As West Lowndes Middle School Principal Cynthia McMath and Athletic Director Roosevelt Bridges presented framed 8-by-10-inch certificates of appreciation Saturday morning to the family of the late Jane Coleman, the daughter of the longtime coach and teacher, Cassandra Danner, couldn”t hold back her tears.
Before Danner knew it, she was inundated with hugs and consolatory words from some of Coleman”s 15 other family members who joined Danner on the West Lowndes Middle gymnasium floor Saturday during a ceremony to honor Coleman, who was a fixture at the school for 32 years before dying of breast cancer in 2005. She was 59.
The ceremony took place before the Jane Coleman Invitational Basketball Classic, which featured competition among eight middle school basketball teams, including Columbus, New Hope, West Lowndes, East Oktibbeha and West Point”s Fifth Street Junior High.
Coleman”s brother, Bobby Berry, who also serves as West Lowndes High School”s head football coach, said he was touched by the tribute to his late sister.
“It”s a great honor to have this,” Berry said after the ceremony. “My sisters and brothers came a pretty good distance to be here and we are very honored. It was good that somebody came up with this to honor her and the contribution she made to the community and the Lowndes County school system over the years.”
McMath wasn”t principal at West Lowndes Middle when Coleman passed away, but did work at the school district”s central office during Coleman”s tenure and says she knew the woman well. Rev. James Boyd, pastor at Zion Gate Missionary Baptist Church, conducted a weekly radio program and McMath regularly heard Coleman in the background of the broadcasts, she said.
“On the radio, you could here her,” McMath said. “She had this little thing she used to say.”
“She would say, ”Amen, preacher,”” Berry chimed in. “You could always tell it was her voice.”
“You knew it was her,” McMath said. “Everybody knew it was her.”
Coleman was born in 1944 and grew up in Newton. In high school, Coleman excelled in basketball and track and field, then went off to Mississippi Valley State University.
“She was a tremendous athlete,” Berry said.
When Coleman came to West Lowndes, she coached basketball and track, but also was the football statistician and put in time as cheerleading coach. She taught health, physical education and science, and was a member of nearly a dozen committees, programs and teams at the school.
“She was a great asset to the west side,” Berry said. “She was a great asset to the community.”
Organizers plan to make the Jane Coleman Invitational Basketball Classic an annual event.
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