historic season when they fell down 16-0 against Marmion at halftime only to rally for a 20-16 in Week 4. A week later, the Wolfpack shut out Mount Carmel, 27-0, gaining the attention of everyone around the state.

“To pull off the Mount Carmel game, with Mount Carmel being who they are and being ranked, all of a sudden we’re ranked and then you start believing are we really a top-25 team in the state?,” Miller said. “We started to play that way and it was a new thing for us and myself.”

St. Ignatius entered its final game of the season against Fenwick 8-0 with a chance to win an outright CCL/ESCC White division title. The Friars held on to beat the Wolfpack, 28-20, but St. Ignatius finished the regular season at a historic mark. Now, it looks to do something it hasn’t done in program history: win a playoff game.

Both Miller and Hurley remember the program where it restarted. Miller actually played against those first St. Ignatius teams when he played for Holy Cross. While Hurley understands why people are excited about what this season can mean to the future of the program, he wants everyone to enjoy the present and how magical this season has been.

A few years ago, players wouldn’t have taken Miller seriously if he told them they would win eight games and shut out Mount Carmel, but that’s been the final step of the St. Ignatius renaissance.

Now, the players, coaches and St. Ignatius community have built the program to a level where players believe they can compete for a state championship, a level they have tried to reach since those early days of the program’s rebirth.

“That mindset has been pretty cool to see change,” Miller said. “The goal is to win a state championship. Why are we doing this if we’re not going to be the best? You make strides here and there and you start building and realizing it’s a realistic goal.”