The city of Allen grieves the loss of Allen ISD’s new football coach, James Shillam, who died in the hospital on Sunday from COVID-19 and pneumonia. He was 56.
James Shillam had just been hired on as a Freshman Football Coach at Allen High School. He died just days short of Allen ISD’s season opener this coming Friday.
Shillam’s wife, Kyp, said earlier this month he had been placed on a ventilator. This Sunday, she posted on Facebook that he had passed away.
“He is the most generous, kind, stable, righteous man I have known,” Kyp wrote of the Allen coach. “He is my rock and my everything. He is a Godly man and loving father who loves his players, students and the coaches he shares the sidelines with. He stepped foot in his promised land of Allen High School – the Eagles.”
“He adored every minute of Texas football,” Kyp said in an interview with WFAA, sitting in Allen Eagle Stadium where her husband would have coached his team in a few short days. “For him, Allen was his dream. It was his promised land.”