Community vows strength in wake of Deshler coach's death

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Jake Linville died Sunday. (Source: Deshler High School)

Community members and students have gathered in mourning of the football coach. (Source: WAFF)

TUSCUMBIA, AL (WAFF) - The Deshler community is still in a state of disbelief, just 24 hours after learning their beloved head football coach had passed away.

Jake Linville died on Sunday in Collinwood, Tennessee. Law enforcement officials he died in from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Linville had been part of the Deshler staff since 2010. He was named head coach in March following the resignation of John Mothershed.

"I think all of us are still in such shock to lose Coach Linville," said Keller Johnson-Thompson. "He was certainly a great coach, a great person, the kind of coach you really look up to."

Johnson-Thompson struggled to find the words to express her grief over the passing of Jake Linville.

She said the community is not only rallying around his family, but his players and students as well.

"We are going to get through this. This is a tragic thing that none of us even imagined could happen and we just want to pull together into a positive life lesson," she said.

It is a lesson students at Deshler have been faced with too often in the last 12 months.

Just last November, the team lost volunteer football coach Brioni Rutland.

"We go through things in life that are tragic, and things that we don't want to have to face. We know in life we will have to face it and unfortunately, the senior class here at Deshler... had had to learn far too often life lessons at such a young age," said Johnson-Thompson.

Community members gathered on the 50-yard line Sunday night. Students gathered back there Monday morning in support of one another. That support has even extended beyond Tuscumbia.

"We had other teams from around the Shoals area that sent messages to us that came here to comfort our kids, just to let them know that they care," Johnson-Thompson said. "I think that was so touching for our community, because football is big here at Deshler. We do love it, and we realize that life is so much bigger than football in a moment like this."

The focus now turns toward counseling those who are grieving. School leaders said additional counselors were brought in Monday for all students and staff.

Skip Nichols is one of many local counselors who voluntarily dropped their daily appointments to spend part of the day with students and staff at Deshler High School.

"There's a lot of heaviness in the area, a lot of sadness, a lot of crying going on right now," Nichols explained, "But the main thing is that these kids know there's people that love them and support them and they're reaching out to them."

"What I'm seeing is trouble compartmentalizing each individual thing," he continued. "It just seems like it's one big snowball to them, and the question on everybody's mind is 'Why is this happening to us?'"

It's a question, unfortunately, no one can answer.

"You just have to normalize the process, educate them on how grief works and let them mourn in their own way," Nichols said. "Some of them may cry, some of them may be sad, some of them may be angry and some of them may isolate in the corner by themselves. You want to meet those kids wherever they are and help them normalize this situation as best we can."

Nichols said it's also important for parents to keep an open line of communication with their children and be their ear to listen or shoulder to cry on if needed.

Funeral arrangements for Linville are pending.