DAPHNE, Alabama - The Daphne Trojans and Lady Trojans went on with the show Friday night.

People who knew Bailey Yelding, Jr., best believe that’s what he wanted. The former basketball and football coach at Fairhope High since 1970 and before at pre-integration-era Baldwin County Training School passed away Jan. 22 and was laid to rest Friday afternoon before Daphne’s home games that evening. His health had declined rapidly over the last month after a long battle with cancer.

A Daphne city councilman since 1998 and the Jubilee City’s mayor since the fall of 2011, he has been a patriarchal fixture at the Trojans’ Jubilee Gym since his son, Cedric Yelding, Sr.,—who played for his dad at Fairhope—took over the DHS boys’ basketball program about 10 years ago.

Cedric decided to honor his dad by not coaching that night while his son, C.J., a junior on the team decided to play.

“We dedicated the game to him tonight and wanted to win it for him,” C.J. said. “I wanted to honor him by doing my best and I told him today at the funeral service I would make him proud. My dad said that would be a good way to honor his memory and he would be watching over me.”

Yelding’s grandaughter, Amber Yelding, played for the Lady Trojans at Daphne and graduated last year. Home for the funeral from Shelton State Community College, where she is the starting point guard, she said her grandfather will be keeping his eyes on her and C.J. “We miss him and always will,” she added. “But he’s smiling on us and wants us to keep doing the things he taught us and we just want to always make him proud of us.”

Acting head coach Mike Vickery said after the boys victory on senior night that he understands the sentiments.

“It’s been kind of a challenging year at Daphne. We have had a quite a bit of adversity to deal with. The last couple of weeks have been tough on Cedric and C.J. and everyone involved. A lot of these guys played football and we as a team, as a family and a school family faced some disruptions. And with the Yelding family being such a pillar of basketball in this community it meant something special to these guys. We reflected on that again at halftime and I’m proud of how they all did, coming out tonight and playing well, especially the seniors.”

In addition to the loss of Mayor Yelding, Vickery’s father, Glenn Vickery—who is Daphne’s head football coach and athletic director—required a serious pancreatic surgery before the end of football season and assistant football coach Jacy Todd suffered life-threatening injuries and lingering paralysis in an accident in August.

Glenn Vickery said the late mayor had been an inspirational leader for generations.

“He was a well-loved man who loved his city, his family and had a great spirit. He was not a one-dimensional person. There was so much more to him than sports or politics and he was good at whatever he did because he gave his all and he instilled that in his children and students and all the players he coached. We’ll miss him very, very much around here and the community.”

The Lady Trojans basketball coach Tereance Pinkney echoed those sentiments.

“Coach Yelding, the mayor, I know he wanted us to go ahead. Face whatever and do your best with what you have. Of course we were pumped up. And C.J. played his heart out. Everybody wanted to get a win for him and his grandfather.”

Bailey Yelding Jr., was inducted into the AHSAA Sports Hall of Fame in 2009 and was also inducted into the Fairhope High School and Baldwin County Coaches Halls of Fame.

He compiled a winning basketball record at Fairhope High of 302-130, reached the state final-four once, the quarterfinals three times and won the Baldwin County championship 10 times. He was a 1957 graduate of Baldwin County Training School in Daphne and earned his degree from Alabama State.

I played for Bailey Yelding, Jr., in the 1970’s. He was a player’s coach and we all strove to be the best we could for him. Halls of fame are nice, but he will live on in the halls of our hearts as well.