Fifty years of Burro and Family coaching

Elaine Beyer

By BILL KOERING

It was once said by a perceptive philosopher, “Behind every successful man is a great woman!”

In other words, without the influence of an inspiring and motivating woman, a man may not reach his potential for greatness. 

None of us should be surprised with that philosophy. If you look at the life and success of many great men throughout history, you will often find a great woman influencing, supporting, and helping to inspire and lead them to amazing achievements. Throughout history, successful men have achieved greatness with an inspirational and wonderful woman in their lives as a partner, motivator, and driving force to achieve that greatness.

Analyze your own life, and you will probably see the effect of a great woman on your success. In the Christian bible and in its teachings, woman was originally created to be man’s helper. If that is the case, then it is probably the result of this biblical statement that women decided to advance this theory and instead of being only a helper for man, they decided to take the lead and inspire their men to greatness. Mothers, wives, grandmothers, aunts, sisters, and female friends have repeatedly shown their importance in the lives of successful men.

Elaine and Ed Beyer had almost fifty years of shared leadership and family coaching in raising their family in Hillsboro. During thirty-seven of those years, Coach Beyer produced a record unmatched in prep sports while winning seven state championships. However, Coach Beyer wasn’t the only one doing the coaching.

Elaine Beyer wasn’t officially or professionally called a coach, but she sure did a lot of teaching, leading, organizing, problem solving, modeling, supporting, and encouraging. Like all parents, she was a coach, too, a family coach.

As a wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and friend, Elaine Beyer coached her husband and her family every day of her married life. In fact, with all of those important roles, Elaine Beyer, like all mothers, did the most important coaching of all. Coaching a family on a daily basis and supporting your husband in his profession are two of the most important coaching duties a wife and mother can ever undertake.

Beyond her own family, Elaine Beyer helped coach the Hillsboro Burros. No, she wasn’t at practice or in the huddle leading the teams, but for thirty-seven years, Burro basketball players were influenced by the strong and steady family leadership of Elaine Beyer. Her influence and her leadership qualities helped her husband create a juggernaut of high school sports success in football, basketball, and baseball for Hillsboro and its athletes.

Here again we see the influence of a great woman upon a very successful man. The value of this influence and the importance of family coaching should always be noted, treasured, and appreciated. Unfortunately, many times it is not.

The ways that Elaine Beyer helped her husband with his teams are endless, but it could begin with the tradition that Elaine Beyer initiated by inviting the Burro basketball team to her home for dinner prior to the start of each season. During this visit, each year’s team members would have fun discussing the challenges of practice and the upcoming season while enjoying the Burro Family gathering. By doing this, Elaine Beyer was showing how much she appreciated the players, their efforts, their discipline, and sacrifices. She wanted them to feel like a part of her family, Coach Beyer’s Burro Family.

For almost thirty-seven years, Elaine Beyer made an extra effort to make sure that Burro basketball teams looked classy, stylish, and proud. Elaine and Ed Beyer wanted the Burros to be dressed for success.  Few teams matched Hillsboro in sartorial excellence on the floor or off. The Hillsboro Burros looked outstanding in their uniforms, and Hillsboro helped set the standard of excellence in basketball attire and off court dress.

Elaine Beyer supported the Burro teams in a positive and spirited manner always demonstrating the highest values of high school sports and the lessons it teaches. In the real world of competition, sometimes this quality is hard to find.  Elaine Beyer wanted the Burros to display sportsmanship and class in every moment of their high school careers. She demanded it of herself and her family and showed how much she cared with her example and modeling for the Burros and the community.

Helping Hillsboro teams win all those championships involved a commitment to making the extra effort of a champion. Elaine Beyer demonstrated her commitment by helping compile basketball team statistics and records. These statistics and records of thirty-seven years of Burro Basketball are shared by players and fans alike as an historical accounting of championship achievements. In the basketball history book, Beyer’s Burros, you can review the teams and their performances for thirty-seven years of basketball. The effort to compile and then publish this work was a state championship endeavor all by itself. We who played and those who are fans value it greatly. It is a valuable work of high school sports research.

Elaine Beyer attended all but five Burro basketball games in thirty-seven years. She knew how important it was to show support for Burro players and their efforts and for her husband while demonstrating her dedication and loyalty as a coach’s wife. Showing how much you care with consistent effort is a dedication unique in this world. Elaine Beyer walked the walk, and did not just talk the talk.

Elaine Beyer also made the extra effort to help her husband and his fellow North Dakota high school coaches by researching and organizing coaching records for the NDHSCA awards programs. When Ed Beyer was elected president of the NDHSCA, Elaine Beyer proved to be a valuable assistant helping her husband in his duties as an officer.  Elaine Beyer was willing to work hard and make the effort to help. Her leadership in the Beyer family extended not only to the Burro Family but to the state’s high school coaches around the state of North Dakota.

Besides attending games and cheering, Elaine Beyer spent many hours at home listening and counseling her husband as he shared the challenges and frustrations of working in a high pressure profession. Like many other wives in other work related situations, she provided a necessary outlet to help reduce the stress of her husband’s thirty-seven successful high school seasons. In the profession of high school coaching, where community pressures are unbelievably stressful, Elaine Beyer was her husband’s greatest coach.

Elaine Beyer’s commitment to Hillsboro included more than just high school sports.  As a volunteer she participated in many civic and church activities assisting her community by giving of her time. In this way, she demonstrated how much she cared about Hillsboro’s success and spirit and was willing to insure it by making the extra effort of a champion.

Elaine Beyer wasn’t officially called a coach, but she certainly was one throughout her life. While Ed Beyer was a record setting Hall of Fame high school coach, his wife, Elaine Beyer, was the champion of family coaching. She coached her own family and the Burro Family. Her efforts helped a community and its prep sports teams succeed as she demonstrated her leadership qualities.

Families and communities need to appreciate leaders and family coaches like Elaine Beyer. Unfortunately, as often happens in life, Elaine Beyer left us unexpectedly on May 1st, and none of us got the chance to say how much we appreciated her efforts and her life with us. The Hillsboro community and the Hillsboro Burro Family owe Elaine Beyer a sincere and heartfelt thank you for a job well done once again proving that behind every great man is often a greater woman.
Bill Koering, of Upland, Calif., is a Hillsboro High School graudate.

Bill played baseball, basketball and fooball for coach Ed Beyer.