Service is way of life for Bureau Valley’s Noel Warkins

For high school football coaches, game film is an indispensable teaching tool. It reveals what went wrong the previous week, what needs work, which players are performing well and who is struggling. From Saturday through Thursday, coaches break down Friday night’s game from every angle, making film study one of the priorities whenever two teams prepare to face each other.Bureau Valley has been fortunate the past two seasons to have their game-day recording efforts supported by volunteer coach Noel Warkins. The management of highly technical equipment and community involvement come as second nature to Warkins, who retired in 2023 after more than 20 years of service in the Illinois National Guard.A four-sport athlete who considered football his primary sport before graduating from Bureau Valley in 2004, Warkins coaches at the junior high level while assisting with the operation of the Storm’s video recording equipment for varsity games, which includes a camera mounted on a drone that hov