{"id":14093,"date":"2012-04-19T14:36:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14093"},"modified":"2012-04-19T14:36:37","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T18:36:37","slug":"high-school-basketball-coach-dies-suddenly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=14093","title":{"rendered":"High School Basketball Coach Dies Suddenly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><br \/>\n<strong> Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A Hillsborough County School District teacher died suddenly at the school on Tuesday. He was 55-years-old.<\/p>\n<p>According to <strong>Steve Hegarty<\/strong>, spokesperson for the Hillsborough County School District, <strong>Mr. William J. Smith<\/strong> was in his first year of employment with the district, having been hired in August 2011.<br \/>\n<strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Captain Lonnie Benniefield<\/strong>, spokesman with Tampa Fire Rescue said, \u201cAfter <strong>Mr. Smith<\/strong> collapsed, some of the staff began doing CPR before Fire Rescue arrived. Although the outcome was not successful, people tried to help. It is very important for us to know CPR.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>School records show that <strong>Mr. Smith<\/strong> began his career at Zephyrhills Junior High School in 1979. He obtained employment with the Pasco-Hernando Community College in 1981 and remained there for ten years.<\/p>\n<p>He was hired at St. Petersburg College in 1991 and remained there until 2009. He was certified as a Physical Education teacher and Coach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mr. Smith<\/strong> graduated from Bethune-Cookman College in 1979, with a Bachelor\u2019s Degree in Physical Education and Coaching. He earned his Master\u2019s Degree in Physical Education, Teaching and Coach from the University of South Florida in 1992.<\/p>\n<p>His wife, Mrs. <strong>Ruth Smith<\/strong> said her husband had been diagnosed with congestive heart failure and high blood pressure. \u201cThey tried to revive him at the school, but couldn\u2019t. He was pronounced at the hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Mrs. Smith<\/strong> said her husband had retired and then decided to return to work. Throughout his career, he coached girls\u2019 basketball.<\/p>\n<p>He grew up in Dade City and graduated from Pasco High School in 1974. She further stated that he loved basketball.<\/p>\n<p>A member of New Mt. Zion M. B. Church, <strong>Mr. Smith<\/strong> was also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any children of our own, but his two beautiful goddaughters, <strong>Anaa Sanders<\/strong> and <strong>Anaria Wilson<\/strong> were his heart. He loved spending time with them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral services for<strong> Mr. Smith<\/strong> were incomplete at press time. Ray Williams Funeral Home is in charge of handling arrangements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor A Hillsborough County School District teacher died suddenly at the school on Tuesday. He was 55-years-old. According to Steve Hegarty, spokesperson for the Hillsborough County School District, Mr. William J. Smith was in his first year of employment with the district, having been hired in August 2011. Captain [&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-14093","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\/14093","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=14093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}