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When one of his players got in trouble, Darrel showed up to his court hearings, so the kid knew he wasn’t alone, Marion said. “He didn’t announce it to the kid,” she said. “When the kid came, he was there just in the background, just letting him know that he was there to support him.” Darrel once pitched in a significant amount of money to help ship one of his former players, Alex Buckingham, back home from Florida after he died from cancer in 2024 and his family was struggling with expenses to transport him, Cady said “Darrel just basically paid for it, to get him home,” the coach said. “Nobody knows that stuff, because Darrel didn’t do it for the notoriety. He often sacrificed his own body for the sake of the players’ development. “I think he’s had a total of like 15 broken ribs because he’d let them pancake block him,” Marion said. “They’d be like ‘Oh damn coach, I’m sorry, I forgot you didn’t have pads.’ Just because he wanted to get them ready.” Across the 10 seasons Darrel spent as an assistant coach on the varsity team, he formed bonds with some players that transcended football. The varsity and Pop Warner football teams canceled games and scrimmages Saturday.