Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball coach Chad Patrick encourages a young player during a recent summer camp session at Valley. (Photos by Scott Davidson)

AKRON – Chad Patrick was in his element at the Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball camp.

The revved up Vikings coach bounced around the two gyms at Valley giving instruction and encouragement to a large group of energetic and eager young cagers.

Patrick has hit the ground running at full speed, his approach to everything, since being approved in June as the new coach of the Valley boys’ hoops program.

The 45-year-old Patrick, who was also hired as an assistant football coach, has spent his summer multi-tasking with his plethora of new responsibilities.

It’s been a smooth transition so far for the highly-energized Patrick, who spent the last 19 seasons as an assistant coach to his father, Bill, at Valley.

“I just feel like I’ve never been more ready for anything than this,” said Patrick prior to a camp session last week. “So far, I’ve seen a lot of effort from our kids in the program. They have bought in to what I want to do.

“I want their experience to be positive and I want them to have fun. It’s going to be intense because I’m intense.

“I want to make a difference with these kids. I want to be a positive influence on them and a positive role model for them. Whether it’s basketball or football that I’m coaching, I just want to help them get to where they want to be.”

Chad Patrick gives instructions to campers.

Patrick has definitely paid his dues and learned from one of the best when it comes to coaching. Father Bill, an Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer, won 765 games in his illustrious career, currently the second highest-win total among boys coaches in state history. The elder Patrick, who stepped down as head coach in May and will now serve as an assistant coach for his son, went 287-139 the past 19 years at Valley. Chad played for his father at Whitko High School.

Patrick, who works for North Central Co-Op in Mentone, says that he has plenty of motivation to be successful in his first head coaching experience. He was extremely close to the trio of Scott Smith, Charlie Smith and Scott Bibler. The three outstanding men, all highly-respected in the Valley community and beyond, died in a plane crash in October of 2015 while flying to a Notre Dame football game at Clemson.

“The influence that those three had on me motivates me every day,” said Patrick. “Scott Smith was my best friend. He was just so much fun to be around. He was just amazing and I just remember all the laughs we had together. Charlie was just so competitive. And Bibs (Scott Bibler) just was all about doing everything for the right reasons.”

Patrick played basketball against Scott Smith when the two were in high school, Patrick at Whitko and Smith at Valley. Charlie Smith guided Valley to a state football championship in 1979. Bibler was a long time educator and football coach at Valley and a man with a heart as big as the smile that always was on his face. The younger Smith was a lawyer and the elder Smith a Warsaw city councilman at the time of their tragic deaths.

Patrick, who is a huge football fan, had flown on many of the football trips with the Smiths over the years and was on the one prior to the crash that took the lives of the trio, along with Sprint Car driver Tony Elliott. Patrick says that the event has changed his life for the good.

“I think about all three of them every day,” Patrick said. “Last year at work we had to read the book LEAD…for God’s Sake!.  I also heard Todd Gongwer (a Wakarusa native, former assistant coach at Bethel College and author of the book) speak and it was like he was talking directly to me about what’s my purpose in life.

“I know that the new me now is better than the old me was before all of this happened. I just want to make a difference and make those guys proud of me.”

Sounds like a great game plan.

A camper works on his skills during a drill.

A young man at work at the Valley camp.