Keith Howard’s success as a football coach was well documented. The Lincoln native had twice as many wins as losses in eight years as a head coach. Quite a few of his players have gone on to play football at the collegiate level and he was awarded coach of the year honors from two different counties.

Yet a day after his death very few people were talking about Howard’s accomplishments as a coach.

Instead, friends, colleagues and former players were talking about Howard’s genuine love for the athletes he coached and the students he taught. Rodney Prickett, pastor of Eastaboga Baptist Church – the church Howard attended – said Howard’s selflessness was what people would remember most about the 48-year-old. Tiger Williams, who played for Howard at Lincoln and is now a freshman at Jacksonville State University, agreed.

“He is the kind of man that would give you the shirt off of his back,” Williams said Saturday. “If you needed anything he would do everything that he could to give you what you needed.

“I started when I was in the eighth grade. I remember that he wanted me to be a leader and that he wanted me to stay on the right path.”

Mike Snyder, youth pastor at Eastaboga Baptist, said football was secondary for Howard.

“He was a dad, he was a friend to those guys,” Snyder said Saturday. “The status of (his players’) faith and their relationship with God always came before football. It always has been that way ever since I’ve known him.

“That was the most important thing to him.”

Prickett said the community of Lincoln was still in shock a day after Howard’s death.

“The attitude is still very much surrealistic,” Prickett said Saturday. “I’m hearing it over and over again that ‘this is just a dream. This can’t be happening.’”

In addition to being Howard’s pastor, Prickett was proud to call the coach a friend. Prickett one of the last things he and Howard did together was participate in a deep-sea fishing trip in Gulf Shores with a group of men from the church. The two men roomed together on the trip and “were sick together” on the boat.

“His faith was very real,” Prickett said. “He had a very sincere and deeply-held faith.”

While Howard was serious about football, he never let the game become more important than the people playing it, according to Williams.

“He was a great guy,” Williams said. “He put everything he could into being the best football team, but at the end of the day he wanted us to be better men, better role models for the community and better men in life.”

Daily Home sports writer LaVonte Young contributed to this report.