Common link between Danville, Marmion

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:02PM

Marmion Academy is headed to Danville High School, a public school located near the Indiana border for its Class 6A football semifinal. It's probably the first time the two schools have played each other in the sport, and it might be the last. It should be a good game, but other than this afternoon's contest, one would think nothing connects the two towns.

Yet they are connected, in an odd way.

Marmion Academy is making its first semifinal appearance since 1989, when the team was coached by Paul Murphy.

Murphy is now the coach at Waubonsie Valley.

Danville is coached by Murphy's predecessor, B.J. Luke.

It's a loose connection, sure, since no one on the Marmion staff has any ties to Waubonsie or Danville. But, Luke's children, R.J. and Ashley, were star athletes at Waubonsie and he spent nearly two decades in Aurora.

"It's fun to have an Aurora team come down," Luke said. "It's a second home to us. It was a great place for my family. My kids enjoyed being there and going to school there and participating (in athletics) there. I have a lot of neat memories there in that area and a lot good friends that are still there. It's kind of fun to have them coming down here, four blocks from where I grew up. It's kind of interesting."

1989 revisited

And in the modern playoff era of IHSA football, Murphy was the coach who put Marmion football back on the map with two undefeated regular seasons and seven playoff appearances during his tenure.

"They hadn't had a lot of success at Marmion when I first got there," Murphy said. "We had the success in (1988) and it lit the fire and lit the appetite for what could be possible."

Murphy first arrived at Marmion in 1987, and in 1988 the Cadets went 8-1 in the regular season only to lose 10-9 to Geneva in the first round of the playoffs. That set the table for a magical run in 1989.

"We had great skill kids and a great attitude," Murphy said. "They had a lot of confidence after that '88 team. We just kept it going and rode it into an undefeated season and into the playoffs."

It was a group that loved the game, so much so that as many as 10 players a day would stay after practice to play touch-football.

"Those kids just loved playing the game of football. It was an unbelievable group," Murphy said. "They had a great deal of belief in themselves and they had a great deal of desire to be a great football team."

The Cadets went 9-0 in the 1989 regular season and beat Nazareth Academy, Harvard and Herscher before facing Princeton in the Class 3A semifinals.

It was a cold week, and the Marmion practice fields were frozen. As a result, the team had to wear gym shoes because, as Murphy said, being in spikes would've been like practicing on ice skates. The wind kicked up, too, that week, preventing portable lights from being put up - so the team finished practices in front of the headlights of cars.

The tough conditions continued into the game against Princeton, which did not help the small but athletic Cadets.

"It was bitterly cold," Murphy remembered. "We had great skill players and we weren't very big at the line of scrimmage and we played a Princeton team that probably averaged 240 to 250 (pounds) on the offensive and defensive lines. The windchill was like zero that day. It was just brutal and we just didn't handle the weather very well. I didn't have a lot of bulk on the team. We were all skinny fast guys that liked to run and it was a biting wind with snow flurries.

"It was true playoff weather when you get to the semifinals. It was unbelievable."

Looking for one more win

Fans in The Beacon-News coverage area, of course, know Luke well, as he coached at Yorkville from 1981-1984 before arriving at Waubonsie in 1988. He went 33-8 in those four seasons, including a 8-1 regular season in 1981 that ended in the Class 3A semifinals with a 36-22 loss to McNamara.

Luke directed the Foxes to a 9-0 regular season in final campaign at the helm 1984 before losing in the first round.

"I was a young kid at Yorkville," Luke said. "I had some real nice teams there and that was a good learning experience for me."

He then won over 100 games at Waubonsie Valley, which included another semifinal loss, a 15-13 defeat at the hands of Naperville North in 1992.

Since arriving in Danville in 2005, he has rebuilt his alma mater into a title contender in 6A. The Vikings lost in the semifinals last year to Providence Catholic, 30-21.

A coach for over 30 years, Luke is hoping this semifinal produces a different outcome.

"I'd like to get there. I'm getting a little old now," he said with a laugh. "You don't know how many chances you're going to have. Sure, I'd like to get there as a coach. But I'd really like to get there for our community and our kids. To be able to lead your hometown team to this point, it's really been a lot of fun."

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