Hall of Fame coach John Elder visits Bureau Valley Camp

There was a special guest for the first day of the Bureau Valley football camp Monday at Ken Bourquin Field in Manlius.

John Elder, 87, father of new Storm head coach Patrick, made the 80-mile trip from Alexis to see his son’s new squad in action. He sat in a lawn chair on the field with a bucket cap observing the action and instruction, much like a general would looking over a battle field.

The coach’s dad is a Hall of Fame coach with 40 years of coaching football, highlighted by a 29-year stint as head coach at Alexis, where he led the Cardinals to a state runner-up finish in Class 2A in 1974. He was heavily involved for years with the annual Shriners Game, the Illinois Football Coaches Association and the Illinois Coaches Association.

The coaching really never leaves you when you’ve been in the game as long as John Elder.

“I wanted to see what he was doing here trying to installing his offense,” John Elder said. “Not that I know a lot, but these young coaches, there’s a little bit different technique involved with the winged-t offense than there is with the shotgun type. And thought maybe I’d help this young man (coach Blayne Kappes) with the technique with these linemen because they’re obviously pretty key of what goes on.

“Watching the game, I can kind of anticipate what they’re doing. When they line up I can have a decent idea of what they’re doing, or trying to anyway.”

The Storm coach enjoyed having his dad at camp and the extra set of eyes he brings.

“He and I have always had a great relationship on and off the football field. He’s such a valuable resource,” Pat Elder said. “We generally see things the same way. So, it’s great having him around. He catches things whether I miss them or absent from a drill he can point things. He’s an incredible resource and he knows what we’re trying to do and how to go about it.”

John Elder was an assistant coach for his son’s first six years (of seven) at Sherrard before he stepped away to watch his grandsons play.

“People said, ‘how did you get along?’ I said, ‘well we still speak to each other after it was over with.’ That was worth a lot,” John Elder said with a laugh.

When the two coaches talk football now it’s more about defense that offense.

“He reaches out to me more on that (offense) because when I helped him at Sherrard, that’s what I did and the O line,” John Elder said. “Throughout his career, he’s expanded the things he’s done with the winged-t offense so much more than we ever did. A lot of it based we had better personnel that he could do more things. Up at Richmond-Burton, he had some really good players and they could do different things.

John Elder said his son is a good teacher of the game.

“He’s been able to relate to kids over the years and have pretty good rapport with kids and consequently he could usually get them to respond,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing. Coaching is all about putting kids in position where you don’t ask them to do something they’re not capable of doing.

“It’s important that Ive always told him, these kids have to work on technique all the time because the talent is not always great. When you get that talent, then you really got something. And you’ve got to be patient with them. There’s no question about that.”

Patrick Elder took over as quarterback in his dad’s winged-T offense at Alexis, largely in part with help from his mother, Judy.

“To be honest with you, his mother did most of the training,” John said. “When he was going to be a senior, I didn’t know it at the time, she’d spend the days with him centering the ball to him and letting him throw the ball. She couldn’t catch it so her legs would be bruised up to stop the ball. She spent more time with him by far than I ever did getting him prepared to play that senior year.”

That season, John Elder said, “We didn’t throw the ball much, but he did OK.”

John Elder, whose first teaching job was at Mineral Grade School in 1961, was happy to see his son take over the football job at BV.

“I tried to tell him 25 years ago, if that BV job ever opened up, that’s got a chance to be the best job in the state,” John Elder said. “I really thought that at that point because I knew the athletic background of all of these communities. They were all good sports schools and they had good football schools, all of them.

“That old Little 8 Conference, there weren’t many schools that size that had three kids (Tiskilwa’s Todd and Tom Schertz, Walnut’s Ron Bohm) playing in the Big 10 at the same time.”

The only game John Elder has ever seen at Bureau Valley was when the Storm beat Wilmington 41-7 in a 3A playoff opener in 2006, on the way to the semifinal a year after they won the state championship.

“Wilmington took the kickoff and marched down to the 20 yard line. Bureau Valley held them and first play, Garrett Barnas ran 80 yards for a touchdown,” he said. “Wilmington got the ball back and kept it until the middle of the second quarter. They had to punt. It was windy that day and blew the snap away from the kicker and the kid from Bureau Valley picked it up and scored. They had the ball for one play in a quarter and a half and they were ahead for two touchdowns.

“Also something else happened that day I’ve never seen before on a PAT kick. The wind blew the ball back over the goal post because it was so windy that day. That’s how much wind there was out that day.”