High school football players grant teammate final wish
Courtesy photo
Coffee County players grant Malik Sparkman his final wish.
Once a teammate, always a teammate.
Kidney cancer may have claimed the life of former Coffee County (Douglas, Ga.) football player Malik Sparkman, but that didn't stop his teammates from granting him his final wish: to walk through the Trojans' tunnel one final time.
Sparkman passed away on May 17 and, one week later, the Coffee County community gathered together to honor him one final time.
According to the Coffee County Police Scanner, over 500 people were present for Sparkman's funeral ceremony, where his teammates — donning Coffee County jerseys — carried Sparkman's casket through the tunnel onto the field.
There, they processed into the school's gymnasium where the community paid its final respects to Sparkman.
He'll be remembered as an uplifting young man.
"If you seen him in the hallways, if you were upset or something, I think we all could agree he would try to make you feel better," a friend, Karleen Evans, told WALB.
