INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — We're learning more about the members of the Coleman family who were killed in a boating accident last week and the legacies they're going to leave behind.
Horace "Butch" Coleman was a staple of a youth football program for more than 40 years. Those at Municipal Gardens Dad's Club Youth Football Legaue say the 70-year-old impacted countless lives.
Monday night they released balloons in his honor.
Those who worked with Butch in the league say he was a friend, mentor and father figure.
"It was very impactful. He taught me what football was and taught me how to use football with life or more teaching life with football," said Anthony King. "Butch cared more what people did off the field than on the field. He would just use that to show you life lessons."
Those who knew Coleman say they'll remember him as a community legend.
Nine-year-old Reece Coleman would have been starting school at Warren Township in just a few weeks.
It's a place where he left a lasting impression on a substitute teacher who described him as the "sweetest kid she's ever worked with."
"I just think he's one of the sweetest. I really feel for the family and for Tia, for the mom, I just wish there was something I could do, go back or I just wanted to honor Reece that's all I want to do," Holly Hall said.
Reece will be laid to rest with his father and his brother and sister following services on Friday.