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Tonganoxie football has new coach

By Matt Friedrichs - | May 3, 2000

Mark Elston was named the new Tonganoxie football coach last week.

Elston has lived in Tonganoxie for the past two years and owns Mortgage Sources.

He has been an assistant football coach at Hickman Mills High School for eight years, including some time under his father, Don Elston, who grew up in Tonganoxie.

Mark Elston coached the passing offense, passing defense and special teams at Hickman Mills.

“I need guys with a bunch of heart and a bunch of desire and a good attitude,” Elston said Monday.

Because he doesn’t know who will be out for the team next season and because he hasn’t seen any of the players practice, he only had general comments about his plans.

“Ideally I’d like to run a pretty balanced attack,” Elston said, indicating he’d try to run about half the time and pass about half the time.

At Hickman Mills, Elston’s defenses were built on speed. He said the Tonganoxie team should have a little more size.

Elston said he applied for and accepted the job because of the community. He said the growth in the community and the investment the school district has made in facilities, including upgrades to the field and press box, have set the team up for success.

“If we show any signs of success at all, we could have that stadium filled every Friday evening,” Elston said.

Elston said it would be nice to send the seniors out with a winning season. He can’t promise that the team has the capability to do that, but he wants the team to compete in every game and said he feels that the wins will come.

“There’s no reason why we can’t be successful,” Elston said.

Elston’s wife, Lori, is pregnant and the baby should be born this month. They have two sons, Garret, 5, and Grant, 2.