Dec. 05--When Troy McAllister first saw Phillips, the school was in bad shape and the football program was in worse.
It was in the spring of 2009, just before Phillips began a turnaround under the direction of the Academy for Urban School Leadership.
"All the stairwells were cages, screened from the railings to the ceiling," McAllister recalled in an interview last year. "And I'd say, for lack of a better word, it was like a prison -- students loitering in the hallways during classes. ... It was one of the worst-nightmare, worst-scenario situations. You wondered, 'Why aren't those kids in class? Why is nobody saying anything to them?' There were students rolling dice in the corners."
It didn't look like a promising -- or a likely -- place for a small-town kid from Canada to start his head coaching career. That feeling was reinforced in the fall of 2010, when McAllister held his first practice as Phillips' coach and 12 players showed up.
A lot has changed for Phillips, its football program and its head coach in the few years since then.
The school, whose graduates include cultural icons such as Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and Gwendolyn Brooks, has a Level 2, or low, rating in the Chicago Public Schools 2015 School Progress Report. But, according to Phillips' website, the Class of 2015 had 100 percent acceptance into colleges or universities and earned $5.4 million in scholarships. And its Culture and Climate was given the second-highest of five grades.
The Wildcats' football fortunes have improved as well. They have their own artificial turf field -- a rarity in the Public League, especially for a neighborhood school -- at nearby Mandrake Park. Established suburban programs such as Fenwick and Carmel have come to the Bronzeville neighborhood to play the Wildcats, another unusual phenomenon in CPS.
And this season, it all came together for McAllister and the Wildcats, who went 14-0 and became the first CPS team to win a state championship since the IHSA football playoffs began in 1974.
The message Phillips sent to the rest of the state in McAllister's sixth season is simple, in his mind.
"I think what it means is there's no more excuses," he said. "It can be done. ... There's ways to make things better. Some (CPS) schools are at more of a disadvantage than others. It's just a matter of putting your young men in the right place."
One of those young men has been senior Quayvon Skanes, the face of the program and a UConn recruit as a wide receiver. When star dual-threat quarterback Dewayne Collins graduated after leading the Wildcats to the 2014 Class 4A state final, McAllister knew Skanes would replace him.
Last offseason, Skanes was publicly cool to the idea of switching positions. But McAllister knew how to win him over.
"It was in the summer," Skanes recalled this week. "He said, 'Do you want the ball five times a game or 50 times?'
"He's not really an easy guy to play for. You've got to get used to him. He coaches you hard and he won't stop till you're good."
McAllister, who grew up in the farm town of Joyceville, Ontario, population 2,095, and played high school and college football in Canada, makes no excuses for his style.
"I'll be honest," he said. "I'm pretty tough on the young men. They'll be late to practice, late to school. I'll be, 'Why are you late?' ... It might be the train being late, it might be something at home with family. It's just to reinforce to them, 'If you want to do this, do it right, whether it's football, something at home, at school. Do it right.'"
Phillips athletic director John Byrne had a feeling early on that McAllister's style was right for the job. "But the third year, these kids knew he was all in," Byrne said, and so did everyone else.
"The one thing at CPS, when we played suburban schools, the one thing they have not counted on was my coaches' ability to adjust during a game."
One thing Byrne, the Phillips players and probably McAllister himself didn't count on was what happened in the spring of 2014. After leading the Wildcats to an 8-4 record and Class 4A quarterfinal berth in 2013, McAllister resigned as Phillips coach to accept the same position at Evergreen Park -- the team the Wildcats defeated in the second round. But the deal fell through and McAllister, who had not resigned his teaching position, returned to Phillips as head coach -- even after the school announced defensive coordinator Michael Larson would replace him.
"His departure and return was tough on everybody," Byrne said. "We had to get in the room and wrestle the bear to the ground. We sat in a room and we worked it out. ...
"It was tough on the kids but we weathered it. That was a sign of maturity. Everybody had to give a little bit."
The Wildcats went on to go 12-2 in 2014, becoming the first Public League team to play for a state title since Robeson in 1982. They fell short then, losing 49-28 to Rochester. But the Wildcats wouldn't be denied this fall, and McAllister's parents drove down from Canada to see their son's team make history.
"Sometimes things work out in weird ways," McAllister said. "I can honestly say I'm blessed to be where I am at Phillips."
mclark@tribpub.com
