Richard Villarreal would get to his job at IBM before the sun came up, just to make sure he would get off in time to watch football practice at Fairview High School.
It was the 1980s. His son Kip was the quarterback for former coach Sam Pagano, who over a quarter of a century at the helm turned the Knights into a power on the gridiron. And in the fall of ’87 — nine years after winning the program’s first two titles in repeat fashion in ’78-’79 — with Richard in his usual spot atop the hill looking down on each of the team’s practices, they celebrated their third.
Thirty-seven years later, they wait on No. 4.
Today, Tom McCartney — the son of the University of Colorado’s national championship coach Bill McCartney — is in charge of the program. He has gone 225-119 since taking over for Pagano three decades ago.
Kip Villarreal, now 54, is up in the stands watching all three of his sons be a part of it. Ryder, his youngest, is a senior linebacker who plays both ways. Ethan and Gray, both former players themselves at Fairview, are defensive assistants.
Through Week 5 of the football season, Fairview is 5-0 and ranked Class 5A No. 7 in Colorado Preps’ Media Poll. While the longtime narrative for the Knights under Coach Mac has usually settled on their high-flying air attacks, itap the defense that has grabbed a lot of the attention this fall thanks to three straight shutouts coming into the weekend.
Saturday, Fairview will begin play in the Front Range-North League as it hosts Prairie View (2-2) at Christian Recht Field at 1 p.m. McCartney’s teams have won their league title in five of the past six years and are considered a heavy favorite again with the league’s other teams going just 9-13 in nonconference play.
In and around the program, though, there’s belief the Knights can accomplish more.
“There are a couple things I see,” Kip said when asked if there are any similarities between Fairview’s 2024 team and the one that went on to beat Cherry Creek 13-10 in ’87 finals. “The first being defense. We had an amazing defense back in ’87 that was, in my mind, the best in the state. And it feels as though this year’s defense is similar to that.
“And then,” he said, “there’s the camaraderie, right?”
Kip has a better perspective on this than most. Through the years, he’s seen the chemistry on Fairview’s current roster grow, and grow up firsthand.
Many of them came through his youth football organization: The Boulder Bears. Helped put into motion by McCartney, Fairview’s former coach Pagano and current Monarch coach Jeff Santee in 2009, Kip is now the chairman of its board as well as a coach.
Four years ago, Kip coached the Bears’ eighth-grade team to a state championship. It included seniors on Fairview’s 2024 team in Jordan Rechel (64 career touchdowns for the Knights), Brock Kolstad (208 tackles and 6.5 sacks), Colin Overy (a 6-foot-4, 230-pound two-way lineman), Wyatt Keegan (120 tackles and six interceptions), Luka Teodoru (a starting wide receiver), Julian Blakeslee (defensive back), Ryne Spors (defensive end), Charlie Larson (defensive end) and, of course, his son Ryder (283 tackles and eight sacks).
They’re dreaming of another fitting finale.
“I mean, we just try and play our best ball and try and get better every day,” said Rechel, who led 5A in touchdowns last season (30) and already has seven through five games this fall. “We’re trying to build up so that by Week 11, Week 12, Week 13 we’re playing our best football. We’re playing good, but we’re not even close to where we could be.”
A scary thought for many in the state considering the Knights have outscored their past three opponents — Boulder, Monarch and Smoky Hill — by a whopping 161-0.
But when it comes to powerhouses like your Cherry Creeks and Valor Christians, they’ll first have to prove themselves on the postseason stage. The Knights were 9-1 the past two regular seasons before falling in the first round of the playoffs.
“We know we have the guys, and we just have to put it all together every game,” said Ryder, who has 40 tackles and a rushing score this season. “Me and my dad just talk about how you can beat anybody. Maybe (some team) wasn’t the biggest or the fastest, but it didn’t matter. They played together and played to the last whistle.”
As for other motivational tools from his dad? Maybe some old memorabilia from his ’87 title — there isn’t much.
Ryder says there are no trophies of his dad’s win in their household. He never even saw his dad’s state title ring, which was lost long before he was born.
The one thing Kip does keep from it is the ring Pagano gave to his late father Richard, who died in 1990.
“Coach Pagano knew how special it was for my dad to watch us win the championship,” Kip said.
Imagine what he’d think now.
