Marshall Bachar to play football at at Illinois College
By FRED KRONER
Marshall Bachar was in third grade in the Prairie Central school district when he first played organized football.
Two years later, the youngster was already thinking about the future.
“I first thought about college football way back in my fifth-grade year,” Bachar said. “I was playing for the Prairie Central Hawks doing Mighty Mights (program) and had just gotten the NCAA game for the Xbox 360, and from that point on, I’ve always wanted to be a college football player.”
Then came his sixth-grade year, his seventh-grade year, his eighth-grade year (still in the Prairie Central district) and his ninth-grade year, after transferring to Mahomet-Seymour.
Bachar didn’t play football during any of those four years.
“In my sixth-grade year, I had decided to take a break from football, which was the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life,” Bachar said. “What I mean by that is if I had kept with it, I could’ve had an extremely higher skill ceiling than where I’m at right now.
“When we moved to Mahomet in 2018 (the summer before his eighth-grade year) I had thought about playing, but never did until my sophomore year of high school.”
His return to the gridiron wasn’t a rousing success.
“That first year, I sucked,” Bachar said. “I knew nothing about the position or any technique (for offensive linemen).”
He could have easily decided there was no future for him in football and returned to the inactive list. He stayed with it, however, but not because of that childhood dream of playing in college.
“I was in a pretty harsh spot mentally my sophomore year and football was the perfect distraction from everything,” Bachar said, “and allowed for me to work on myself and get better at something that I truly love.
“But what really kept me going were my coaches and my mom (Angela Bachar) and how much they just wanted to see me succeed.”
Bachar’s sophomore season of football should have started in the fall of 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible. Instead, a six-game season was scheduled for the spring of 2021, with the playoffs eliminated in order for the IHSA to add other sports to the activities list before the school year ended.
As a junior, Bachar displayed improvement, but his first starting position was with the M-S junior varsity squad. After six games at that level, he was elevated to the varsity and installed as a starter on an undefeated, state-ranked team when lineman Tyler Uken suffered a season-ending injury.
“I think the key to my success was definitely all Coach (Nathan) Sievers has done to coach me,” Bachar said. “Coach Sievers is our O-line coach, and he has definitely been the best coach I’ve ever had.
“The way he taught me and my teammates just came in such a way where it was extremely easy to think about and play with. Not having a full sophomore year was definitely a low-light of my career and only because the seniors of that year weren’t allowed a full last year of the game they had played for their whole life.
“On a personal level it truly didn’t affect me too much since it was my first year (back), but if I were to have had a full year to learn my position, things could have been different from that point on.”
Bachar was then entrenched as a starter on the varsity line throughout his senior year, which ended with the Bulldogs making their second consecutive appearance in the Class 5A state quarterfinals.
For his efforts, Bachar was rewarded by the Apollo Conference coaches with first-team all-conference recognition as a senior. His long-time goal of playing football in college will come to fruition in the fall when he suits up at Illinois College, in Jacksonville.
While it sounds like a meteoric rise, M-S football head coach Jon Adkins doesn’t view it as surprising.
“What an incredible young man Marshall is,” Adkins said. “Most people might not know, but he is extremely brilliant and is wise beyond his years.
“This, as well as his work ethic, is absolutely what propelled him into not only becoming a starter for us, but also a very good all-conference football player as well.
“I told Marshall that if we had a most improved player of the year award, it would have gone to him. The transformation that this kid made in the off-season in the weight room and overall athletic ability was incredible.”
Even after Bachar resumed his football career at M-S, he wasn’t totally committed – mentally – to staying with it.
“There were points where I’d be in a slump and have thoughts of quitting again,” Bachar said, “but my teammates, and especially Coach Adkins, always kept me going and that helped me reach my potential.”
The people, both peers and adults, who surrounded him in his formative teen-age years are responsible for the next step in his journey.
“I am thankful for all my coaches and teammates who coached me and kept me going with the game,” Bachar said.
He anticipates a time of transition before he makes an impact at Illinois College.
“I see myself in a learning year just like here in Mahomet,” Bachar said “I don’t believe, as much as I would love it, that I will start varsity as an incoming freshman.
