A Football Family Carries On After Coronavirus Takes Coach

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 24 September 2020

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In football-obsessed Oxford, Mississippi, Nacoma James was a beloved high school football coach and math teacher at Lafayette High School. In August, James died due to complications of coronavirus. In September, the school decided to play football this season. James’ widow Laticia supports the team, even as she struggles to find her way back to socializing in a town centered on the sport. ESPN’s Elizabeth Merrill shares the story of James’ life and untimely death at age 42, and weighs the community’s pain at his loss, alongside the risk of the pandemic and its deep love of football. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	At school with the guys, you know, he is the one, you know, hey, do you need to arrive to school or the workout?
0:07.8	Some kids, they didn't have transportation to go to practice, you know.
0:13.0	He was always that person.
0:15.9	He was always that person you can call on.
0:19.8	That's Letitia James.
0:22.6	Today we're devoting our whole show to the life and death of her husband, a high school
0:27.8	football coach named Nacoma James.
0:30.6	He was a pillar of strength and support for Lafayette High School in Oxford, Mississippi.
0:37.2	Nekoma died this August,
0:39.1	and the path forward for his team, and his family.
0:43.6	It all says so much about the tough decisions
0:46.5	facing communities around our nation.
0:49.9	I'm Pablo Torre. It's Thursday, September 24th.
0:57.1	This is ESPN Daily.
1:05.4	Liz Merrill, I am a huge fan of your work. Thank you for joining me on ESPN Daily.
1:08.4	Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
1:13.5	So I want to start with you telling me a little bit about Lafayette High School in Oxford, Mississippi. Where is it? What's the area around it like? Who goes
1:20.5	to school there? There are two high schools in Oxford. They're separated by 1.9 miles. There's Oxford High, which has the higher tax
1:31.8	base. And then you got Lafayette. And it's where all the rural kids go. They're from a
1:40.9	smattering of small towns and places that you might find traveling down gravel roads
1:47.1	with directions to turn right at the oak tree.
1:51.0	They have this annual football game.
	...

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