AlumniReview32014_0

Wendell
Phillips
Academy
in Chicago.
One of the underdogs
Check out Sports Illustrated’s story on Troy McAllister and his Wendell Phillips
Academy Wildcats in season 2 of Underdogs: inspiring stories in high school
football: bit.ly/QUWPA.
JOHN COLON
In fact, the school was troubled well into this
century. Wendell Phillips was considered one of
the worst schools in the city when the Board of
Education decided to stage a “turnaround.” By
2010, the entire teaching staff had been replaced
and operations turned over to the Academy for
Urban School Leadership, a nonprofit organization
whose mission is to improve student achievement
in Chicago’s “chronically failing schools.”
During the spring of 2009, when this turnaround
was in progress, Troy came to Wendell
Phillips to look around. It wasn’t a pleasant sight.
“All the stairwells were cages, screened from the
railings to the ceiling,” he says. “And I’d say – for
lack of a better word – it was like a prison. [There
were] students loitering in the hallways during
classes. It wasn’t a learning environment. It was
one of those 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.”
The school is a very different place today. The
stairways are open again. The walls and floors are
spotless. Students of both genders wear official
school uniforms. Academic test score results are
up all across the board, and Wendell Phillips –
formerly rated as a Level 3 school, the lowest academic
category in the rankings – is now at Level 1,
the only neighbourhood school in Chicago to have
won that distinction.
Troy is proud to be part of this remarkable turnaround,
both as a teacher and as the head coach
of the football team, which is coming off a breakthrough
season.
The Wildcats opened the 2013 season in the
Preseason Prep Bowl at Soldier Field, the home of
nfl’s Chicago Bears. That marathon day of football
featured three high school games and a college
contest. Wendell Phillips and a neighbouring
Catholic school, De La Salle Institute, kicked off
the event with a hugely entertaining game won
51-48 by a seniors-dominated De La Salle team.
Wendell Phillips countered with a youthful squad
led by junior quarterback DeWayne Collins and
star sophomore receiver Quayvon Skanes.
The Wildcats also lost their next game by three
points, before reeling off nine wins in their next 10
games to reach the state quarterfinals for the first
time in school history.
It was the latest highlight for Wendell Phillips
on Troy’s watch, which began in much more humble
circumstances.
For his first practice in the fall of 2010, Troy had
just 12 players show up. “It took us two years to
really change things,” he recalls. “The first year
was a big struggle, not having a lot of players and
trying to put in a structure.”
How did Canadian Troy McAllister come
to be the coach entrusted with turning
around the Phillips football program?
It took some leaps of faith on both sides.
Troy, 35, grew up in the farming community of
Joyceville, just north of Kingston. He played high
school football at LaSalle Secondary School in
Kingston before suiting up for the Gaels for five
seasons, 1998-2003. He was a slotback, and “just
ok,” he says with a laugh. Gaels coach Pat Sheahan
has a somewhat different view. “Troy was
dedicated, a real team player, and a student of the
game,” Pat recalls.
After graduating, Troy stayed on with the team
as a receivers coach. He also remained committed
to his academic studies. For three years, he commuted
between Kingston and Buffalo, ny, where
he worked toward the master’s degree in education
that he earned in 2006 at D’Youville College.
Then it was time for a life decision. “A D’Youville
friend said, ‘Hey, let’s go to Chicago; they’ve
got a job fair,’” Troy says.
So they did. Visiting the Windy City for the first
time, Troy did the usual tourist rounds, but he also
got a job offer to work at an inner-city elementary
school.
“I took a week to think about it,” he says. “I told
my parents, ‘Look, it’s the only realistic option I
have to start a successful career.’ I figured if it
didn’t work out, in a year I’d just come back home.”
But it did work out, in more ways than one.
24 Issue 3, 2014 | alumnireview.queensu.ca