Elgin boys basketball coach Bill Clem stepping aside

MARION ― After 10 years as the head boys basketball coach at Elgin, Bill Clem knew it was time for a change.

"It was really easy to know it was the right decision to make but still really hard to go through with it. It was difficult for sure. It took a lot of thought and prayer and conversations, but it was definitely the time," he said.

Clem recently resigned as the head coach, and it was totally his decision.

"One thing I’m proud of is it was never anything but a 5-0 vote from the board, so obviously they liked the program that we had," he said.

Besides board support, Clem had Athletic Director Jason Hix and Principal Chad Cunningham in his corner, too.

"The support of the administration of Elgin made it easy to stay," he said.

And his decision to step away had nothing to to with parental issues either.

"The biggest thing is the parents have been phenomenal over the past several years. They let me coach their kids. They let me discipline their kids and encourage their kids. It made it enjoyable. It’s a great community," he said.

The decision to leave came down to one dilemma. With two children soon to be ages 9 and 6, he was tired of missing their activities, which include gymnastics, soccer and baseball among other things.

"It was purely a family decision to spend time with my kids and the family," Clem said. "The kids are getting to the age where they were getting more involved in things, and I definitely don’t want to miss any of that."

It is Clem who will be missed.

"He did a very nice job over the years, and I appreciate his commitment to not just the basketball program but our kids," Hix said. "It’s as important for him to teach a young kid to be a young man as much as it is to teach him the game of basketball.

"That was something that he and (assistant coach) Steve Freshour and (junior varsity coach) Layne McElroy, our basketball staff, taught a lot of life lessons through basketball. It shows not only in the wins and losses because he had some success over the years but also the kind of kids he’s graduating from the program and the kind of young men they are going on to become."

Clem admits that's hard to give up.

"Over 10 years, you change as a coach, and as time got on, that became really important to me. The relationship with the players was the hardest to walk away from," he said. "It was awesome when I did step down that I got a lot of texts from former players who had nice things to say. Even players still coming back are understanding. You almost feel like you’re letting them down, so they were really understanding and supportive, too. It’s nice to have those relationships."

Clem was the longest tenured Elgin boys basketball head coach at 10 seasons. With a 104-128 record, he is just the second boys coach to reach 100 wins at the school, trailing the 123 by Kirk Ballinger.

The Comets won the Northwest Central Conference championship in 2018, and those 18 wins tied the program record for victories in a regular season with the 1995-96 and 1996-97 teams. Over the last six seasons, Elgin posted double-digit victory campaigns four times, winning 17 last year and 14 this season.

"On the court, there were some struggles early, but I had a lot of success over the last six years or so," Clem said as he took over from Chris Kimball for the 2013-14 season.

His team's took on his no-nonsense and gritty persona and thrived at the defensive end.

The 2017-18 squad set the program record for fewest average points allowed in a season at 39.4, nearly four points better per game than the second-best team on the list. In fact, seven of the top 10 defensive teams in Elgin history are Clem-led groups.

His teams only gave up 83 or more points twice, while 11 of the 27 fewest point totals allowed in a game were produced by his teams, holding opponents to 31 or fewer points.

Those numbers and records were the byproduct of the time spent cultivating relationships with his guys.

"By the time they get to the high school program we see them all winter six days a week and multiple hours each day," he said. "In the offseason, if they’re not in another sport, we see them in the weight room. In the summer, we’re in open gyms and camps and shootouts. It gives you a good chance over several years to get to know kids and pour into them a little bit and be a positive impact on them."

In June, when it all ramps up again, he's not sure how he'll feel. The same goes for November when basketball starts in earnest.

"What’s it going to feel like?" he asked rhetorically.

Clem won't have to miss any more gymnastics meets, and he won't go without seeing his children anymore on game days.

"I got into it fairly young. I was just turning 30 and didn’t think I would stay at it this long," he said. "I was thinking as my kids got older that would be the time to get out. It’s hard to get out because there’s always the next group of kids that are coming through. It’s the same way now, so eventually you have to make that move."

And Clem made that move totally on his own accord.

rmccurdy@gannett.com

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Andrew Ebbeskotte's CrawfordCountyBasketball.com contributed to this story.

This article originally appeared on Marion Star: Elgin boys basketball coach Bill Clem stepping aside