Etowah County Chief Deputy Coroner Chris Thacker confirmed that Lincoln High School head football coach and athletic director Keith Howard died after suffering a heart attack on the sidelines of the Lincoln-Etowah game in Attalla Friday night.

Howard was in transit from the game to Riverview Regional Medical Center in Gadsden, but died in the ambulance according to Thacker. A doctor at the hospital pronounced Howard dead on arrival.

Howard was entering his ninth season as a head football coach. His first head coaching job came at Ragland High School in St. Clair County. He coached the Purple Devils from 2001 to 2003. He’s coached at Lincoln since 2004. Prior to taking the head coaching job at Ragland, Howard served as an assistant at Lincoln under head coach Allen Brooks.

“It was such a shock for everyone,” Talladega County Schools Superintendent Suzanne Lacey said Friday night. “Coach Howard was an integral part of the program at Lincoln High School in athletics. He was a true leader.”

Lincoln Mayor Lew Watson said the loss of Howard was big not only for the school, but also for the city.

“It’s devastating for us to lose our coach,” Watson said. “It’s devastating for us to lose Keith, period. It’d be hard to find a better person. It’s just totally unexpected. They just don’t make anymore Keiths.”

St. Clair Schools Superintendent Jenny Seals was principal at Moody Elementary School when Howard coached at Ragland.

“It is very sad and I am shocked,” Seals said. “He was doing what he does best and it is sad to the Lincoln community.”

Ragland Principal Jeff Hardy said Howard was a true friend and he loved him like a brother.

“Next to my dad dying, this is one of the most painful things I’ve gone through,” Hardy said. “He would do anything for you. Working with him was a blessing for me and a blessing for the kids.

“He loved the kids and the kids loved him. They would do anything for him. He was not only interested in how they performed on Friday nights, he was very much interested in how well they did in the classroom. He set high expectations and he was just a great, great man.”

Hardy said you couldn’t help but wonder why — why this way.

“You know it’s a curse and hard but at the same time a blessing,” Hardy said. “Because he died doing something he loved. I talked to him just two days ago. He generally talked two to three times a month.”

Winterboro High School head football coach Adam Fossett said the news came as a shock to him.

“He was a heck of a guy,” Fossett said.

Alabama High School Athletic Association Executive Director Steve Savarese said he was saddened to learn of the death of Lincoln High School head football coach Keith Howard Friday night.

“Our prayers go out to the family of Coach Howard and to the players, students, teachers and community of Lincoln. This is a tragic loss,” Savarese said. “He has been a tremendous influence on the lives of children. We are stunned at this news.”

Howard took the Golden Bears to the quarterfinal round of the Class 4A state playoffs in 2008. He posted a 60-30 record as a head coach from 2001-2008.