Support helped new hall of famer Chase Farris succeed

It didn't take long for Steve Hamilton to see the potential in Chase Farris. "I was lucky enough to be at Westwood (junior high) at the time," said the former Elyria High football coach. "Chase was in seventh grade and I spent two years in junior high with him. I knew his athletic ability was there. He just had to work on his overall fitness levels. Chase was a big kid back in the day, but he was a very athletic big kid. He just needed to get in the weight room and change his body." Farris, Ellen Borowy Casey, Erik Burnett, Mary Lanette Taylor Eggleston, Kate Verhoff and the 1979 Elyria Catholic baseball team will be inducted into the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame on May 6 at LCCC's Spitzer Center. Bill Troyer, a longtime Elyria Parks and Recreation staffer and local umpire, will be posthumously honored with the Distinguished Service Award. Hamilton was impressed with Farris from the start. "Not only his athletic side but his academic side ... he was great academically," Hamilton said. "He was great as far as a person you could talk to. He was a leader with his classmates. He was just a kid I kind of took under my wing. I set some things up for him that were going to be hard. I knew he was the type of kid that would reach them." Hamilton and Farris made an agreement. "For every 'B' or below that he got, he had to do 50 pushups," Hamilton said. "We sat down about it and he accepted that challenge. He knew his chances of going on and playing in college were good so he wanted to make sure his grades were good." "He had made this rule one day," Farris said. "We had never talked about it before. It was never planned. Football season, you had to turn in progress reports every week signed by the teachers. Basketball, I had to turn them in but I had to show Hamilton, too. "My junior year when everything started picking up, he told me, 'these colleges are going to make sure your grades are good because if your grades are cool — like a 3.5 GPA — your ACT can be lower.' "When I took the ACT, I never studied for it and because my GPA was so good, I never had to worry about taking it again." Farris had some extra work to do after agreeing to Hamilton's deal. "I showed him my grade report and I had six B's and an A," Farris said. "He said for every grade that's not an A, I need 50 pushups. I said 'OK, cool,' and I said, 'I'll see you later.' "He said, 'Where are you going? We're starting today.'" Farris, who graduated in 2011, played both ways for the Pioneers. By the time he was in high school, Hamilton had taken over as head coach. Farris was an All-Ohio first-team lineman his senior year and earned a full ride to Ohio State. "I took Chase Farris and Isaiah Byler (an Elyria senior) on a Midwest college tour," Hamilton said. "We went to several different camps. We went all around. We went to Michigan and Michigan State. We went to Marshall. We went to Indiana, to Illinois, Penn State — all over the place. That's kind of where he got a look. They could see that he could move, they could see he was very athletic. They could see he was very smart as far as football terminology." "Before basketball season started I got my first scholarship offer," Farris said. "It was from Duke. My second offer I believe was from Toledo. My third was Buffalo and my fourth was Ohio State. Once Ohio State made an offer, I was getting a scholarship offer every three days. I was Coach (Jim) Tressel's last recruiting class. "It felt like home. My mom and my sister went down there, too. They were just so excited." When Tressel resigned following the season, Farris stayed committed. At Elyria, Farris finished his senior season with 95 tackles — 31 for a loss — and 11½ sacks. For his career, he had 19 sacks. He was the D-I district defensive player of the year. Farris also played basketball for the Pioneers, winning three more letters. As a senior, he grabbed 178 rebounds and scored 250 points, twice scoring 26 points in a game. He had 228 rebounds his junior season, scoring 179, and had 136 rebounds as a sophomore. "Coming in as a freshman playing two sports, he worked extremely hard," Elyria basketball coach Brett Larrick said. "We always kind of knew he'd be leaning towards football but he used basketball to help him with football. He worked very hard at basketball, too, so you could see he had that desire to be good." At Ohio State, Farris was switched back and forth from offensive line to defensive line. He red-shirted his freshman year in 2011 and was a member of the special teams in 2012. He battled Taylor Decker, who later played for the Detroit Lions, for a spot on the offensive line before being switched to defense. In the offseason, Farris had knee surgery. He was back on the offensive line the next season and helped the Buckeyes win the national championship in 2014. He was the starting right tackle his senior season. He graduated with a degree in Consumer and Family Financial Services and is the director of the non-profit "Save Our Children." He's also recently been hired as the football coach at Elyria Catholic. Although not drafted, Farris was signed to be on the practice squad for the Detroit Lions and later signed with New England and was a part of the Patriots' Super Bowl championship team in 2017. Farris credits his mother, Dina, with establishing his academic prowess. Dina, who was a great athlete in her own right, died a year ago at 51. "It was vital to have that pillar in my support system," Farris said. "My freshman year I had a 4.0 GPA. My sophomore year I was feeling myself a little bit. I was starting varsity football, starting varsity basketball — only a sophomore. "Grades started dipping and she talked to the guidance counselors, all my teachers. She worked nights (at the Wesleyan Village) and she'd walk over to the high school and come and sit in my classes in her work uniform. She'd sit in the back of the class and make sure I sat in front until I got it back together." "She was awesome," Hamilton said. "She was a true blessing to that family. She had to raise two kids (Chase and daughter Chelsey) on her own and she did it very well. She held them accountable. She did what you're supposed to do to raise a kid. She was an awesome lady." "Mom and grandma were always there," Larrick said. "We had conversations with them about pushing Chase and never let him be satisfied. That strong push, that strong guidance — she was there — to always push him to be good." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.