FOOTBALL COACH MARION COFFEY ‘WAS A BIG, TOUGH SOFTIE’

As football coach and physical education teacher, Marion L. Coffey Jr. was a tough guy who didn’t express his feelings often.

But his only child, Jamie, said she never doubted his love. “He didn’t have to say it, he showed it,” she said. “I knew.”

Coffey died Saturday of heart failure. He was 55.

“He was a big, tough softie,” his daughter said. “He didn’t say a lot, but he had a lot of love. And all he did was give it.”

Born in Totz, Ky., Coffey moved to Central Florida in 1974 from Louisville, Ky. He taught physical education at Pine Hills and Azalea Park elementary schools. He was a football coach at Apopka High and Memorial Middle schools. He also taught science at the Center for Drug-Free Living’s adolescent facility.

“All of his kids that he ever had, they knew how much he really cared for them,” said his wife, Sheron Coffey, who met her husband when the two were teaching physical education in Kentucky. “He looked out for them.”

She said her husband inspired his teams more than he pushed them. “He was gentle,” she said. “He was not a very forceful coach.”

Several of his players went on to play in the National Football League. In fact, Orlando’s Tim Newton of the Minnesota Vikings and Kansas City Chiefs along with his brother Nate Newton of the Dallas Cowboys were among his charges.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Coffey is survived by a brother, Clarence, of Hamilton, Ohio; and sisters Verona Paynter of Atlanta, Halie Bloodworth of Milan, Tenn., Dolly Davis of Totz, Gladys Neal of Totz and Juanita Kelly of Closplint, Ky.

Funeral arrangements are being handled by Baldwin-Fairchild Funeral Home, Conway Chapel. The family asks that contributions be made to the Totz Baptist Church in Totz, Ky., in lieu of flowers.