By Chris Cox

Being a coach’s kid isn’t always easy. From the late game nights to the extra pressure and responsibility of being one of their players, some kids might shy away from wanting to be coached by their mom or dad and choose a different sport or activity. Not Eli Adams. Ever since he was little, Eli wanted to be a football player. “It all started when I was six or seven and my dad was still coaching at Pocola,” he says. “I was just a little football kid running around the locker room. Around there I just fell in love with the game. When my dad went to Talihina, I got excited because they had sixth grade football and I could play and go to school there.”

Adams, who is now a senior at Talihina, is the starting left tackle for the Golden Tigers and has his dad as his position coach. “It can be aggravating but it has it’s perks,” Adams says. “There are bigger expectations than other players and you tend to get yelled at more. But, when it comes to going to camps, you get to go into coach’s meetings and talk with big-time coaches from college and scouts. That helps out tremendously.”

Being a coach’s kid and senior means Eli is looked at as one of the team leaders. That’s a role that he really tries to embrace. “I try to be a silent leader and lead by example,” Adams says. “Whenever something is going on, I always try to help.”

Outside of football, Eli is a member of the power lifting team. He is also on the Talihina track and field team where he throws shotput, discus, and runs the 400-meter race. “Power lifting is the season where I try to get really strong for track,” he says. “It helped out tremendously last year. With COVID-19 we didn’t have as many meets last year, so I just tried to get stronger, and I gained about 20 pounds of muscle.”

Last year, Adams qualified for the state meet and just missed making the finals. This year he hopes to not just make the finals but set a new state record in the shotput or discuss. 

Following high school, Eli plans on attending Northeastern State University in Tahlequah or the University of Arkansas.