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- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 21 Nov 2007.
BOWERS , SHAWN JEREMIAH CODY age 25, of Madisonville, went home to be with the Lord, Monday evening, November 19, 2007. He was a 2000 graduate of Loudon High School, were he lettered in football, baseball and basketball and won numerous athletic awards. He was in the top 25 of his graduating class. He was a 2005 graduate of Maryville College, where he received a Bachelors degree in history and lettered 3 years in football. He was an assistant football coach at Maryville College for the last 2 years. He was a member of South Madisonville Baptist Church and was a born- again Christian. He loved trout fishing and deer hunting. Survivors: parents, Robby and Tami Bowers , Madisonville; sisters and brothers-in-law, Casey Bowers Chaney and Blake Chaney, Loudon, Corey Bowers Keith and Eric Keith, Madisonville; grandparents, Lowell H., Jr. and Wanda Ridings, Maryville, Jo Ann and Roscoe Arden, Loudon, great-grandparents, Ella Brackett , Loudon, Leslie Baker, Sr., Wilma Francis Ridings of Maryville; niece, Alexis Keith; one expected nephew; devoted aunts and uncles, Jimmy and Mitzi Long, Maryville, Kathey and Michael Murr, Loudon; devoted cousins, Jamie, Kadie and Meghan Long, Chastity Murr; numerous other aunts, uncles and cousins. Preceded in death by grandfather, Bobby V. Bowers ; great grandmother, Glessie Baker; great grandfathers, Lowell H. Ridings, Sr., Charles E. Brackett . Funeral 11:00 a.m. Saturday, Biereley-Hale Chapel, Rev. Rick Harris, Rev. Adam Cook officiating. Interment in Sunset Cemetery. Memorials may be made to Loudon High School Athletics Dept. or Maryville College Athletics Dept. Family will receive friends 5-8 p.m. Friday at Biereley-Hale Funeral Home, Madisonville.
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 21 Nov 2007.
Friends grieve for 'really good guy'
Maryville College coach killed when his truck hit trees
By Robert L. Wilson
PHOTO BY J. MILES CARY
A memorial rests at the site of an accident that claimed the life of a Maryville College assistant football coach on Tuesday. Cody Bowers, 25, was killed in the Monday night crash when the 2004 Toyota Tundra he was driving left the road and hit two trees. The crash left passengers Matt Lambert, 24, and Trey Lefler, 25, in critical condition.
PHOTO BY J. MILES CARY // BUY THIS PHOTO
Shaun Hayes, a Maryville College assistant football coach, hugs a player after a campus prayer service Tuesday dedicated to Maryville College Assistant Coach Shawn Jeremiah Cody Bowers, 25, of Madisonville.
MARYVILLE - Kelli Ierulli's eyes hid behind dark glasses Tuesday, but her voice betrayed her grief as she laid purple flowers at the base of the oak tree where Maryville College assistant football coach Cody Bowers died the night before.
"He was a really good guy," the 19-year-old sophomore said, trying not to choke up. "He really wanted to make people happy."
Shawn Jeremiah Cody Bowers, 25, of Madisonville, a defensive backs coach at his alma mater, was killed shortly before 11 p.m. Monday when his black 2004 Toyota Tundra slammed into a pair of trees on a curvy, secluded road leading to a college meeting facility known as the House in the Woods.
Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said two passengers in the pickup, Jack Heatherly "Trey" Lefler, 25, of Loudon, and Matt Lambert, 24, of Maryville, were critically injured and taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
Lefler was in the front seat and thrown through the windshield. Lambert was in the back seat. None of the three was wearing a seat belt, Crisp said.
According to a UT Medical Center spokeswoman, Lambert's condition was upgraded to serious late Tuesday, while Lefler remained critical.
An accident reconstruction team is expected to issue a report today, the chief said.
Crisp said there was no evidence of alcohol on the scene, but speed was thought to be a factor. The speed limit on the narrow road is posted at 20 miles per hour. Crisp said the truck hit a tree head-on, spun around and hit a second tree at the driver's door.
There were no witnesses, but authorities were alerted by people who heard the crash, the chief said.
Bowers' death cast a pall over the normally quiet campus of the 1,200-student private school.
Tuesday was the last day of classes before Thanksgiving break, according to college President Dr. Gerald Gibson, so many students already had left for the holiday. The rest were "in a somber mood," he said.
"It's a terrible shock," Gibson said, adding that he did not know Bowers well but that "he graduated in 2005, so I gave him his diploma. This is a small campus, so everybody is a member of the family."
Tony Ierulli, Maryville College's head football coach and Kelli Ierulli's father, said Bowers loved the college and that coaching there "was his dream job."
Bowers had played defensive back for Maryville College.
"He was on the first team I coached" at Maryville, Tony Ierulli said, and as a coach close to the players' ages, "he had a great rapport."
'Great kids'
Grief at Bowers' death and concern for the two surviving men spread beyond the Maryville College campus.
Lefler and Bowers, who was unmarried, played football together at Loudon High School, where Bowers was an all-region quarterback and defensive back and Lefler was an all-region wide receiver who set a single-season reception record.
"A lot of kids don't know them, but as a teaching staff and a coaching staff, it's heartbreaking," said Jeff Harig, the high school's head coach and an assistant coach in 1999, the men's senior season.
"Both were great kids. Never had any problems out of them. They were hardworking and overachieving. Both were about 5-foot-8, 165 pounds, and they both went on to play college ball."
Loudon Principal John Bartlett said Lambert did not attend Loudon but that he knew Bowers and Lefler, whose father is an assistant basketball coach at the school. Bartlett said the facilities have been offered to Bowers' family for any type of commemoration.
"We are all praying and pulling for Trey," Bartlett said.
Loudon Athletic Director Bill Thompson said, "They were tremendous young men. They were leaders on the athletic fields and off the athletic fields. You couldn't ask for anything else. They were so well mannered, such good boys. Such a shock for us."
'How he lived'
At Maryville College, an overflow crowd attended the regular Tuesday afternoon prayer service at the elegant Center for Campus Ministry. The service was dedicated to Bowers, and Tony Ierulli spoke tearfully about his young assistant's "big smile.
"They've got a good football coach up there," he said.
Campus minister Anne Mc-Kee conducted the service, repeatedly telling a crowd with red eyes and moist cheeks, "Here is what I know today" about the spiritual side of Bowers' death, adding she is confident "God was moving just ahead to catch him in His loving arms.
"We wake up to a day that was not promised to us the day before," she said, and she noted that all their lives had been changed.
Shaun Hayes, a running backs coach at Maryville College, had played for the Fighting Scots with Bowers.
"He was a fighter," Hayes said during an afternoon visit to the accident scene. "He was a guy who could overcome all adversity. His biggest quality was his personal relationships" with the athletes. "He got them to believe in him."
Ierulli, who called his team together for a meeting before the prayer service, said most were "taking it pretty hard. We will tell them we love them and try to turn this into something positive. We won't dwell on how he died but how he lived."
Ierulli's daughter, a psychology major, called the tragedy "an eye-opener. If we do silly things, we never know the outcome."
Don Jacobs, Jesse Smithey and Hunter Pavlik contributed to this report.
- [S147] Find a Grave, (Memorial: 23199780).
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Abt 1982 - 2007 (~ 25 years)
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