Farrissey Heading to County Hall of Fame

Andy Farrissey, a 1977 Stevenson High School graduate who teaches and coaches the boys track and field team at his alma mater, is one of 12 people being inducted into the Lake County High Schools Hall of Fame on Thursday in Waukegan. He is the 17th person from Stevenson to be selected.

Farrissey is considered one of the top athletes in Stevenson history, earning four varsity letters in baseball, and three in football and basketball. During his senior year, he played on the varsity in four sports: football, basketball, baseball and track. He was on the receiving end of the longest pass play in Patriot football history, a 99-yard TD reception from Jeff Main in 1974.

 

After graduating from Stevenson, Farrissey won three Division III national basketball championships at North Park College. He then went into teaching and coaching, spending six seasons as an assistant football coach at Deerfield High School before joining Lou Holtz’s staff at the University of Notre Dame as a graduate assistant during its national championship season in 1988. He joined the Stevenson football coaching staff in 1996, departing in 2010 to follow Bill Mitz to Jacobs High School. He has coached in 27 consecutive state playoffs with three different schools: Deerfield, Stevenson and Jacobs, reaching the state finals with SHS and Deerfield.

 

Farrissey has been the head boys track and field coach at Stevenson since 1996, and also was head girls track coach from 1996-98. He has coached 41 state qualifiers in boys track and field during his 17 seasons, including 2001 state 1,600-meter champion Ian Cronin. Farrissey also was an assistant wrestling coach for SHS from 2006-08.