Getting to know Bureau Valley coach Patrick Elder

Patrick Elder, who is taking over as the Bureau Valley football coach this season, comes from a family synonymous with football in Illinois.

His father, Hall of Fame coach John Elder, coached football for 40 years, 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, the first year of the IHSA playoffs.

The new Storm coach has had much success himself with 18 playoff appearances in 23 years as a head coach, including a state final and two semifinals appearance at 4A Richmond-Burton, seven years at Sherrard and three years in the eight-man game at Ridgewood.

Elder’s arrival at Bureau Valley was called a “grand slam hire.”

Kevin Hieronymus of Friday Night Drive visited with Elder on his first day of summer camp, talking about his family lineage and growing up the son of a legendary coach and his previous coaching experiences.

FND: Can you tell me a little about yourself and family?

Elder: This will be my 31st year coaching football, my 24th as a head football coach. I’m married, and I’ve got three kids. My sons are out of school now. One of them is coaching, and the other is still in college. I’ve got a daughter who will be a senior at Geneseo and be on the volleyball team. My wife is the second-best coach’s wife I know after my mom (Judy), whom we lost a couple of years ago. My family loves it. This is what we do, and they’re pretty supportive. They’ll be at games and pretty excited to be there. This is what I know. I’ve been around it all my life. My family has all been involved in education in one way, shape, form or another. It’s been pretty good to my family.

FND: You have a little football in your blood, don’t you?

Elder: I think it was third grade when they started letting me go to practice. I was at practice every day and doing whatever I could do. Then I was the manager, got to work up that way. I enjoyed being around it then. I still enjoy being around it now.

FND: What kind of things have you taken from your dad to coaching now?

Elder: Probably the biggest thing is to make sure you’re putting youngsters in places where they’re confident. I think it’s really important in high school football to focus on what you have and what they can do and build things that way. That’s absolutely something I got directly from him. It’s simple to talk scheme and philosophy and things like that, but you’ve got focus on the players you have and what they’re abilities are and what they can do. A confident player is a pretty valuable guy to have.

FND: Your dad tells me your mom helped train you to become your dad’s quarterback?

Elder: He gave her the instruction. She got me cleaned up and got me straightened up. She was a pretty special lady. She put me through the workouts and knew what I needed to do. It helped calm her down a little bit, because my brothers were linemen, so I was the first son to be a quarterback. And mom was there to watch the game, not really to watch her son. I had the ball all the time, so that made her a little more nervous. So she knew what was going on there. If I had any success, it has as much to do with her as it did with him as a football player.

FND: What attracted you most to the Bureau Valley job?

Elder: I know these communities, and they have a long history of athletic success. (Former BV coach) Jason Kirby thought all sides would be a good fit. I knew some of the people that work here. Mr. Stabler (superintendent Jason) coached for Coach (Jason) Kirby. Mr. Pryz (athletic director Phil Pryzbyla) played for guys that I know and respect. And so I knew there was a positive infrastructure about athletics. Facilities-wise, it’s top notch. I remember watching Coach (Mat) Pistole when he was a high school player. So I knew I was going to a situation that was positive and I could build on.

FND: What have you learned about the Bureau Valley kids?

Elder: They’re eager to do what they’re asked, which is a great quality to have. The thing I’ve probably been most impressed with is how receptive they are to coaching. When they make a mistake and you correct it, they take the correction rather than be upset that they made a mistake. That’s why you’re out here in July anyway, right? That’s certainly something we can build off.

FND: I like your banner on your X account that says, “You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them?” How do you apply that to your coaching?

Elder: A basketball coach taught me this one time: “We work real hard to what we can do and tell players what to do rather than tell them what not to do.” There’s so much value seeing yourself being successful and expecting yourself be successful and approaching the game in that way. So that’s just what we try to do with our kids all the time. Where do you need to be? And then if it doesn’t work out, move on to the next play. One good play doesn’t mean the next one’s going to be a great one and one bad one doesn’t mean the next one will be a bad one. If it didn’t go well, why didn’t go well? Was your technique wrong? Did you not block your rule? It just goes back to confidence and I think that’s something we do well giving kids confidence.

FND: I’ve also always liked your X profile that reads, “very effective at teaching and using four plays.”

Elder: It all goes back to confidence. When you have a lot of kids and a lot of different talents, you can do a lot of different things. When you don’t, you have to do the simple well, really the mundane well and build off of that. We got two (plays) in, and we’ll get two more in before the end of camp and we’ll get to running those four plays well and that will open up everything else we want to do. We’re going to rep things, increase quickness by decreasing thought. People don’t understand. It’s not just the play, it’s the rule. “Which rule am I blocking, which technique goes along with that rule. Where does my placement have to be? Who am I working off of? Who am I working with?” And tying all of those things together. While it may be only three or four plays, there’s a lot to go along with it.

FND: Can you divulge what those four plays are?

Elder: No, they’re pretty secretive (laughing). We’ve got an inside one, an outside one and a kind of outside one.

FND: You’ve had a lot of playoff success. How will you bring that success and experience to Bureau Valley?

Elder: I know what we’re trying to do and instill and the way will function and operate will work because it has. I’ve been fortunate to have success where I’ve coached and I certainly believe we can here. We’re going to focus what our kids can and put them in places to be successful. We do 1 on 1 meetings with plauess and I just had one today. I said trust is a difficult thing and I’m asking you to trust me. I said the only thing I’ve got for you to build off of is the places we’ve been and done those things, it’s worked. So if you stay with me and we get things figured out, it’s going to work.

FND: I’m sure all coaches know about the wins, but there’s some losses you never forget it. Does that 42-39 loss to Rochester in the 2011 4A finals still stick with you?

Elder: Yeah, it does. Here’s the thing about that game. People always say, ‘if you only had 45 more seconds.’ You can’'t play that game the way we did and ask for more time. I’ve understood that. I’ve yet to coach a game where there isn’t something I wouldn’t go back and do something differently. That’s a game I’m so proud of. Things didn’t go well for us early and that grouo of kids were so fun to work with because all they did was believe. They never waivered and stay with what they knew what to do and ended up with a chance to win a state championship because they did those things. It’s proof that the four plays work. Eventually you’ll find a way to get it done. Sometimes it’s not real flashy, but it can be effective.

FND: You came to BV after three years at Ridgewood. How did you like the eight-man game.

Elder: Oh, I loved it. It was fantastic. It was great for our kids. Our communities really embraced it. It was fun trying to figure out a new way to do things. It was refreshing, really. There’s been teams in this area that have had significant success, and we were able to have success. That might have helped me like it so much, because we did OK. It was good for our kids. There was juice in our building about football, and that’s why you have it.

FND: Amboy has had some loaded 8-man teams, haven’t they?

Elder: Yeah, they were. They were really good. Scott (Payne) does a really good job. They had good players. We got them once last year. The year we got second, the first time we played them to a 6-point game so we were able to find a way to compete with them. That was the great thing about the Ridgewood kids, They wanted to compete. Much like the kids at Sherrard and R-B, they were interested in being successful and not who got credit and because of that we were able to play and compete in some games people weren’t sure we were able to.

FND: How different is eight-man to 11-man?

Elder: It’s simpler, not easier. The teams that block well and the teams that tackle well are the teams that are going to be successful. That’s no different than 11-man. Stealing a line from my dad, after five minutes, you’re watching a football game. Once people go to a game: ‘Oh, it’s just a game.’