Balloon Release in North Little Rock Honours a Coach Who Raised ‘Boys to Men’
A balloon release in North Little Rock on Friday honoured Floyd Beard — Coach Butter to the generations of players he coached — who died on Wednesday at 56. The balloons were black and gold, the colou
A balloon release in North Little Rock on Friday honoured Floyd Beard — Coach Butter to the generations of players he coached — who died on Wednesday at 56. The balloons were black and gold, the colours of The Family, the organisation Beard founded, his son Anton Beard told the crowd.
“He was a coach, a mentor, a father,” Anton Beard said. “He raised a bunch of boys to men.” He said his father was big on making sure kids got to college through the programs he ran, and that he always made sure everybody around him was okay. His father’s health, he said, changed suddenly.
Temeka Martin, director of the Sherman Park Community Center, said Beard was the athletic program director at the Glenview Community Center for more than 20 years, running basketball leagues, tournaments and the skill-and-drill sessions that brought kids through the gym.
Stockton’s courts have their own long-serving mentors, and Friday’s turnout in North Little Rock shows what two decades of showing up earns a coach: a community that shows up back. Beard’s family says his impact will live on in the young people he coached.
Source: North Little Rock community honours Coach Floyd Beard after death — Rock City Wire (rockcitywire.com)
