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Service is way of life for Bureau Valley’s Noel Warkins · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Service is way of life for Bureau Valley's Noel Workins. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice brought to you by
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  Everlet. For high school football coaches, game film is an indispensable teaching
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  tool. It reveals what went wrong the previous week, what needs work,
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  which players are performing well and who is struggling.
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  From Saturday through Thursday, coaches break down Friday night’s game from every
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  angle, making film study one of the priorities whenever two teams prepare
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  to face each other.
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  Bureau Valley has been fortunate the past two seasons to have their
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  game-day recording efforts supported by volunteer coach Noel Warkins. The management of
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  highly technical equipment and community involvement come as second nature to Warkins,
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  who retired in 2023 after more than 20 years of service in
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  the Illinois National Guard.
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  A four-sport athlete who considered football his primary sport before graduating from
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  Bureau Valley in 2004, Warkins coaches at the junior high level while
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  assisting with the operation of the Storm’s video recording equipment for varsity
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  games, which includes a camera mounted on a drone that hovers 50
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  to 60 feet above the east end zone.
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  I’m either upstairs in the press box, or on the field with
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  the new system that we got for drone footage, which is awesome
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  footage, Warkins said. I can zoom in and see the whole field.
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  I turn left and right and zoom in and out and the
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  person upstairs hits a start and stop button for each play.
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  I honestly think I’ve got the best seat in the house because
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  I can zoom in as close as I want to wherever I
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  want.
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  Warkins journey with the Illinois National Guard began while he was still
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  at Bureau Valley. He completed basic training at Fort Jackson in South
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  Carolina before his senior year, then finished his training at Fort Gordon
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  in Georgia after graduation. He began his service at the Kewanee Armory.
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  I started off as a communications specialist, so I dealt with radios
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  and computer networking, he said. The unit I was with was dismantled
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  and became a different unit the 2nd Squadron, 106th Cavalry Regiment. I
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  stayed in Kewanee then, and I became a fire support specialist. I
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  called in artillery rounds from an observation post.
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  Warkins served more than two years of active duty with the Guard
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  as a supply specialist at the Kewanee Armory, overseeing the care and
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  maintenance of $21 million in equipment. After stepping away from traditional Guard
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  duty, he served with the 244th Digital Liaison Detachment in Chicago and
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  as the senior enlisted member of Battery C, 2nd Battalion, 122nd Field
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  Artillery Regiment.
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  Employed full-time by the Illinois Department of Transportation in Princeton, Warkins began
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  coaching in 2012. After a brief stint as an IHSA football official,
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  he took on various coaching roles at the junior high and high
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  school levels. Nearly all of his coaching at Bureau Valley has been
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  on a volunteer basis.
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  I enjoyed officiating, but I enjoy coaching way more, he said. I
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  like working with the kids. I didn’t like getting yelled at by
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  the parents and all the other coaches. It was tough. I’ll probably
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  get back into it at some point in my life, just because
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  I like the game; I like teaching it.
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  Some of the biggest influences that I had were the coaches. You
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  could see that they loved the game, too, and they instilled good
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  habits in us so we could be successful playing the sport, too.
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  While his coaches did not directly influence his decision to enter military
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  service, Warkins found the football field to be an ideal training ground
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  for what he would experience in the National Guard.
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  I realized how close military training was to a sports practice, he
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  said. You have to get things done, you have to be dedicated,
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  you have to understand and pay attention to detail there were a
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  lot of similarities.
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  Coaches talk about going into battle and stuff like that, and it’s
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  not necessarily going to battle, but you are standing next to somebody
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  that you are battling with for a win. It’s like a brotherhood.
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  I share a bond with people I deployed with because we went
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  through hardships together in the military, and it’s similar to when you
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  give your all on the football field next to 10 other players.
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  Warkins lives in Wyanet with his wife, Whitney, and sons Gavin and
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  Kipton, who both attend Bureau Valley Junior High. He has also counseled
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  students interested in military service, as well as their parents, about what
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  they can and should expect from the experience.
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  I want them to know it’s a commitment, and it should be
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  a commitment, he said. The minimum contract these days is at least
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  four years. If people want to do it to pay for college,
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  that’s great, but I think young people should join the military to
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  better their lives, discipline, and habits to be more successful, not just
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  in your military career, but whatever profession you go into.