Judah Mallette was a 12-year-old ballboy along for the ride when Phillips won its — and the Public League’s — second state football title in 2017.
‘‘I was there for every game,’’ said Mallette, now a senior receiver with Power Five scholarship offers playing for Hope Academy. ‘‘It was just like, to be honest, so far in my 17 years of living, one of the best experiences of my life. Seeing the journey from the beginning of the season to the height of the season and especially through all the adversity that they faced, it was definitely special. . . .
‘‘I just thought to myself: ‘This is something that I want to be part of a few years down the road from now. And doing it with my dad would make it 10 times more special.’ ’’
Mallette’s dad, Chris, was an assistant on that Phillips team, part of a run through the Public League that also included stops as an assistant at Simeon and Young. When Young wanted to reboot its program in 2018 after having to suspend it because of low numbers the year before, the school turned to Mallette.
He guided the Dolphins to an 8-0 record, then left after one season to take over at Hope. Four seasons later, the Mallettes have a chance to be part of more Illinois high school football history. No Chicago-area school has won a Class 1A title since Hampshire in 1979, and no West Side program — public or private — ever has won state.
In their fourth and final season together, the Mallettes were unbeaten through six games, near the top of Class 1A in the Associated Press’ rankings and dreaming big.
‘‘We begin the season talking about state,’’ Chris Mallette said. ‘‘The dream is to dream. . . . Our aspirations have always been to win state. I don’t believe in taking the dream and hiding it in the Porta Potty across the street. You put it on the mantel.’’
Chris Mallette didn’t always expect to be chasing that dream at Hope Academy, a small private school (enrollment: 246) just west of the Illinois Medical District.
‘‘When I went to Young, I thought I’d be at Whitney Young for 30 years,’’ he said. ‘‘I thought I’d sunset coaching and my professional career at Young. I was willing to transition from practicing law and the things I was doing with the city of Chicago [in violence prevention] to just teaching. . . . Then it just wasn’t the right fit.’’
Mallette talked with Hope Academy officials and decided the school would be a better fit with its faith-based approach and less restrictive policies.
‘‘There were a lot of things going on in CPS to protect kids,’’ Mallette said. ‘‘A lot of rules were instituted, but a lot of the rules . . . were counterintuitive to the role of high school football coach, especially the role of a high school football coach in the inner city.’’
In CPS, Mallette said, if he knew of a student-athlete having suicidal thoughts, ‘‘I’ve got to go through 10 hoops. Now I just drive to the house, take the kid out for a cup of coffee. We sit, we talk and we buy time as we get to the next step of how we’re going to get help.’’
All of that is a way of saying Hope Academy football is about a lot more than what happens on the field — for Mallette and for his players. Among the team’s catchphrases are ‘‘Practice is everything’’ and ‘‘LEO [love each other].’’
‘‘This thing is about football, but when you really strip it down, this program is not about football at all,” Mallette said. ‘‘It’s about brotherhood — and sisterhood. We have two girls on the team.’’
Mallette’s blueprint at Hope includes nods to some of his Public League coaching mentors: Simeon’s Jesse Chick and Dante Culbreath, Phillips’ Troy McAllister and Dunbar’s Glenn Johnson.
Eddie Jenkins Jr., Hope’s senior quarterback, attests to Mallette’s influence.
‘‘I was, like, the fourth-string quarterback when I got here,’’ said Jenkins, who had 1,317 total yards and 21 touchdowns through six games. ‘‘And then I started to actually listen to coach Mallette and buy in to what he was saying. These last three years, he really changed my life. He really developed me into the young man and football player that I am right now.’’
Judah Mallette, who had 734 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns through six games, obviously has a lot longer history with his dad, dating to youth football.
‘‘It’s definitely been a different experience playing for him in high school,’’ Judah said. ‘‘But I feel like over time our relationship has gotten better, chemistry has gotten better. It makes me kind of emotional thinking this is my last year.’’
If it ends on Thanksgiving weekend at Memorial Stadium in Champaign, that ballboy’s dream will have come true.
