Keith Howard Took A Victory Lap Tonight

I had my 51st birthday today.
I attended the funeral of a friend today.
It's not how I wanted to celebrate my birthday.
Instead, I celebrated the life and death of my friend, Keith Howard, with the thousands of other people in attendance.
The funeral was on the new football field at Lincoln High School.
Keith was the head football coach at a rival high school.
Keith Howard was THE head coach at Lincoln High School.
Keith died this past Friday night after leaving the first game of the season during half-time with chest pains.
Keith never made it to the hospital. He died at 9:02 pm.
Keith was 48 years old and left behind a wife, daughter, son, daughter-in-law, a grand daughter, mother, sister, and lots of loved ones.


There was a time, many years ago, when we went to the same school together. I was three grades ahead of him, but we knew each other and became friends.
Keith always made friend with everybody.
Keith Howard always made you feel like you were special.
He never failed to speak when I saw him in public.
I saw him just last week at a local restaurant. Just sitting by his self. Eating a salad. Me and the missus stopped to speak to him.
Come to think of it, the last half dozen times or so i've seen him, it's always been in a restaurant. I think he liked to eat. HHmmmmmmm.
We even took friendly jabs at each other, just because we were from rival high schools. That's what friends do.
I used to shoot the game film (or video)for my high school for many years. Keith was an assistant coach then for another school, but he never failed to look me up after the game, win or lose, and tell me that if it wasn't for my video, and the good quality job I did, his team would have been less prepared. This carried on until after I stopped filming for my team.
One of the speakers at the funeral today talked about the dash that will be on his headstone. You know, the one between his date of birth and the date of his death.
Keith Howard's dash will be long and full.
Keith was a good family man. He was a good Christian man. He loved Lincoln and everyone that lived and worked there. He loved his football team. He loved his school.
Keith loved life.
Keith has spent tireless hours recently overlooking the progress on the new SprinTurf surface for their new football field.
I've been told that Keith would stand at the top of the stadium and look out over the new field. No doubt he was daydreaming about his first game on the new field and what it would be like to win that first game on it.
Keith raised the Lincoln program up a couple of notches.
The Lincoln Golden Bears are ranked #5 in Class 4A in the State of Alabama.
Just being around Keith seemed to raise anyone up a couple of notches.
I'm honored to have called him my friend.
At the end of the funeral, they gave Keith the victory lap he worked hard for and deserved.