Fort Campbell officials announced that Coach Jeff Rodgers passed away on Friday after dealing with a stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
Rodgers, a graduate of Murray State University, began his teaching career at Fort Campbell 34 years ago. He was an assistant football coach for the Falcons under Marshall Patterson, Rocky Cobb, and Ronnie Bell, among others.
Rodgers was named the head football coach at Fort Campbell two months before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down high school sports for the spring. However, sports at DODEA schools were also canceled in the fall of 2020. Rodgers stepped away as head coach in June 2021, having never coached a game.
He also began the archery program at Fort Campbell, seeing both results and participation improve during his tenure. Just this spring, the Fort Campbell archers set a school-record score of 3,225 at the NASP State Tournament in Louisville. Fort Campbell’s teams were also regular competitors at the NASP National Tournament.
2 Responses
The world has lost an amazing human being. I was fortunate enough to have played basketball against him in grade school. I was also fortunate enough to have went to high school with Jeff and his wife Crystal. Jeff was the qb and leader of the SHHS football team. He was the most laid back and kind hearted person. He always had a smile on his face and never met a stranger. I will see him again someday!! RIP Brother. Sending prayers to his wife and family. 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Prayers! Knew Jeff from the White Plains Elementey years and South Hopkins high years.He was a good guy with a content laid back personality.