NBHS loses teacher, friend, former coach

New Brockton High School lost a teacher, former coach and a friend early this week.

Terry Patman, a math teacher and former baseball, football and basketball coach at the school, died early Monday morning at his home. He was 37.

New Brockton Principal Kevin Killingsworth informed the students at an early assembly Monday. Students were given the option to check out of school to grieve. Counselors also were available to students.

"He was well thought of by not only the faculty and staff, but the students alike," said Killingsworth, who knew Patman for at least a dozen years before becoming principal at New Brockton earlier this year. "Everybody thought a lot of Coach Patman. He was very well respected in the community and in the school. He's going to be sorely missed."

Patman's funeral will be at 10 a.m. today at Haw Hill Assembly of God Church in Jack. Burial will follow in the church cemetery. The body will be laced in the church one hour prior to the service.

Patman attended New Brockton before graduating from Enterprise in 1992. He attended Enterprise State Junior College and Troy State.

Shortly after graduation he began teaching at New Brockton. He served as an assistant football coach for his first 10 years at the school, working with and for longtime friend Shannon Clark. 
"He was real dependable, a good, hard-working teacher," Clark said. "He was always there to do whatever you needed him to do... He was always willing to help out and go above and beyond...He was always willing to work and he never complained."

Patman also served as an assistant basketball and baseball coach. He became the head baseball coach in 1999.

"He always did things with integrity," New Brockton Elementary School Principal Dale Kelley said. Kelley hired Patman as the Gamecock baseball coach while principal of NBHS. "He really wanted the kids to be successful and he would go out of his way to make them successful.

"He cared about his players. He cared about his students. He cared about his family. He was just a giving person that people liked to be around. That just shined through with him."

Patman was just as committed in the classroom, current Dauphin Junior High School Principal and former New Brockton softball coach Trent Trawick said.

"Coach Patman was always dedicated to the kids and committed to what he taught," Trawick said. "He put a lot into athletics, but you knew what he was there for - for the kids, to work with the kids, to educate the kids and to do what he could for the kids."

Patman dropped is coaching duties in 2005, but continued teaching math. During his 15-year tenure at New Brockton, Patman taught math from seventh through 12th grade. He was deemed Highly Qualified by the State of Alabama in 2004.

"(Speaking) as a parent, he was a great math teacher," said Tracy Whittaker, whose son was a student of Patman's. "He came in and worked extra with the kids. He had a drive to help all of those kids. He loved them all."

Flowers will be accepted or contributions may be made in his memory to the New Brockton High School Alumni Association, care of Sandy Griffin, P.O. Box 574, New Brockton, AL 36351.

"He was a great person," Killingsworth said. "Everybody respected him. He was a great teacher. He cared about the students and the students knew that he did."