Doll feels he'll be a perfect fit for Elk Grove
New Trier was basically a second home to Brian Doll.
It's where he played football and basketball. It's where he returned after college to coach football for the last 10 years.
So Doll wasn't going to just jump at any job that came along. That's why the 32-year-old believes he found exactly what he was looking for as Elk Grove's new head football coach.
"I was pretty selective in the jobs I applied for," Doll said Monday. "I loved New Trier so I needed a job to come around where I felt the program would be headed in the right direction and I felt I had the support of the administration.
"There's a great community base with the parents. When I put it all together, I liked what they were saying and when they offered me the job it was kind of a no-brainer."
Coaching is in Doll's blood since his dad William played basketball at Marquette and then coached eighth graders in Kenilworth for more than 30 years.
Brian Doll got an early indoctrination to coaching pressure by working with eighth graders during his last two years at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.
"I was working with little Ohio kids who live and breathe football," Doll said.
During his return to New Trier he spent four years in charge of the sophomore team and the last three years leading a defense that limited high-powered Barrington to 7 points in a Class 8A second-round playoff loss in November.
"He communicates very well with kids and that will be very obvious early on," said Matt Irvin, who just finished his first year as New Trier's head coach. "He's a very hard worker and he's sharp.
"He did a great job and I'm very grateful he was there for a year."
Doll felt the same way about his year working for Irvin. His head coach and former boss Dan Mortier, who was 112-63 with 12 playoff trips in 17 years at New Trier, was also an instrumental figure in Doll's interest in coaching along with former defensive coordinator Denny Hall and assistant Bob Spagnoli.
"He was one of the people who pushed me to follow my dream of being a head coach," Doll said of Spagnoli.
Doll talked about the Elk Grove job with Rolling Meadows head coach Doug Millsaps and assistant and former Hoffman Estates head coach Jim Rucks. Doll had met Millsaps years ago at a clinic and got to know him and Rucks, who has known Mortier for years, during summer 7-on-7s at New Trier.
And Doll saw an opportunity to do big things at Elk Grove, which was making forward progress the last two years under Tom Whalen's hard work before he was let go in November.
"What Prospect did four or five years ago and before that, it's a (Class) 7A mid-level school that has gone to the top of the state," Doll said of the three-time state champions. "I feel there's no reason Elk Grove can't do that, or the other schools in our conference.
"We have the same type of athletes and we have to get the right kids to come out and believe in what we're doing."
Doll already got an excellent first impression of his new quarterback as sophomore Nick Meyer, who started the entire varsity season, was involved in the interview process. A bunch of talented classmates will be joining Meyer on the varsity next fall.
Doll said he will continue to run the defense and will use a 3-4 to get speed on the field and combat the proliferation of spread offenses that turned most MSL games into high-scoring shootouts last fall.
But Doll knows a little about offense since he played quarterback at New Trier. He said he'll run a modified spread attack.
Now Doll will be putting a coaching staff in place and start getting his offseason plans rolling. His dad and his mom Jeanne also got immediately involved in the transition.
"They're my biggest supporters," Doll said. "The day I got the job they went out to the stadium and drove around the town."
Because this is Brian Doll's new home away from home.
mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com