“My coaches at IC have been extremely vocal with me and have put a real focus on me getting in the gym and putting on strength. I feel on a personal level that’s a place where I lack, and I’ve committed myself to getting to the gym as much as I can to get stronger.
“I’m expecting to play guard since that’s what I left high school as, however I am a little undersized for my position (at 6 foot, 265 pounds) compared to some other guys on the team, so I think that it’s also possible that I play center as well.”
As he reflects on his prep career, Bachar rates some of his favorite moments as those that came before he was an established varsity mainstay, selecting, “my six junior JV games before I started (varsity) and being a captain for the underclass when no one was willing to step up and lead.”
Those tendencies remained when he was promoted to varsity and was part of a unit tasked with protecting and providing time for the most prolific quarterback in school history, Wyatt Bohm, to pass the ball.
“I am going to miss his leadership, especially of our offensive line and the way he would communicate with all of them and even help the younger kids as well,” Adkins said.
Beyond what he hopes to accomplish in the weight room, Bachar sees the potential for tremendous growth as he prepares for the next level.
“I strongly believe that once I start college ball, I’ll get significantly better in my technique and just overall football,” Bachar said. “I actually really enjoy the fact that I am going to have to prove myself all over again.
“I think it gives everyone a reality check straight out of high school ball and I certainly am no exception. Every position on the field deserves to be earned no matter where you come from or how good you were.”
Throughout his high school years with the Bulldogs, Bachar has taken a thinking man’s approach to the game.
“The obvious appeal to football is the physicality,” Bachar said. “I’ve always been a physical person in anything I have ever done.
“But more important than that is the mental aspect of the game. Being physical can only get you so far if you aren’t field smart and that’s exactly where I think I thrive. I said I’ve always been physical, but never overly strong like others, so that’s where my head came into the equation. I always started each play running through my head exactly what I was going to do and how, and then being adaptable and reacting to what my assignment was going to do and even predicting it as well.”
Before picking football as his sport of choice, Bachar tried other sports, including soccer, baseball and wrestling.
“None of them ever caught my eye how football did,” he said, “and it was at that point I had decided to dedicate myself to the game and shoot for college football.”
Bachar’s recruitment to Illinois College started in April, 2022.
“I had gone to a couple camps in the spring of 2022, one particular in Waukegan, where there were a bunch of D-3 and D-2 schools scouting for high school players,” Bachar said. “Illinois College happened to be there with Coach (Riley) Reid recruiting for them, but Rockford College was also there.
“They (Illinois College) were there and I was interested, so I kept in touch and things went on from there.”
Bachar eventually visited both Illinois College and Rockford College and had offers from each institution.
Distance from home was a factor in his decision.
“I decided to be closer to home and settled on Jacksonville (about 117 miles away) rather than Rockford (approximately 175 miles away),” Bachar said. “I’m only an hour and a half from my family, so I can still see them as often as needed. This was the biggest factor in deciding to go to IC.”
He was also impressed by what he saw on his visit at the Division III university in Jacksonville.
“What really got me interested in IC was their fantastic Athletic Facility as well as the small classrooms (most about 13 to 15 students per class) and location,” Bachar added.
Adkins believes Illinois College will be a good fit for Bachar.
“Happy for him and his family on their next adventure,” Adkins said.
The recruiting process, Bachar said, was “nothing that I expected, really. Honestly for me, it was very one-sided. It consisted of a lot of recruitment forms and getting my name out there on Twitter especially for coaches to see what I can do.”
Bachar plans on majoring in either mechanical or industrial engineering.
In his 10-year plan, he said. “my hope is that I am working with a major vehicle company, such as Ford or GM.”
He has done his homework on that possibility and likes what he learned.
“Both have had graduates from IC,” Bachar said.
Like many in Central Illinois, Bachar was saddened to hear the news about the deaths of two former classmates at Prairie Central, Dylan Bazzell and Drew Fehr. The two seniors died on Monday (March 20) following a skiing accident in Colorado during Spring Break.
“I knew them fairly well and played football with them both up until the point I decided to quit,” Bachar said. “I never kept in touch with them when I moved, but it hurts a lot to see those two pass on.
“From what I remember, they were both extremely fun, outgoing guys and just were all-around good friends and teammates.”
