Cedar Rapids Xavier defensive coordinator is Farmer Jim

CEDAR RAPIDS – He's the Farmer Fran of Cedar Rapids Xavier football. That's minus the straw hat, suspenders and outrageous Cajun accent.In reality, there's nothing similar about Jim O'Connell and the character from the movie “The Waterboy,” other than the farm part.O'Connell makes his living sowing the land, owning 1,100 acres just east of Cedar Rapids. He plants corn and beans and has 25 stock cows.On the side, he's the defensive coordinator for the state's best defense. Xavier gives up 5.23 points per game and has posted eight shutouts.The Saints (12-1) play top-ranked West Des Moines Dowling (13-0) for the Class 4A state championship Friday night at 7:06 (live on KCRG-9.2).“He treats his football players like they are his own kids,” said Xavier Coach Duane Schulte. “He loves them to death, and he disciplines them when they need it.”O'Connell won two state titles as a player at Cedar Rapids LaSalle in 1982 and 1983, a teammate of Schulte's brother, Darrel. But it was agriculture, not football, that he was most interested in upon graduation.That was until Duane Schulte - just named LaSalle's head coach - approached him in 1994 at the annual St. Jude's Sweet Corn Festival, of all places. Not the place you'd expect to find an assistant coach.“I was driving posts for the Sweet Corn Festival,” remembered O'Connell, appropriately wearing a John Deere sweatshirt at a practice earlier this week. “He just came over and said ‘I could use some help.' I said sure, volunteered the first year and have been doing it ever since.”That includes all 16 seasons of Xavier football.“He was a good football player,” Schulte said. “And he had a passion for life and football. I knew he would work very hard at it.”Which he continues to do, especially during harvest season.Days for O'Connell can begin as early as 4:30 a.m., when he'll jump on the combine or help load corn or beans into trucks until about 2 p.m. Then it's the drive into town for practice, back home by 6:30 or 6:45 and back into the fields.“Get home about midnight and try to watch an hour's worth of film, if I don't fall asleep,” O'Connell said. “Head to bed, get up and do it all over again.”“He lives on Mountain Dew during that time,” Schulte said with a laugh.O'Connell admits it gets more and more difficult for him every year. Age is becoming a factor.But there was only one time he seriously considered quitting the football part of his life, that in 2004, after his father died in a grain bin accident. He said Schulte's nephew, Zach, a sophomore at the time, played a major role in talking him into continuing coaching.Two years later, Zach Schulte was one of several seniors who helped Xavier win the 2006 Class 4A state title.“It all seems to work out. I don't know how,” O'Connell said. “The older I get, the more tired I get. It takes a toll on me.“(But) I love being around the kids. That's what drives me, the kids. I want to give them, if I can, the experience that I had in high school. I grew up, won two state championships at LaSalle, and I want to try and give these kids that same experience.”This particular group is special to him, and it's not just because it is so good. O'Connell's son, Colin, is a senior on the team, so the coach has known his classmates since they were little boys.Many believe this is the best defense the Metro has had in years, perhaps ever. O'Connell won't go there – at least not, yet.“I'll answer that on Saturday morning or Friday night,” he said. “I will say it's been a fun group to coach. The unique thing about this group is my son is a senior and has been with them, so I've know them since they were really little. I don't know what it is, but a lot of times I can just look at them, and they know what I want them to do. I always tell them (jokingly) they must have ESPN.”