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<\/a><\/p>\nMore important than the football games, Yoast and Boone\u2019s relationship brought together the formerly-divided city of Alexandria to support their winning integrated school team.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was a joke, but it ended up to be better for Alexandria than Brown vs. Board. We were as different as night and day. But he and I found a way to talk to each other and trust each other. In the end, he was the best friend I ever had,\u201d Coach Herman Boone told ACPS in May.<\/p>\n
The two coaches both died this year, seven months apart.<\/p>\n
Coach Boone will be remembered as a disciplined individual whose presence demanded attention.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t need to say anything. He just looked at you and that look said it all. There was no denial in what he was saying. He meant what he said and he said what he meant,\u201d said Wayne Sanders, a running back for the \u201971 Titans who played under Boone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor impressionable teenagers, this meant that Boone was a force not to be ignored. As the head coach, physical education and the drivers ed teacher, he gave young men exactly what they needed to know at that age. He was there to teach, to lead, to guide and prepare young men to go out into the world and do great things,\u201d Sanders added.<\/p>\n
The Titans\u2019 1973 Starting quarterback Kenny White remembers that Boone related everything in football to life.<\/p>\n
White and the rest of the team had been told to be at the buses by 4:59 p.m. to leave for a game against Herndon. While the rest of the team sat on the buses, they saw White running to get his gear. Boone asked Coach Dennis Heinz what the time was. It was 4:59 p.m. White recalls running past the buses and then hearing the engines crank.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just left me. I was the starting quarterback and they just left me. One of the biggest things he taught me was to be on time and be responsible. If it weren\u2019t for the athletic director who drove past and saw me standing on the side of the road with my gear, I wouldn\u2019t have made the game,\u201d said White.<\/p>\n
Retired Chief of Police for the City of Alexandria and Titan football team captain, Earl Cook, learned the hard way one rainy day about skipping class before heading back to school to attend football practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought he was none the wiser. He said nothing during practice but afterward, he just stood there with Assistant Coach Dennis Shaw, hands on his hips.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou owe me 24 laps around that track,\u201d Boone said. While Cook ran the track in his drenched uniform, Coach Shaw sat with his umbrella on the bleachers to count every single lap.<\/p>\n
Coach Boone will be remembered by the \u201871 team as being \u201call about business\u201d and as someone who enjoyed being on the water in his boat when he was not on the field or at the high school. He was the father of three. His wife died in April this year. He is survived by two daughters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe touched many lives and hearts across the world. He was inspirational for so many people, including me as one of his former students. Alexandria City Public Schools was fortunate to have him as an icon at such a critical time in our history. He will be dearly missed,\u201d said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.<\/p>\n