McCOY
LODA — During their 30 years of friendship, Doug McCoy and Mark Prina competed a lot against each other.
The two even placed a bet on who would outlive the other.
“Whoever lost had to buy the other one lunch,” Prina said.
Mr. McCoy passed away on Saturday, Sept. 27. He was 64.
“Well, he won that bet, too, because he can’t pay for it now,” Prina said. “We didn’t think that through.”
Prina first met Mr. Mc- Coy after graduating from Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School in 1996 and starting a summer job working for the city of Paxton’s street department, where Mr. McCoy was employed for 28 years, from 1985 to 2013.
“ H e was a really good worker,” Paxton Mayor Bill Ingold said of Mr. Mc- Coy. “He took care of the equipment.”
“(Mr. McCoy) kind of took me under his wing,” Prina said. “That’s how we became really close friends. We did a lot together.”
From there, Prina became familiar with Mr. McCoy’s competitive nature, which came out in various forms — even during their lunch breaks.
“We would flip quarters to see who would have to buy a quarter pop in the pop machine at IGA at break time,” Prina said. “We’d flip quarters to see who’d win two of three, and if he didn’t win, he’d want to flip for best three out of five. He’d want to keep playing until he won. We loved to compete against each other. We were both competitive people. Doug was a super competitive person.”
Mr. McCoy and Prina soon found a favorite after-work competition — golf.
“He loved all kinds of sports, but he especially loved golf,” Prina said. “That was where he could still compete. He couldn’t play baseball, basketball or football anymore, but he could compete at golf throughout his whole life. That’s what he loved about it. We really became close playing golf with each other. He taught me a lot about it.”
Mr. McCoy eventually became superintendent of Lakeview Country Club’s golf course at Bayles Lake west of Loda in the early 2010s.
“That was his pride and joy,” Prina said. “He loved that golf course and loved taking care of it, especially the putting greens. He knew that we had some of the best greens in Central Illinois, and he worked really hard to keep it that way.”
Mr. McCoy not only took care of the golf course but played more than his share of golf there, as well, winning the Lakeview club championship a record 11 times.
Mr. McCoy also set a Lakeview course record for lowest 18-hole round, shooting 64 twice.
Prina was with Mr. McCoy the second time. Prina recalled Mr. McCoy being a 20-foot putt away from resetting the club record at 63.
“He kind of got on a hot streak the last two holes,” Prina said. “I didn’t tell him because he was on such a hot streak. I didn’t want to break his rhythm.”
As Prina recalled, Mr. McCoy was within “an inch or two” of making the putt.
“I told him, ‘Did you realize that was for 63?’ He had no idea,” Prina said. “He was just trying to win each hole. It was really neat to see him do that. It was a pretty neat experience to be with him on that. That’s why he loved taking care of the course. He took so much pride in it.”
Prina also recalled many late nights competing against Mr. Mc- Coy in closest-to-the pin contests.
“We’d do it all night long,” Prina said. “We had a game where we played until we couldn’t find our golf balls because it was so dark. That was just his nature. That was his mentality.”
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Long before becoming an avid golfer, Mr. McCoy played football for a Paxton High School team that went 10-1 under legendary coach Norm Henderson in 1978.
Before Mr. McCoy’s senior season, Mr. Henderson went to Clifton Central and asked Mr. McCoy if he would like to move with him — an offer that Mr. McCoy declined. The Paxton Mustangs went 8-2 in Mr. McCoy’s senior year.
“I knew of him since I was a little kid,” said Jeff Graham, a Paxton graduate who would go on to be the head coach for Paxton-Buckley Loda High School’s football team 2002-05 and 2011-18. “He was one of the toughest running back/fullbacks that Paxton has seen. I’ll never forget he was No. 36, and I was so happy to have the privilege to wear that number my freshman year.”
When Mr. Henderson took over as head coach at PBL High School in 2000, Mr. McCoy joined him as an assistant coach.
Mr. Henderson retired after the 2001 season. Succeeding him was Graham, who worked alongside Mr. McCoy and Mr. Henderson as an assistant coach in 2001.
During his stints as PBL’s head coach, Graham found Mr. McCoy to be arguably his most trusted assistant.
“I valued Doug’s opinion in football and in life,” Graham said. “If you know Doug, you know he always thought outside the box. He came up with things that you wouldn’t think of. I would often say, “Where’d you come up with that?’”
Graham also described Mr. Mc- Coy as “detail-oriented — but flexible in the big picture of things.”
After the 2011 season, in which the PBL Panthers went 2-7, Mr. McCoy diagnosed a problem with the team.
