The legacies of a pair of Mansfield football coaches will live on forever, as their names will now adorn the multipurpose athletic complexes of their respective schools.
The Mansfield ISD board of trustees unanimously approved the naming of six facilities - five athletic complexes and the district's performing arts center.
The athletic complex at Mansfield High School will be named for Daniel Maberry.
He spent 22 years in education, all in the Mansfield ISD, and was Mansfield High School's head football coach from 2016 until his passing from cancer in February of 2020.
"Daniel never coached anywhere else," Maberry's widow, Cami, said at Tuesday night's school board meeting; "and the reason was, he never had to go look for the better job because he already had it. He absolutely loved Mansfield ISD, and it brings so much joy to our hearts that he will forever be remembered here."
The Lake Ridge multipurpose athletic complex will be named for Billy Smith.
He served in education for 23 years, 15 of them in the Mansfield ISD.
He was Lake Ridge's defensive coordinator until his death from cancer in 2019.
"One of the things as you talk with individuals as it relates to Coach Smith was about the passion and the intensity as it relates to loving his students and his staff well," says Donald Williams, the Mansfield ISD's associate superintendent of communications and marketing. "(He was) so beloved within not just the Lake Ridge High School community, but really within Mansfield ISD as a whole."
The other facility namings that the board of trustees approved are:
- The MISD Center for the Performing Arts for Dr. Jim Vaszauskas, who served as the district's superintendent until his retirement in 2019
- Legacy High School's multipurpose athletic complex for Mike Wynn, who was the head of grounds and maintenance before retiring earlier this year
- Summit High School's multipurpose athletic complex for Donna Grant, who helped open the school in 2002 and was the district's first female high school principal. She retired in 2007.
- Timberview High School's multipurpose athletic complex for Terry Cron, who was the school's first head football coach. He retired in 2009.
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