On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa - Briar Woods Assistant AD Elmer Fox Retires After 36 Years in Loudoun County Public Schools

Briar Woods AD Jerry Carter (L) with assistant AD Elmer Fox (R)

On the Sidelines with Dan Sousa
VivaLoudoun Editor

Ashburn (Feb. 7, 2011) - When Briar Woods High School assistant athletic director Elmer Fox decided to retire at the end of January after 36 years as an educator, administrator and coach in the Loudoun County Public Schools system he did it in typical Fox fashion ... quietly and unassuming.

Forget making a fuss and he really didn't want to talk to any reporters and make a big deal about his retirement. Nothing personal but Fox has always been about the job and the kids and not about himself. Falcons athletic director Jerry Carter certainly knew Fox well enough that when it came time for a retirement celebration he knew it would be tough to lure Fox out the athletic office so Falcon coach Heather Van Dyke promised Fox a quick trip to lunch at a local hamburger joint.

As they walked by the school's cafeteria on that teacher's workday the entire school's staff and administration lay in wait for the celebration ambush.

"Had he known that was happening I never would have gotten him there," said Carter with a chuckle.

Fox's relationship with Loudoun County Public Schools even goes back longer than his 36 years as an employee as he graduated from Loudoun County High School where he was a 4-sport standout in the days that you could play more than one sport in a season, lettering at football, basketball, baseball and track.


"No matter where you go, somebody knows him," said Carter. "If I had to describe Elmer in one word I would say "integrity" ... and the word "legend" would be true. A special needs teacher over the years, Carter says few people know of the behind-the-scenes things that Fox has done for his students, keeping in touch with them long after they graduate, and making a positive impact in their lives.

On Fox's final official night a week ago I found him ... naturally ... hard at work, manning the ticket desk for a varsity basketball doubleheader.

When Carter offered to take over for Fox so he could talk about his career, well, the "fox" was finally cornered and he sat down with me for a chat. Fox is about as humble as they come and he apologized for not getting back to any interview requests but he didn't really know what to say about a long career that seemed to go by very quickly.

"I'm old," joked Fox when asked why hew was retiring. Actually only 61, Fox has battled chronic knee problems and will soon have both his knees replaced. The often physically demanding assistant AD job, which requires work lining fields and other tasks, had left him on some days unable to bounce back to work.

"It was getting such that I couldn't move the next day after working outside," said Fox.

That will make you feel old ... and then there was the student who came up to him and told him that he taught her grandmother. Surely she was joking but then he asked about her family and sure enough he had taught her grandmother. Now that will make you feel old, as well!

Fox first started out in 1976 as not only a teacher but as a coach and it is talking about coaching that really lights up Fox's eyes. In Loudoun, Fox was never a head coach but in football he coached under four legendary coaches in the county -- for Mike Barton at Loudoun Valley, then Ed Scott at Park View, then Jerry Smith at Broad Run and finally Wes Driskill at Potomac Falls.

As you can tell, Fox's history touches just about every high school in the county. He started at Blue Ridge Middle School out of college and coached anything he could at Loudoun Valley -- football, softball and  even tennis. After one year, being one of the last employee hired, he was reassigned to the western side of the county to Sterling Middle School.

At the time he was also holding down a job at the Loudoun indoor tennis club. After a year, he went to newly-opened Park View to teach math and PE. While with the Patriot football program he helped coach two future NFL players in Allen Pinkett and Jeff Lageman and he was an assistant with the baseball program under coach Mike Nunnally when the Patriots won a state title. In football they just missed a state title.

In 1986 it was on to Broad Run where he taught PE and coached yet another future NFL player in Larry Izzo. In 1996 when Potomac Falls opened, Fox was made the PE department chair and again coached football. By 2001 he made the move to administration, working in the district's home office, before Briar Woods AD Joe Breinig SR came calling in 2005 to tap Fox as his assistant with the opening of the school in Brambleton.

Just in December, a month before his retirement, Fox was on the sidelines and had one of the biggest smiles ever as the Falcons won a VHSL Division state football title. He called being on the field at the end of that game one of the most memorable moments of his 36 years of service.

"There was just no quit in that team. They had each other's backs," said Fox.

Like any long-time Loudoun resident, Fox has seen all the changes, some slow, some rapid and he hasn't enjoyed all of them.

"You used to go to Leesburg and you would know everybody and back then there wasn't any road rage as we didn't have enough traffic for it," said Fox.

A spiritual man, Fox hasn't been pleased recently with the school district's affirmation of a long-standing policy against coaches leading teams in any organized prayers, but that, however, was a rare sour note in 36 years of hard word and dedication to Loudoun County Public Schools for Fox -- this is man retiring with 290 "sick days" built up, the majority of which he loses and is not compensated for.

On his agenda, other than coming back to help out the school and sure enough he was around Saturday at the Dulles District gymnastics meet at Briar Woods, was: sleeping in, cutting some wood from the storm and building a fence for his property.

And what he will miss most are the kids and the athletes ... even though he hasn't coached for years, his former players still come up and call him "Coach Fox" ...

"The greatest thing in the world you can be called is "coach"," said Fox quietly and then he excused himself.

He had been away from work too long ... it was time to get back to taking tickets as the final hours of his final day after 36 years counted down.