Tom Johnston

- Bio-I have coached at Elite for 13 years at all ages, most recently high school boys. I was born and raised in the area and have played soccer my entire life. I guess I can say that the game’s in my blood. My grandpa played professionally in Ireland’s top flight, a national champion with St. Patrick’s Athletic in the 1950s, and I grew up idolizing my older brother, Mike, and his teams. That included the 1988 state championship Buffalo Grove High School team with — fun fact — none other than U.S. soccer icon Brian McBride and Elite founder Mike Steele. I have played for several clubs, ultimately with Chicago Pegasus where we won five State Cup championships. I was a State Select player for three years in the Olympic Development Program. I played four years on Hersey High School's varsity soccer team, earning all-conference and all-area honors, and college soccer under scholarship at Penn State. I graduated in 1999 with a journalism degree (minoring in Spanish and something called American studies). I now live in Rolling Meadows with my wife, Julie (also an Elite coach), my 11-year-old daughter, Madeline (an Elite player) and 3-year-old son, Joseph (future Elite player). By day, I'm a writer and editor for a small publishing company in Chicago that focuses on news coverage of the food industry.