{"id":13498,"date":"2012-03-22T15:24:26","date_gmt":"2012-03-22T19:24:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13498"},"modified":"2012-03-22T15:03:31","modified_gmt":"2012-03-22T19:03:31","slug":"former-belmont-little-league-coach-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=13498","title":{"rendered":"Former Belmont Little League Coach Dies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Belmont Heights Little League coach, <strong>Andrew James<\/strong>, passed away Monday, March 19th after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 77.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coach James<\/strong> was a 1954 graduate of Middleton High School, and went on to attend Florida A&amp;M University. His wife, <strong>Jacquelyn<\/strong>, said her husband was a gifted athlete, even while attending Booker T. Washington.<\/p>\n<p>Although he coached baseball, the sport he played in school was basketball.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. James<\/strong> said her husband got involved in little league baseball when his sons, <strong>Marlon<\/strong> and<strong> Darryl<\/strong>, started playing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe coached them, and <strong>Marlon<\/strong> was on the first team that went to Williamsport for the Little League World Series,\u201d said <strong>Mrs. James<\/strong>. \u201cHe first started coaching in 1969, and coached <strong>Dwight Gooden, Gary Sheffield<\/strong>, <strong>Vance Lovelace<\/strong>, <strong>Floyd Youmans<\/strong>, <strong>Derek Bell<\/strong> and many others. He also coached PAL football with<strong> Bobby Wilds<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coach James<\/strong> retired as a truck driver after spending 13 years at the Westinghouse plant. <strong>Mrs. James<\/strong> said more than anything, he enjoyed visiting the sick and shut-ins as a deacon at First Baptist Church of College Hill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe was really deeply involved in church activities, and as an international mason, he was Worshipful Master of Jim Wilson Lodge #121.\u201d<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. James<\/strong> said her husband suffered from a series of ailments over the years, and over the past two weeks, he had developed a terrible cough. \u201cHe was told years ago he had a heart murmur, but it was treated and never caused him any problems.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the day he passed, we were sitting in our family room talking when he complained about his chest hurting. I asked if he wanted to go to the hospital, or have his granddaughter come over since she\u2019s a nurse. Later we did call an ambulance, and he passed away at the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. James<\/strong> said they were married for 54 years, and were looking forward to their 55th anniversary on April 28th.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Coach James\u2019<\/strong> eldest son,<strong> Andrew James, Jr.<\/strong> (Two Man) passed away in 2009. He was also a Middleton graduate (class of 1971).<\/p>\n<p>Services for <strong>Coach James<\/strong> will be held Saturday, 2 p. m. at First Baptist Church of College Hill. A wake is scheduled for Friday from 5 p. m. until 8 p. m. at the church.<br \/>\nAiken\u2019s Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Belmont Heights Little League coach, Andrew James, passed away Monday, March 19th after suffering a massive heart attack. He was 77. Coach James was a 1954 graduate of Middleton High School, and went on to attend Florida A&amp;M University. His wife, Jacquelyn, said her husband was a gifted athlete, even while attending Booker T. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}