Matt Townsend, the athletic director at Sherman's Texoma Christian School, died Tuesday, Sept. 29. He was 45. The Herald Democrat reported that he was also the school's head football coach.
Townsend was a Sherman native. According to his obituary from Waldo Funeral Home, he was born in the city on Jan. 3, 1981, graduated from S&S High School in 1999 and earned bachelor's and master's degrees at Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
He spent his career in classrooms and on sidelines across Texoma and North Texas. According to the obituary, he was an English teacher and a coach in football and several other sports at S&S, Van Alstyne, Bonham and Frisco before Texoma Christian, and he spent many years as an English instructor at Grayson College. He led Texoma Christian's athletic program in recent years.
Townsend served as a deacon at Sherman's First Baptist Church. His family wrote that he considered his students and players his ministry and took pride in everyone he mentored.
Survivors include his wife, Emily; their two children; his parents, Jay and Susie Townsend; his sister; and his grandmother.
