Valley Hires Patrick, Parker
June 13, 2017 at 3:55 p.m.
Valley Hires Patrick, Parker
By Val Tsoutsouris-
Patrick was also approved as an assistant football coach and will work on new coach Stephen Moriarty’s staff.
Patrick replaces his father, Bill Patrick, as basketball coach. Bill Patrick, an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, retired last month after 19 seasons at Valley and 48 years and 765 victories as a high school head coach.
Chad Patrick is a 1990 Whitko grad and played under his father in high school. He played collegiately at Grace College under Jim Kessler. He spent the last 19 seasons as an assistant coach on his father’s staff.
“Well, obviously, my dad’s coached for 48 years, and I grew up in that environment,” Chad Patrick said. “I’ve been playing sports since I was 4 years old, five, six nights a week. It’s kind of been my life. The timing’s just right now for me to do this. I work over in this area, and my kids go to school here. Everything’s just falling into place. This is what I’ve always wanted to do, and the opportunity had presented itself, and I’m very excited to have that opportunity.”
Chad Patrick said he never applied for a head coaching job until his father’s retirement last month. He also said his father will remain involved in the program helping him. Valley all-time scoring leader Trey Eaton will also be on the prospective coaching staff, and Chad Patrick said he hopes to have many Valley alumni helping coach at all levels of the feeder system.
“Oh yes, for sure,” Chad Patrick said when asked if his father wanted him to replace him. “Because even though he resigned as the head coach, he still wants to be involved ... I’d be crazy not to have him around with all his experience, and so he’ll be there by my side the whole way.”
While the Patrick name might be synonymous with basketball and baseball – Bill Patrick also coached baseball at Whitko for 16 years – it’s not the only sport. Chad Patrick played high school football, and his 9-year-old son Landon also plays youth football, and he will help coach that sport as well.
“I love football, and my son likes to play football, and I played when I was in school too,” Chad Patrick said. “It’s fun to be able to help with all three, especially in this community. The community is awesome. The kids are great, and I’m having a blast doing it.”
Chad Patrick noted the irony of his coaching at Valley. During his playing days at Whitko, Valley and the Wildcats were fierce rivals.
“Back in the days when I played at Whitko, Scott Smith, who was one of my best friends, him and I went at it hard. I couldn’t stand Valley, and he couldn’t stand Whitko. And we end up over here, and we became great friends with Scott and Charlie Smith again, and now coaching over here? I would have never imagined this 25 years ago.”
Charlie Smith, coach of Valley’s 1979 state championship football team, was piloting a plane that crashed on the way to a Notre Dame football game at Clemson University in October of 2015.
Also on the plane were Scott Smith, a local lawyer, longtime Valley football coach and educator Scott Bibler and championship sprint car driver Tony Elliott.
All four died in the crash.
Patrick works at the North Central Co-Op. He is the father to Emma, 10, and Landon, 9. He lives in Warsaw.
Parker Returns To Valley
Parker, a Silver Lake native, graduated from Valley in 2004 and was an Indiana All-Star. She is No. 2 on Valley’s all-time scoring list behind 2017 grad Anne Secrest.
Parker played collegiately at the University of Evansville and then played two years professionally – one year in Finland and one year in Germany. College teammates at Evansville included Rochester grad Courtney Felke and Triton grad Ashli (Senff) Faulkner.
Parker returned to the United States in 2010 and spent five years as an assistant at the University of Toledo under Tricia Cullop, who was also her coach during her playing days at Evansville. She moved back to Indiana two years ago and worked on Dave Duncan’s staff at Plymouth?High School.
“Well, there’s a lot of tradition and history here, and having family close by was a big draw,” Parker said. “I just wanted to give back to a community that gave a lot to me growing up.”
She said she was happy at Plymouth.
“Nothing went wrong there,” Parker said. “It was just a move closer to home. Plymouth, they were great to me, and I appreciate everything they did to help develop me as a teacher and coach.”
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Patrick was also approved as an assistant football coach and will work on new coach Stephen Moriarty’s staff.
Patrick replaces his father, Bill Patrick, as basketball coach. Bill Patrick, an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, retired last month after 19 seasons at Valley and 48 years and 765 victories as a high school head coach.
Chad Patrick is a 1990 Whitko grad and played under his father in high school. He played collegiately at Grace College under Jim Kessler. He spent the last 19 seasons as an assistant coach on his father’s staff.
“Well, obviously, my dad’s coached for 48 years, and I grew up in that environment,” Chad Patrick said. “I’ve been playing sports since I was 4 years old, five, six nights a week. It’s kind of been my life. The timing’s just right now for me to do this. I work over in this area, and my kids go to school here. Everything’s just falling into place. This is what I’ve always wanted to do, and the opportunity had presented itself, and I’m very excited to have that opportunity.”
Chad Patrick said he never applied for a head coaching job until his father’s retirement last month. He also said his father will remain involved in the program helping him. Valley all-time scoring leader Trey Eaton will also be on the prospective coaching staff, and Chad Patrick said he hopes to have many Valley alumni helping coach at all levels of the feeder system.
“Oh yes, for sure,” Chad Patrick said when asked if his father wanted him to replace him. “Because even though he resigned as the head coach, he still wants to be involved ... I’d be crazy not to have him around with all his experience, and so he’ll be there by my side the whole way.”
While the Patrick name might be synonymous with basketball and baseball – Bill Patrick also coached baseball at Whitko for 16 years – it’s not the only sport. Chad Patrick played high school football, and his 9-year-old son Landon also plays youth football, and he will help coach that sport as well.
“I love football, and my son likes to play football, and I played when I was in school too,” Chad Patrick said. “It’s fun to be able to help with all three, especially in this community. The community is awesome. The kids are great, and I’m having a blast doing it.”
Chad Patrick noted the irony of his coaching at Valley. During his playing days at Whitko, Valley and the Wildcats were fierce rivals.
“Back in the days when I played at Whitko, Scott Smith, who was one of my best friends, him and I went at it hard. I couldn’t stand Valley, and he couldn’t stand Whitko. And we end up over here, and we became great friends with Scott and Charlie Smith again, and now coaching over here? I would have never imagined this 25 years ago.”
Charlie Smith, coach of Valley’s 1979 state championship football team, was piloting a plane that crashed on the way to a Notre Dame football game at Clemson University in October of 2015.
Also on the plane were Scott Smith, a local lawyer, longtime Valley football coach and educator Scott Bibler and championship sprint car driver Tony Elliott.
All four died in the crash.
Patrick works at the North Central Co-Op. He is the father to Emma, 10, and Landon, 9. He lives in Warsaw.
Parker Returns To Valley
Parker, a Silver Lake native, graduated from Valley in 2004 and was an Indiana All-Star. She is No. 2 on Valley’s all-time scoring list behind 2017 grad Anne Secrest.
Parker played collegiately at the University of Evansville and then played two years professionally – one year in Finland and one year in Germany. College teammates at Evansville included Rochester grad Courtney Felke and Triton grad Ashli (Senff) Faulkner.
Parker returned to the United States in 2010 and spent five years as an assistant at the University of Toledo under Tricia Cullop, who was also her coach during her playing days at Evansville. She moved back to Indiana two years ago and worked on Dave Duncan’s staff at Plymouth?High School.
“Well, there’s a lot of tradition and history here, and having family close by was a big draw,” Parker said. “I just wanted to give back to a community that gave a lot to me growing up.”
She said she was happy at Plymouth.
“Nothing went wrong there,” Parker said. “It was just a move closer to home. Plymouth, they were great to me, and I appreciate everything they did to help develop me as a teacher and coach.”
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