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Niemiec's numbers, leadership rise above for Batavia

Batavia senior Kyle Niemiec is as outgoing and charismatic as they come, so it's no surprise that the Bulldogs quarterback talks a good game.

That's all well and good, but what really matters to his teammates, coaches and the rabid Batavia community alike is that as good of a game as Niemiec talks, he plays an even better one.

Taking over as the full-time quarterback, Niemiec put up some prolific numbers this fall. He completed 203 of 311 passes (65.3 percent) for 2,748 yards, throwing 24 touchdowns and just 4 interceptions, and running for 11 more scores.

Spreading the ball around to Cole Stokke, Nick Stuttle, Glenn Albanese and especially Canaan Coffey, Niemiec directed a highflying Batavia offense that produced a 10-2 season, a fifth straight Upstate Eight Conference River Division championship, and a berth in the Class 7A quarterfinals, with losses only to 8A power Naperville Central and 7A semifinalist Cary-Grove.

Niemiec is this year's Honorary Co-Captain of the Daily Herald Fox Valley All-Area Football team.

"Awesome kid," Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. "Great leader, teammate and worker. I am so proud of him and the year he had."

Coffey caught 83 of those passes and echoes his coach's view.

"Just the kind of leader he is and the confidence he brings to our team is big," Coffey said. "I see how hard he works when no one is looking all summer trying to get chemistry down with us. Such a workhorse, always up in your face after a drop saying just get the next one, don't worry about it. Just brought a great, positive vibe to our team."

Zach Garrett, Batavia's starting running back who rushed for 1,170 yards and 15 touchdowns, grew up on the same block as Niemiec, best friends literally as far back as either one can remember.

The two grew up playing every sport imaginable together. By seventh grade they were in the same backfield, Niemiec quarterbacking and Garrett running the ball.

"It's really cool to be able to live our dreams at varsity football and compete at a high level," Garrett said. "He commands the huddles, he calls in the plays, we just follow it. He tells us what to do, if we ever have any questions, very good leader.

"And he's great off the field, does a lot of things in the community and helps out. Just a great friend really for me. Just a lot of fun to be around."

Born in Hinsdale to Sean and Janet Niemiec, Kyle moved to Batavia before he was 1.

"Living in Batavia my whole life I came to realize how great the town is and how everybody rallies around each other," Niemiec said. "It really is a great town to live in. The special thing about Batavia is everybody knows everybody. It's just unique. This town is very special."

His dad's sport was soccer, a sport Niemiec said he played for one month before deciding it wasn't for him. Kyle got his height and size from his mom's side of the family with a couple uncles who are 6-feet-6.

He has two younger siblings, twins, Michael and Michelle, who are sophomores. His sister plays volleyball, his brother football. Michael was called up to varsity this year and started at linebacker in the playoffs against Cary-Grove.

While Sean might not have played football, he is a fan. He's got autographed jerseys of Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning in his baseman, and before long his son realized he too wanted to be a quarterback.

"My dad is the dad who doesn't push me to play football, doesn't make me do things. I have to have the love for it, and that's the special relationship me and my father have," Niemiec said.

Growing up, and to this day, Niemiec would rather be outside playing any sport. He played football, basketball and baseball as a freshman at Batavia.

"I always wanted to be outside when I was younger," said Niemiec, who lists snowmobiling as a favorite hobby. "When I am inside I don't know what to do. I don't like to watch TV. Christmas break I get bored."

Niemiec spent plenty of time outside playing football as a kid for the Tri-City Chargers with teammates like Sean Chambers from Geneva and Marmion's Johnny Tate, both quarterbacks.

"Kyle is a great kid, has his head on straight, grades are up there, very competitive and good at sports," Tate said. "What makes him good is he puts a lot of time into it. I play quarterback for Marmion, picked it up in high school, and he helped me a lot with what I had to do. He works hard, loves competing and playing football and strives hard to be good at everything he does."

Reluctantly, Niemiec gave up basketball his sophomore year. He has played varsity baseball since he was a sophomore.

As a junior he split time at quarterback with Evan Acosta for a Batavia team that nearly knocked off Mount Carmel in the first round of the playoffs.

"It's not the ideal situation as a quarterback," Niemiec said. "We would get in rhythm sometimes last year but it would change when a different quarterback came in and we would lose momentum. I love Evan, he's one of my best friends. Evan said the same thing. We made it work but I think that's another reason we were so successful this year is we were always in a rhythm."

Niemiec and his receivers worked hard for their senior year. They started with a bang, beating Oswego - a Class 8A quarterfinalist - and South Elgin the first two weeks of the season, with Niemiec throwing for 266 yards and 2 scores against the Panthers followed by 268 more yards in Week 2.

Niemiec completed at least 11 passes in every game this season despite often coming out early of blowouts. The Bulldogs rolled through the Upstate Eight - again - beating a then 7-0 Geneva team 24-14. Niemiec threw for a career-high 367 yards against the archrival Vikings.

Batavia won its first two playoff games with Niemiec throwing 4 touchdowns in both games before getting tripped up 42-21 by Cary-Grove. Niemiec took several vicious hits in that game but never stopped competing or came out of the game.

"Kyle was always incredibly tough and focused and always did what was needed to to win the game," Piron said. "We ran him much more down the stretch and it paid off big time for us."

"I have no regrets," Niemiec said. "None whatsoever. We did everything possible to have the best senior year we could. It started in the summer. There wasn't a day that me and the core group of receivers didn't throw a football with each other. We would always be throwing routes, and that showed this year with our offense. Our timing was there, we were always in rhythm, and we trusted each other. That's the biggest reason we were successful is we trusted each other. And our linemen worked their tails off. I would not have another group of guys block for me."

Niemiec's final numbers are a testament to how much he improved from his junior to senior year. Upstate Eight River coaches recognized it, naming him the unanimous player of the year.

"He had an incredible year," Garrett said. "Last year he was splitting time and he had a decent year but he knew this year he had to be the guy and really worked hard and focused on football more than anything else. He knew how important he was to the team and he improved as a quarterback. He's always been a good athlete and has been good running but he really worked on his mechanics this year and got a lot better."

Niemiec said he will select his college in the next few weeks. He wants to major in engineering or finance.

He's going to keep playing baseball this spring at Batavia - he was the team's shortstop and cleanup hitter last year - but wants to play football in college.

"If you asked me this two years ago I would have said I am playing college baseball. But now I would miss football way too much," Niemiec said. "I'm just waiting for the right college for me. I'm making sure I pick a college that if football is not there I want to stay there. I'm not just going to college just for football."

So while Niemiec hasn't played his last football game, he has played his last for Batavia.

Those emotions hit hard - and they wouldn't have cut so deep if not for all the work Niemiec and his friends put into it.

"We love playing the game of football and we love playing for coach Piron," Niemiec said. "I speak for 99.9 percent (of players) and we would do anything for Piron and we all know he would return the favor. All the coaches have the fire and we can hear the passion in his voice.

"It flew by. Every single year when you would see the seniors crying, even when we won state, they would say 'Take this all in. Just take it in because it will fly by.' I was like whatever, I'm a sophomore and high school just started for me. Here I am now saying this to them. It didn't work out how we wanted (in the playoffs) but we really played as a unit, we played for one another. That's the biggest thing we tried to do this year."

Jerry Fitzpatrick contributed to this story

Images: Daily Herald All-Area Football Team Captains

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