Allen High assistant football coach dies from COVID-19, just days before opener
James Shillam, a teacher and assistant football coach at Allen High School, died on Sunday after a two-and-a-half week battle with COVID-19, just days from the start of the 2021 season.
Allen, one of the top football teams in the state, is set to host Plano East at 7 p.m. Friday.
“He adored every minute of Texas football. For him, Allen was his dream. It was his promised land,” his wife Kyp Shillam said in an interview with WFAA.
The family told WFAA that Shillam was not vaccinated and that it was a personal choice.
“It is with great sadness for us to announce that Coach James Shillam passed away. Coach was a man of God, devoted husband and father of two. Coach Shillam has impacted so many lives through his tenure. Although his time at Allen was short, he will always be an Eagle,” the football program said on Twitter on Monday.
According to WFAA, Shillam, 56, was hired in July and had previously coached at Carrollton Newman-Smith.
“He was everything you want in a coach. He lived and breathed with faith and he walked with it. And he poured into kids,” former Newman-Smith coach Paul Ressa told WFAA.
Shillam had been a coach for 26 years.
“Allen ISD is heartbroken to learn of the passing of James Shillam, and our deepest sympathy goes out to the Shillam family,” the district said in a statement to the Star-Telegram on Wednesday. “Coach Shillam joined Allen ISD late this summer, and we are mournful of the fact that we could not witness the positive impact that he would have left on our students and our school district.”
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 10:04 AM.
