Eimer lands dream job taking over West Aurora football

Pending anticipated approval at Monday’s District 129 School Board meeting, Nate Eimer is slated to be West Aurora’s new head football coach.

According to West Aurora historians he’ll be the 33rd head coach in the program’s long history.

They played football at West Aurora starting in 1893. That’s old school.

Eimer, a 2001 West graduate who played for coaches Nos. 27-28 in Ira Jefferson and Mike Runge, figures to lend newer sensibilities to this ancient program.

A Yorkville resident who turns 28 on March 28, he hopes his youth will help connect with the Blackhawks.

“I hope so. I think I’ll be able to relate to the kids real well. I’ve been in the college game and the high school game not too long ago,” he said.

“I think the energy and the amount of time that’s going to be needed to be put in, being young will help out. But I hope they (West administration) think I was a great football coach, a good motivator, and that’s the type of person that’s needed to take this job over.”

Eimer called the expected move to his alma mater from Oswego East “bittersweet” due to serving five years there as a special-education teacher and football and girls basketball coach. The sweet should overtake the bitter soon enough since Eimer noted returning to West was “a dream come true.”

“It’s amazing,” said Eimer, a two-time all-conference tight end at West Aurora, and a three-year varsity player on the basketball team. Eimer started at forward for the 2000 Class AA state champions. He went on to play football at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for former University of Illinois coach Lou Tepper.

“It’s always kind of been home for me,” Eimer said of West Aurora. “I had such a great experience as an athlete and it was a dream to be able to come back there eventually. I didn’t think it’d come this early, but I’m ecstatic to be able to come back over there and start working with these kids.”

Working as Oswego East varsity offensive coordinator last year under head coach Mark Green, Eimer helped engineer record-setting seasons for each of the Wolves’ top skilled players at quarterback, running back and receiver.

Hearing of the promising underclass at West Aurora, he’s not necessarily going to stick with the two-back system Oswego East used last year.

“I think you just have to put your kids in the best place to be successful... I think you’ve just got to adjust to your kids,” he said.

Eimer’s standing as a two-time Academic All-State athlete at West Aurora and two-time Academic All-American at Edinboro will have an affect on his Blackhawks players. Stating, naturally, his long-term goal to build a winning tradition — “a dream since I left there,” he said — Eimer believes academics, character and developing life skills for adulthood are integral components of such a tradition.

“When I say ‘winning,’ that’s definitely part of the equation,” he said.

Listen up

Spring is the season of growth, renewal, reclamation. We can hear it on high school fields and courts.

Our consciousness pleasantly expands when we enter these spaces not only with eyes wide open but with ears alert to the sounds sports reveal.

As a writer whose spring beat is track and field, that sport produces a particular subset of soothing sounds unique to its own rhythm.

As one could imagine how the shuffling of horses’ hoofs reaffirms an equestrian or horse aficionado, the sounds of track and field envelop one in the calming deliberations of the sport — and as well, its moments of explosive excitement.

Covering track and field invitationals which span numerous hours over the course of a weekend does mean missing other sounds of the season:

The thwack and whoosh, thwack and whoosh of the badminton shuttlecock whipped back and forth...

Scuffling spikes loosening up dirt on the pitcher’s mound...

A let cord: the tennis ball ticking off the top of the net, followed by the frustrating plop of the ball on the other side...

Animated high-octave encouragement from the soccer sideline...

Clips on the flagpole halyard clanging metal-on-metal against the pole in the breeze, occupying the momentary silence between fans murmuring amid loud music, and the start of the national anthem...

Not a sound but a lack of one — the split-second between the end of floor exercise and the cheers...

Volleyballs echoing, booming from palm to floor to whatever absorbs the next blow, bleachers, back wall, someone’s head...

Further echoing in the polo pool, where voices and splash refract off the water and the walls...

We won’t get into the “ping” of bat on ball as opposed to the once-prevalent “crack.” That’s a discussion for purists vs. economic efficiency experts.

Track and field provides its own sonic enjoyment. A pack of distance runners jogs by, creating something like a crunch as scores of metal spikes attack the cushy surface. Sand sprays from the force of an athlete’s leap into the long jump pit. Seated in bleachers along the homestretch, fans’ voices build as sprinters near the finish line. The discus and shot put throwers grunt or even yell to add one last ounce of energy and focus. The metal shot put lands in gravel with a thud.

Every so often the discus thrower produces one of probably four sounds you never want to hear at a meet — the cringeworthy clash when the disc slips too soon from the grasp and flies hard against the pole supporting the protective netting just a couple yards away. Better that than someone’s grandmother watching on the side. It’s a wake-up call heard throughout the complex.

The pole vault pole snapping in half, described as like a gunshot, grabs attention but is never positive. The starter’s pistol fired twice in rapid succession ruins a disqualified sprinter’s event, if not day, and heads reflexively turn toward the sound. A collective “Oooh” from the grandstand typically means a hurdler crashed and contracted some serious road rash.

That sound’s bad. It usually passes quickly. The hurdler struggles to his feet, checks to see if all parts are intact, and crosses the finish line to the best sound of any high school sports event: applause.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com