Football is a Family affair for Patterson

Photo by EJ Johnson Photography

When Chris Bergman graduated from Akron High School last June the Tigers football program wasn’t just losing their star quarterback, they were also losing a team leader. Head Coach Andrews Clouse knew that whoever would fit into the role left open by Bergman's departure would have huge shoes to fill.

Thankfully, Clouse wouldn’t have to look far to find him. Coy Patterson, a sophomore is a Bergman protégé.

Although this is his first year on varsity, Patterson has been in the program for the past four years and is the son of offensive coordinator Steve Patterson, a former Akron standout athlete in his own right.

The Pattersons eat, sleep and breathe football. The Father and Son tandem try to separate football talk at home, but the passion both have for the sport make it difficult.

“The hardest part is trying to turn Football off at times,” Steve Patterson says. “Sometimes we need to be home just to be home. It's easy to say, but tough to do when we both like talking about football so much.”

Indeed the fire burns far beyond the hash marks.

“I have been able to watch Coy work behind the scenes and develop into becoming the varsity QB after being in the program for a few years now. Coy's a pretty quiet, yet self-motivated kid. The lessons he has learned I believe are not from the position itself but from football as a whole, his teammates, and his coaches. Things such as commitment, discipline, hard work, and most importantly being a good teammate, a good person, those same lessons are all preached in our locker room as well. I'm thankful to have a great coaching staff to help guide him through this experience so it's not always coming from Dad.”

Clouse asked Steve, who graduated from Akron in 1997, to join his coaching staff roughly 12 years ago. Steve played both football and basketball all four years at Akronl.

“He’s been with me every since,” Clouse said. “I was younger than Steve but I was best friends with his younger brother. We never had a relationship, in fact, he didn’t like me when I was younger. As we got older and I started coaching, he was a big supporter of the program and that led to me asking him to come on staff.”

“Before coaching at Akron I had never coached before,” Steve Patterson said. “I never really had thought of coaching until a former head coach reached out to see if I would be interested in joining the staff as a volunteer. Needless to say 12 years later and I'm thankful for having that opportunity.”

The two coaches now have the task of helping Coy run their offense and return the Tigers to the top of the Class C standings.

“Coy is a first-year varsity player. I think he has tremendous potential and I hope for him to own numerous passing records. In just his second game, he threw for 283 yards with five touchdowns and ran six times for 72 yards and a rushing touchdown.”

That performance helped Akron improve their record to 1-1 on the season. More so, it helped gain some confidence in the new quarterback from his teammates ahead of a much-anticipated showdown with Newfane (2-0) on Friday night.

Patterson has been on the JV team since eighth grade. He’s been working behind the scenes with the Nickel City Quarterback Club, which is run by Joe Licata, the Williamsville South head coach and former standout at UB.

“Coy running the offense has been a very smooth transition,” Steve Patterson said. “He quietly has been putting in work with the Nickel City Quarterback Club, and with myself and our Varsity team for the last few years. We have had some great former players/people in Travis Fry, and Bergman that had embraced Coy and put in a lot of extra hours in the offseason with him. Plus, he (Coy) loves football and often wants to learn more about the game so that always helps as well.”