WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – A beloved Wichita coach, mentor and good friend was remembered for impacting and galvanizing generations of lives. Household and associates gathered for a memorial balloon launch Saturday afternoon.

Theo Cribbs Jr. was instrumental in creating the Bulldogs youth soccer group and serving the children in Wichita’s African American group with a spot to play.

He died final weekend on the age of 84.

Taking to the sector Coach Cribbs created, his household paid respects to its patriarch.

“In the event you look to the left, you look to the correct; that’s your Bulldog household. That’s Theo’s household,” mentioned good friend and coach Kalvin Hill.

It’s many years’ value of a legacy. It’s one Kalvin Hill noticed as a child when Coach Cribbs was his soccer coach.

Hill mentioned, “Theo was simply that kind of man. He was a helper. He was a trainer. He was a mentor. He mentored me, and that’s why I began teaching. I’ve coached now for over 35 years.”

He got here again to assist coach when he was in his 20s, however it wasn’t simply the sport Coach Cribbs cared about; it was the lives of these concerned.

“Cheerleaders, soccer gamers, baseball gamers, basketball gamers, he needed to see them not simply succeed on this soccer discipline, however he needed to see them reach life,” Hill mentioned. “That’s the most important legacy. What he performed actually modified lives.”

Hill’s son, KJ, a part of that legacy by watching Coach Cribbs’s management and motivation as a child enjoying soccer and utilizing it now as a coach. Crucial lesson he mentioned he realized from Coach Cribbs is self-discipline.

“He was a giver and a lover; he was going to select you up once you’re down; he’s not going to make you are feeling dangerous in case you make a mistake. Positively the self-discipline.” Kalvin ‘KJ’ Hill Jr. mentioned, “The self-discipline a part of it I attempt to instill.”

For a lot of, Coach Cribbs was a father determine who helped elevate them, and it’s of their lives that Coach Cribbs lives on.

“He confirmed what a person ought to be. Somebody who must go on the market and grow to be one thing particular and good to the group,” mentioned Ray Mathenia.

Hill mentioned, “In the event you had been a child, in case you had been a teen, in case you had been simply out right here searching for one thing higher. In search of one thing proper. Like the nice e book says, Jesus needs us all to do higher and be higher. Theo needs us all and needed us all to do higher, be higher males, be higher gents, be higher husbands, be higher lecturers, work with our group and much more so now.”

Not simply athletes and folks, Kalvin Hill mentioned, Wichita is a greater place due to all Coach Cribbs did and created.

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