[EKUAlum05]

We lost a rare gem today.

My heart breaks for his family, his friends, his staff, his players, and his community. Haywood was an icon in the State. Probably less than .1% of KY residents could pinpoint within a 100 miles on a map where Belfry would be if Haywood never existed, but because of his giant legacy people know where an unincorporated town in rural Appalachia is not only in the Bluegrass but throughout the country.

As a football coach his legacy will be achieving monumental heights with so very little. Rural county schools in Appalachia are not meant to be sustainable powerhouses, Haywood won 8 titles and reached Semi-Finals and State Finals that are too many to count despite isolation, unstable mining economies, and a sprawling School District that used to take nearly an hour to get from some edges to the other on winding one lane roads.

491 wins… most in KY history.. among the most in America… 491 wins. Yet the most impressive stat is that for each of those wins you can probably double it with people he brought to Jesus. For each of those wins you can multiple it by five or six times the number of players he made better men with his coaching and life lessons. For each of those wins you can multiply it by 10 or 12 times the people he impacted positively. Coaches he helped, parents he guided, leaders he developed, strangers he made welcome.

A lot of people are hurting right now, but what is so beautiful about the life Philip Haywood led is that all those people hurting know that the legacy he left has impacted generations and he would not rather be anywhere more than the place he is now. There is no pain there, but there is a crowd gathered ready to greet him.

Thank you Philip Haywood for being who you were!