Lester looks to have Bluejays football flying
In 2003, Elmhurst College's football team racked up more than 30 points and 397 yards per game.
Former Wheaton Warrenville South and Western Michigan quarterback Tim Lester was the offensive coordinator for that juggernaut. The Division III Bluejays look to move the chains some more with the return of Lester, who has been named Elmhurst's new head coach.
Lester, a 31-year-old Naperville resident, will succeed Tom Journell, who resigned June 18 to accept a position at Wisconsin-Stevens Point after leading the Bluejays to 6-4 records the last three seasons, and four of the last five.
After Lester served in 2007 as defensive coordinator at College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin rival North Central College - under his former WW South coach John Thorne - he must quickly acclimate himself to his new post as Elmhurst's 17th head coach in history.
"Normally it takes two, three months to put together the off-season camp and recruiting plans for the following year," Lester said. "And we're doing it in 16 days. That includes weekends."
He said: "I feel good about it. It's exciting to be back. It's the place where I was given my first opportunity to coach college football. It's exciting to be back in this new capacity and hopefully help this team compete."
Lester was on WW South's 1992 Class 5A state championship football team, then quarterbacked the Tigers to consecutive DuPage Valley Conference titles in 1993-94. He went on to play at Western Michigan University, where he ended his career with 17 school records and ranked fifth in NCAA history in passing yardage and seventh in touchdown passes.
Lester played professionally in three different leagues - Arena, Arena 2 and the XFL - before coming to Elmhurst College in 2002. His work as offensive coordinator helped former Glenbard North quarterback Dom Demma reach prodigious numbers.
Initially an assistant at both St. Benedict and WW South before taking his first college job at Elmhurst, he also was head coach at Division II St. Joseph's (Ind.) College in 2004. He earned a 7-4 record and Independent Football Alliance coach of the year honors before returning to Western Michigan for two seasons as quarterbacks coach.
In Lester's first spin at Elmhurst College he helped Journell reach a winning season for the first time in 17 years.
"It was about getting our athletes in the best position possible," Lester said.
In his second stint, Lester retains that philosophy.
"I think we're fairly simple in that we're going to push our kids to work as hard as humanly possible in and out of the classroom," he said. "It's our job to put them in the schemes to be successful, and it's their job to execute it."
Running with it: Glenbard South has named Brian Webb as its new head girls cross country coach and assistant girls track coach.
Webb, a 1997 graduate of Lyons Towhship, held assistant positions in girls track and cross country at Wheaton Warrenville South, where he teaches in the special education department.
A two-year team captain at DePauw University, Webb also coached at Hopkins (Minn.) High School. He led both the boys and girls cross country teams to state titles in 2002.
According to Glenbard South athletic director John Treiber, in Webb's tenure at Hopkins he produced four individual state champions and 15 all-state runners, and his teams set eight school records.