Bierman heads home to Elgin

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By filling its football coaching vacancy, Elgin managed to send shock waves across both sides of town.

In a move that will surely make for an interesting Town Jug game next fall, Elgin announced Tuesday that Dave Bierman is taking over as its new football coach. Bierman, a 1981 graduate of Elgin High, spent the last three years as Larkin's head coach.

Citing the fact that he has roughly 10 years left before retiring, Bierman said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to move across the Fox River and return to his alma mater. Aside from attending Elgin, Bierman also spent his first five years out of college as an assistant under former Maroons coaches Jim Hoffman and Dick Stephens.

"There's only a handful of jobs that would prompt a move like this for me, and Elgin is one of them," Bierman said. "When you play at a school and then work as an assistant coach there, it's a big part of your life. At this point in my career I wasn't sure how many more chances I'd have at this opportunity or if it would ever come again."

Bierman replaces Tom Kim, who stepped down as Elgin's coach last month to take over as the athletics director at Grayslake Central.

Bierman compiled a 12-16 record in his three years at Larkin, which included a playoff appearance in 2006. Bierman won all three games he coached against Elgin as Larkin's coach.

This marks the fourth head coaching job for Bierman, who owns a 44-88 career record. He spent six seasons as Burlington Central's coach, compiling a 27-29 record there before moving onto DeKalb, where he went 5-43 in five-plus seasons.

Bierman will also leave his position as a physical education teacher at Larkin to join Elgin's P.E. staff.

"This is enormous for us because Dave knows the [Upstate Eight Conference] and he knows the area," Elgin athletics director Art Rohlman said. "Dave's never been afraid to work hard and meet new people. He's been a head coach and he's an Elgin guy."

Under Bierman, Larkin displayed one of the Upstate Eight Conference's most prolific offenses, scoring close to 30 points per game.

However, the Royals defense surrendered close to 34 points per game during Bierman's tenure.

Bierman couldn't say for sure whether he'd implement his spread offense attack with Elgin. The Maroons finished 3-6 last season, but return quarterback Tom Roth, among others.

Elgin hasn't reached the postseason since 2001, and Bierman will face some of the same issues in terms of turnout for the team that he did at Larkin. Nonetheless, he is enthusiastic about his task at hand.

"It's all about finding out what the kids can do and putting them in positions to succeed on both sides of the ball," Bierman said. "I thought Tom Kim did an outstanding job and I'm sincere about that.

"In my opinion he did a great job working the hallways trying to get kids out for the team. Continuing to get as many kids out as we can will still be a key."

While Bierman turns his attention to Elgin, Larkin begins the search for its third coach in the past five years.

The Royals finished 4-5 last season and have reached the playoffs only three times in the past eight years, losing in the first round in all three of those postseason appearances.

Despite being excited about his new opportunity with the Maroons, Bierman stressed that he'll fondly remember his time leading the Royals.

"Sometimes the time picks you rather than you picking the time," Bierman said. "Only being at Larkin for three years, it would have been nice to build the program up a little bit more.

"I want to thank the administration at Larkin for giving me the opportunity, thank the players for some pretty exciting games the last few years and thank the parents and booster club as well. The support was tremendous the last three years, as far as I'm concerned."

Sports editor R.J. Gerber contributed to this report