Farrell reaching 100 wins a milestone to be celebrated

The Napa Valley has had many high school football coaches that have guided their
local teams to winning at a high level.

St. Helena High’s Brandon Farrell has undeniably secured a spot in that category
after his Saints defeated the Cloverdale Eagles 49-29 on Friday night in a road
contest, giving Farrell his 100th career victory as a head coach. Farrell has 80 wins
as the Saints head coach and 20 as a varsity high school coach in Illinois. Farrell
and his family moved to Northern California in May 2008.

Some of the other Napa Valley football coaches that come to mind are Burl Autry
(Vintage), Rich Cotruvo (Justin-Siena), Troy Mott (Napa), Les Franco (Napa and
Vintage), Dave Shipp (Justin-Siena and Vintage), Charley Toogood (St. Helena),
and Jim Hunt (Calistoga). Those coaches most readily come to mind because
their success spanned close to a decade and/or longer. There are others that have
enjoyed high level success in less than a decade in the Napa Valley.

The win came on a night where the Saints needed one to bolster their CIF North
Coast Section Div. V playoff chances. St. Helena is now 5-4 overall and 3-3 in
North Central League I. The Saints beat an Eagles team, who are also NCS Div.
V, that was 6-2 with wins over Sonoma (Div. IV), Novato (Div. III) and longtime
contender Middletown and a 17-7 loss to Montgomery (Div. II).  

As a former Upvalley beat reporter that saw many of Farrell’s games from
2008-2014, I say without reservation that Farrell belongs in the same category of
the aforementioned coaches. I’m not going to get into ranking them because the
issue is subjective. You also cannot compare eras, competition and talent. When
it comes to Napa Valley high school coaches, however, Farrell belongs on Mount
Coachmore.

To appreciate Farrell’s success, you have to understand the history of Saints
football. St. Helena had success highlighted by a team that won 46 games in a row
and had 53 contests without sustaining a defeat from 1960-1965, most of which
came under head coach George Davis. The 1970s featured a lot of success that
included but was not limited to an NCS A championship in 1977.

In the 1980s and most of the 1990s, the Saints were terrible but enjoyed a brief
spike in success thanks to Dan Boyett building the ship from 1992-1997 and
assistant Randy Neller keeping it on course in 1998. Boyett resigned after the team
went 6-3-1 to help care for his ailing daughter, Danielle, who passed away in 2011.
Boyett, however, continued to teach at St. Helena and was later an assistant
under Farrell. The Saints went 9-2 under Neller in 1998. The 2000s had peaks
and valleys.

From 1980-2007, the Saints went through 13 football head coaches in 28 years.
From 2004-2006, St. Helena went 21-11 under Ian MacMillan. The Saints won the
NCL I South for their first league title since 1978. MacMillan resigned after the
season and had multiple stints at Napa as an assistant and was the head coach at
American Canyon from 2011-2013. Oddly enough, MacMillan is back at St. Helena
as the JV head coach, returning in 2017.

After MacMillan resigned, David Collinsworth took the helm. That one-year stint was
an unmitigated calamity that went beyond the 2-8 record. There was also a brief
midseason player walkout that included feuds among assistant coaches.

Collinsworth resigned in January 2008. I rarely disparage high school coaches or
kids but the Collinsworth era was not the Saints finest hour and I’m being charitable.
Five months came and went, I remember emailing St. Helena High athletic director
Tom Hoppe, who informed me that “Brandon Farrell is the new head coach.” I
thought, “Brandon who?” Hoppe then informed me where he was from and sent me
his contact information. So I called Farrell and interviewed him via phone from my
house. I’m thinking, “Hmmm, St. Helena High might just have a good one.” The
cynical side of me said, “How is a guy from Midamerica going to handle the
fickleness of Upvalley sports parents?” Ten plus years and 100 wins later (80 in St.
Helena), I’d say he’s doing pretty damn well.

Winning 100 games in a coaching career is an outstanding achievement no matter
how you slice it. Granted, eras are different in that postseason formats have
gradually expanded in each passing year, then you factor in game changes both
from a rules and schematic perspective. Then, you factor in societal changes.
Farrell has won about two-thirds of his games since arriving in St. Helena. Granted,
the Saints were blessed with once in a generation talent in the early to mid-2010s.
However, once the talent cycled out of the program, St. Helena has remained a
viable NCS playoff contender. Last season was an outlier as the team went 3-5 but
it’s not as if one down year turned into multiple ones.

As much as any coach as I have been around, Farrell understands the importance of
surrounding himself with quality assistant coaches. Some of the faces have
changed over the years but it has the feeling of mixing Xs and Os and Jimmies and
Joes. I have said this time and again, talent and coaching are a package deal but if I
were to give a ratio of importance, I would say 60-40 coaching because players are
looking to them for direction.

Farrell’s impact also cannot be underscored in that he has established a strong
working relationship with the Carpy Gang, which is St. Helena’s youth program
since 1936. Before Farrell arrived, there was a disconnect between the two
programs but since then it has gained strength.

The biggest thing to unpack from Farrell reaching the century mark is not the
destination but the journey.

Take a bow, Coach Farrell.