Ex-Prospect, Forest View basketball coach Elms dies

Former Prospect and Forest View boys basketball coach Glen Elms died early Saturday morning after a battle with pancreatic cancer.

The 70-year-old Elms was also an assistant volleyball coach at Prospect and started the program there with Jim Parsons as a club sport more than 20 years ago.

"He had a unique ability of working with and coaching kids other people would have given up on," said Prospect head volleyball coach Mike Riedy, one of Elms' closest friends. "Kids just loved him.

"He was very smart, very student-oriented and very loyal. If Glen shook your hand that meant something because he didn't shake hands with everybody."

Elms was one of seven boys basketball coaches to win 300 career games at an MSL school or schools with a 314-286 record in 23 years.

Elms won two MSL division titles and four regional titles in nine years at Forest View before it closed in 1986. He then moved to Prospect the next year until he retired in 2000 and won two division titles and took the school to its only supersectional appearance in 1991.

"He was really a compassionate guy," said Chad Freeman, a starting guard on Prospect's Sweet 16 team and now a teacher and assistant football and basketball coach at Hersey. "You'd see the gruff demeanor and scowl on the sideline but he had the heart of a giant.

"He was really a motivating factor and the reason I'm doing what I'm doing. I saw the impact he had on people around him and that's pretty impressive."