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Former Coppin basketball star, Pennsylvania coach Larry Yarbray dies in bike crash
Yarbray was the starting point guard at Coppin State University in 1990 when the team made history with its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. He also holds the school's record for 622 career assists. The 51-year-old had also been the head basketball coach at Delaware County Community College for the past five seasons.
CHESTER, Pa. - Larry Yarbray Sr., a former Coppin State University basketball player who holds the Baltimore school's career record for assists, died on Saturday in a bicycle crash in Delaware, according to police and the head of a charter school that employed him. He was 51.
Yarbray was killed Sunday in Dover, Delaware when police say he was riding with a group of cyclists and tapped the back wheel of another bike. The collision redirected Yarbray into the path of an oncoming truck that struck and killed him.
An ambulance took Yarbray to a hospital, where he died, police said. The 23-year-old driver of the GMC Sierra wasn't injured.
My thoughts and prayers just went straight to his family. He was a big time family man, it just hurt," Chester High School Basketball Coach Keith Taylor told FOX 29's Jeff Cole.
Yarbray was Coppin State’s starting point guard when the men’s basketball team made its first-ever NCAA tournament appearance in 1990. His 622 career assists are a school record.
He had been the head basketball coach at Delaware County Community College in Media, Pennsylvania, for the past five seasons.
"His emotion, his care, his concern, the way he interacted with the players – more than just a coach," Chester High School Principal Ron Brown said.
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Yarbray also worked as a middle school dean at Chester Community Charter School in his hometown, according to David Clark Jr., the school's CEO. Clark said he has known Yarbray for 27 years.
"Everybody loved Larry," Clark told The Associated Press. "He was good with the teachers. He was good with the students. He was good with the parents."
The Chester High School basketball team will don black ribbons on their jerseys this season to honor Yarbray.