Coyle Blue Jackets Make Bittersweet Playoff Run

The sudden death of a Coyle football player rocked the small community two years ago. Now, the Blue Jackets stand on the brink of a state football championship. 

Coyle will play Shattuck Saturday, for the State “Class C” 8-man Football Championship. 

In November of 2013, 15-year-old Gary “Trey” Myers died just three days after suiting up for a Coyle playoff football game. Doctors determined the cause was meningitis. Coyle Head Coach Shane Weathers said this year’s team used Myers’ death as motivation, because this would have been his senior year. 

“These kids pull together. They love each other. They play for each other,” the coach said Thursday.   

This uncommon team also overcame the death of Coach Weathers’ mother Patty. He said his mom was his team’s biggest fan. She died in a car accident on the Kilpatrick Turnpike last August, just a week before this year’s football season began. 

“That’s another thing that the football team has done for me and my family is healing,” he said. “When they come together, and play as hard as they do, it heals me, and my family needs that.”