Title- Coach Harmon : The passing away of a beloved coach

            On July, 17th 2010 a beloved coach of Smithtown School District passed away.  Patrick Harmon passed away after fighting brain cancer for several years. Despite Coach Harmon’s struggles , nothing stopped him when he coached and taught at the Smithtown High Schools. Harmon worked at Smithtown East as a permanent substitute teacher and coached football. At West, Coach Harmon coached winter and spring track and field for the boys and girls.
           At Smithtown West, most of the kids knew Coach Harmon as one of the coaches of the track and field team.  One of the track coaches in our school, Mrs. Flynn (works in the math office) worked with Coach Harmon for many years. “He was a very dedicated coach, he was at practice every day even when he didn’t feel well. He was supportive of the athletes and other coaches and will be greatly missed this season,” said by Mrs. Flynn.  Senior Kate Feulner worked with Coach Harmon in shot put every winter since she was a freshman at High school West.  “Coach Harmon was loved by all who knew him and was a great coach. He spent all his spare time training our shot-put team to be the best we could be and because of his help and dedication we all improved. I will miss all the jokes and laughs we shared with him”, says Feulner.
           Gianna Glock an 11th grader who was on winter and spring track since freshmen year also had a few things to say about Coach Harmon. “Coach Harmon was, and always will be, an amazing coach. He was such an inspirational person who didn’t take life for granted. I’m so grateful to have had him as a shot-put and discus coach for the past 2 years and he will never be forgotten”, says Glock.
During the time when Coach Harmon was first diagnosed with cancer, he started to work with George Haines. Haines was also diagnosed with brain cancer like Coach Harmon. Both men worked together and they created BCMeetUp which was a support group for people who were affected by brain cancer. This gave people who were struggling with brain cancer a way to connect with other people who were dealing with brain cancer. For any more information on this website, check out: http://www.meetup.com/braincancer/.
           After the passing of Coach Harmon, the students of the Smithtown School district worked together to create a fundraiser walk/run on behalf of Coach Harmon. All the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society. This will be taking place on October 10th at the New York Avenue School building. To register and find out more go to:  http://www.active.com/running/smithtown-ny/5k-runwalk-for-pat-harmon-2010.
         The upcoming winter and spring track season at West will be a lot different without Coach Harmon.  His dedication was a very positive feature to the track and field team.  Although the team has lost a great coach, his memory will still live on for years to come.   Coach Harmon will always be remembered as an amazing coach who was and his legend will live on at the Smithtown High schools.