Brian Schoenhals/The Daily Home
Lincoln High School football players hang their heads during the memorial service for LHS football coach Keith Howard on Tuesday. Brian Schoenhals
The field was a topic mentioned several times by pastors Whitt Hibbs, Jason Grissom and Rodney Prickett. Tuesday marked the first time many had seen the field since the artificial turf was installed. The project was one of the last Howard worked on at Lincoln High and one he never got to enjoy as the Golden Bears will play their first game on the turf this Thursday.
“I’m going to tell you right now the mastermind behind this vision was Coach Howard,” said Hibbs, pastor of Arbor Baptist Church in Pell City. “I’ve never seen a man who took more pride in his school. I’m not talking about just when he was at Lincoln. When he was at Ragland, he did the same thing. He wanted everything to be clean. He wanted the field to look good. He always said the image that you portray in people’s minds is what people are going to remember you by. I want you to look today at what we have to remember Keith Howard by.”
Hibbs related stories of Howard’s generosity and selflessness, pointing out that he was “more than a football coach.”
“The lives that he’s touched, not only mine but so many,” Hibbs said. “Taking money out of his pocket to buy a kid a pair of cleats, leaving a 100 dollar tip at a local restaurant because the waitress had a family need. I’m telling you things about him that a lot of people don’t know. He was much more than a coach. He was a godly man.”
Grissom, pastor of Eureka Baptist Church, spoke in much the same vein as Hibbs, referring to Howard as a diamond.
“Coach Howard’s life reminded me of a diamond – it was multifaceted,” Grissom said. “He was a husband, a father, a grandfather, a son, a brother, an uncle, a teacher, a mentor, a dreamer, a Lincoln Golden and yes he was a football coach. These are but a few facets of his life.”
Grissom encouraged those in attendance to “seize the day, rejoice while you are alive…live life to the fullest, make the most of what you have.”
Prickett, pastor of Eastaboga Baptist Church, requested something of the football players at Lincoln High.
“To the players I want y’all to do me a favor,” he said. “I want Coach’s passing to motivate you. Practice hard. You’ve got time working against you. You’ve lost coach and that’s working against you. He wanted you to win, not just on the field, but in life.”
Lindsay Williamson, a friend of the family, and LHS senior Ethan Owens both sang at the service before the hearse circled the track around the field, giving those gathered a final chance to show their appreciation for the man without whom the field would not have been possible.
Football players and coaches from, B.B. Comer, Leeds, Ohatchee, Oxford, Pell City, Piedmont, Pleasant Valley, Ragland, Saks, Talladega County Central, Vestavia Hills and Winterboro attended the service in their game jerseys and lined the field as the hearse circled the track.
“Coach was always aware that people were watching him,” Grissom said. “I believe if he were here today he would be amazed at the power of his conduct and of his actions.”
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