Fire and football: Libertyville’s Weaver, Yarc have long-standing firehouse connection

Libertyville's backfield combo of quarterback Jackson Yarc and running back Aiden Weaver have a specific line they like to use during pregame pep talks.

“We have a farm, and we always played football in the barn when we were kids,” Yarc said. “Whenever we're about to play a game, he tells me, 'Just like we're in the barn. Come on, just like we're in the barn.'”

That line represents how long the two have been friends, and also the reason why they became friends in the first place. The two fathers, Andy Yarc and Mike Weaver, worked together at the Libertyville Fire Department and got to know each other before the fireball backfield was even born.

Yarc's side job is running the family farm, which is why playing football in the barn became a favored activity for the kids. They're a year apart in age, Aiden is a senior and Jackson a junior, but they played on the same youth football team for several years.

Now they're trying to lead Libertyville on a long playoff run. The Wildcats (8-2) will host Notre Dame (7-4) in a second-round Class 6A matchup on Saturday. The pair combined to run for three first-quarter touchdowns in last week's win over Noble/Muchin.

“It's fun,” Weaver said. “We've known each other forever.”

“We just have a great connection and we have for a while,” Yarc added. “So it's been awesome that I get to be in the backfield with him.”

The connection began around 2007 or '08, when both fathers were hired at the fire department. Mike Weaver, an Indiana native, worked at Abbott for roughly five years before making a career shift, and spent a year as a volunteer in Lake Bluff to build his resume.

At the time, Yarc and Weaver were two of the younger guys in the department, sports fans who worked most every shift together at Station No. 1 on the north side of Libertyville. They were also starting families, so it made sense to start hanging out beyond work hours.

“Shortly after we started working together, he had Aiden,” said Andy Yarc, a '99 Libertyville grad. “We had a birthday party for my older daughter and that's the first time Aiden and Jackson met each other. Jackson was maybe a week old.”

The football connection began when the kids were in fourth and fifth grade. According to his dad, Jackson was signed up for flag football, but kept tackling everyone during practices. The coaches agreed switching to the padded version of football might be a smart move, so a week into the season, he joined Aiden's team and started playing offensive line.

Jackson qualified as a younger-heavier player, so he was able to stay on the same team as Aiden until it was time to start high school. Now they're together again for the first time since seventh and eighth grade.

The roles at the fire department have also changed over the years. Weaver is now Libertyville's fire marshal, while Yarc is still doing shift work — 24 hours on, 48 hours off — but they do work in the same building.

“Mike and I are still best friends,” Yarc said. “We're pickleball partners, play maybe once a week. We haven't been on shift together for a long time.”

Those 24 hours shifts at the fire station do offer plenty of chances to build co-worker connections.

“When Andy and I reminisce, it's usually about the time we had between the calls,” Weaver said. “Hanging out at the station, watching movies, laughing. Even when we had the big fires, they're exciting, but we don't usually sit around and talk about that kind of work.”

Yarc has an interesting double life as a fourth-generation farmer, with his own spot in Libertyville, while also leasing fields across Lake County to raise corn and soybeans. This time of year, he typically takes a couple weeks off from the fire department for harvest.

“My corn becomes high fructose corn syrup that goes in Dr Pepper,” he said. “It goes to Bedford Park to get processed. My soybeans, I haul them down to Joliet and they get shipped to Taiwan.”

Harvest time is important, but it can wait a day for playoff football.