“Doug said, ‘Jeff, the problem is we are not paying attention to the details — details as in touching lines, starting behind the line, paying attention to fundamentals instead of letting them slide,’” Graham said. “But, in the big picture, Doug was hands-off. (He would say,) ‘Jeff, we need to let these kids play, let them call the plays, etc.’ He always said, ‘They are the ones out on the field, (so) give them the ownership.’”
With Mr. McCoy’s help, Graham led PBL to five straight playoff appearances from 2014-18.
According to Graham, Mr. Mc- Coy helped everyone off the field, as well.
“I guarantee you Doug McCoy would have done anything for any one of those kids that he established a relationship with on that football field,” Graham said. “Just like he lived his life, Doug modeled what we always talked about — working for and loving one another. He was the most genuine, honest person that I’ve met, and he lived life that way. He loved people, and they loved him, especially his former football players. We had some good football teams, but most important to Doug were the relationships he built with these young men.”
Mr. McCoy gave Graham’s oldest son, Tate, his first car when he turned 16.
“My kids were like family to Doug,” Graham said. “It’s a huge reflection of Doug‘s character. Doug loved his family and friends, and he would do anything for them. Simply put, he was a generous person. He didn’t dwell on money and personal items, but rather having fun, being around and laughing with people and making people feel good about themselves.”
Both of Graham’s sons, Tate and Ty Graham, worked for Mr. McCoy at Lakeview Country Club.
“He’d always laugh and tell them, ‘It’s just grass,’” Graham said. “But take a look at that course and those greens. It might be just grass in the big picture, but for greens to look that way, someone is detail oriented, and that would be Doug.”
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Football was not the only sport that Mr. McCoy — a “rabid” Pittsburgh Steelers and Pirates fan, according to his obituary — coached at PBL.
When Rick Johnson took over as PBL’s head baseball coach in 2007, he asked Mr. McCoy to help out as an assistant. Mr. McCoy helped out for three seasons.
“Doug said, ‘I don’t know everything about baseball, but I’ll do whatever you tell me to do,’” Johnson said. “He first started out as somebody who kind of helped to fill in, but he really developed into a good baseball coach. He just bought into everything we were doing, and he was just such a great asset to the baseball program while he helped, and the kids just absolutely loved him. He made it so fun for them.”
Johnson remembers one day when a mother of a player passed out cupcakes to members of the team — a party in which Mr. Mc- Coy did not want to participate.
“He stayed in the dugout as long as he possibly could to avoid getting caught up in the cupcake party,” Johnson said.
The mother found Mr. McCoy anyway.
“It was so funny that he tried to avoid becoming a part of the cupcake party but ended up having to be a part of it anyway,” Johnson said. “You almost had to be there to realize how funny it really was.”
Prina said it was no surprise that Mr. McCoy was able to be a good coach in sports beyond golf.
“He was a great teacher of the game,” Prina said. “That’s why he was a good coach in other sports, as well. Doug was a good teacher. He knew I had a little bit of talent. He had a lot of talent, and he helped me get closer to his level just through playing with him and teaching me.”
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Even with all the memories people have of Mr. McCoy for his golfing and coaching abilities, his devotion to his family was the thing multiple people said they remember the most about him.
Mr. McCoy was preceded in death by his wife, Vicki McCoy, who passed away at age 60 in July 2023. In the decade prior to her passing, she battled Huntington’s Disease.
“What impressed me most was the dedication and compassion he showed for his wife when she was so very ill,” Ingold said. “He took care of her in those last few years. That just speaks volumes to the man’s character. I think that’s a very admirable thing.”
“He set great example as a husband and father,” Johnson said. “He was so dedicated to Vicki.”
Mr. McCoy is survived by his wife Krisha Whitcomb; children Jake McCoy (Heidi) and Samantha Cox (Isaac); grandchildren Grace McCoy, Audrey McCoy and Summer Cox; mother Dolores Dukek; and brother Larry McCoy (Karen).
“He was the best dad. He was my rock. He was my best friend. I’ll miss him so much,” Samantha Cox said in a Facebook post.
“He will truly be missed by many,” Graham said.
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After Mr. McCoy’s death, Prina heard a Bob Seger song playing on his radio. Seger was Mr. McCoy’s favorite singer, according to Prina, and the fact that one of his songs was playing on the radio was seen by Prina as a sign. “You just kind of have to chuckle and smile. Maybe he’s still watching,” Prina said.
A celebration of Mr. McCoy’s life was Sunday, Oct. 5, at Lakeview Country Club. Earlier Sunday, the country club hosted a golf outing in Mr. McCoy’s honor. The preceding day, the Rankin Rangers’ annual golf outing was held, with proceeds going to the McCoy family and their continued fight against Huntington’s disease.