Battles against Lou Gehrig's Disease and COVID-19 overcomes Trinity Christian's Jimmy Fields, dead at 56
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
A little less than a year ago, Trinity Christian head football coach Jimmy Fields was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
Then early in the football season, he tested positive for COVID-19.
Those battles came to an end Monday afternoon with the death of the 56-year-old.
Jimmy Fields
Photo: TV-35 screenshot
He completed his sixth season at Trinity Christian in 2020, the young Crusaders going 0-9 2020 as part of GISA Region 2-AAA.
The Mississippi native Fields came to Trinity Christian in 2015 after spending eight seasons at Whitefield Academy, a Class A GHSA program, and going 43-42 in eight seasons. He spent five tough seasons at Sherwood Christian (11-44) after two solid years at Deerfield-Windsor (18-6).
He went 25-39 in six seasons with the Crusaders, and went 97-131 overall. His best seasons was in 2008 at Whitefield Academy and 2000 at Deerfield-Windsor when his teams went 10-2.
He had been an assistant at Worth County, Lowndes, and Dublin.
His wife Shannen said in a Jan. 21 Facebook post that Fields’ condition – he had in recent months lost use of his arms and legs - was not improving and that “This past week and a half has been the toughest so far.”
Fields played SEC football at Mississippi as a defensive lineman in the early 1980s, and his ALS diagnosis was covered by OM Spirit.
Dublin Chevy Nissan was among those that held a fund-raiser for Fields in October, in which the host James Deal talked with dealership general Manager Don Carswell about Fields. At least one GoFundMe page had been set up.
Fields’s final appearance on the weekly Trinity Christian Coach’s Show” on TV-35 came on Dec. 2
He talked about a team with only five seniors that perhaps had extra obstacles in battling COVID-19 protocols that sidelined the program for several weeks but in the end led to only one canceled game.
“Really, the obstacles week to week,” he said on that final show. “Would we be able to play? … The low point(s) is the uncertainty of not being with the kids.”