Mansfield

Beloved Mansfield HS Football Coach Remembered for the Joy He Spread

Mansfield High School's head football coach, Daniel Maberry, died Monday after a battle with cancer

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Mansfield High School football coach Daniel Maberry died Monday, after a two-year battle with lymphoma. Tuesday, some of his Mansfield High School athletes signed their offers to play college sports, and the signing day started with a moment of silence for Maberry.

"I can't tell you the amount of hurt that we have," Mansfield's interim football coach Greg George said. "He loved his kids, our players and I know he's dancing around for them."

As Maberry fought cancer, the community rallied with a mantra, #MaberryStrong.

"It's being part of a family. He made you feel like home," senior Hunter Simmons said. "Coach Maberry was a great man."

Maberry coached in Mansfield ISD for more than two decades. He was named head coach at Mansfield High School before the 2016 football season.

"Daniel lived large and he loved big," Walnut Ridge Baptist Church Pastor Erik Erby said. "If anything, I think Daniel's life is a testament for us to live a little slower, to walk a little slower, to engage with one another."

Erby said Maberry loved three things: God, family and football. He said Maberry's home church seats 900, but that won't be enough to hold the number of people expected at his funeral service.

"Daniel's life touched an entire community," Erby said. "So in a sense, it is all of us who are walking through this."

The service is slated for Monday afternoon at the Mansfield Center for the Performing Arts.

There is a fundraiser to help the family pay off their mortgage and provide some relief for their family during the difficult time.

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