Gene Black did it all at Calvary Baptist

Eugene “Gene” Black’s funeral was on Wednesday, and the Calvary Baptist community will miss the school’s girls volleyball and former girls basketball coach.

Although I never met him, I talked with him on the phone several times when he reported results to the paper.

He did a little bit of everything around the school, and I recalled him telling me four or five years ago that he was helping install the wood for the gym floor.

The wood was old bowling lanes donated by a local alley, and Gene, about 70 at the time, was down on the floor, bolting the wood to the floor.

“He put in the bulk of the hours on that floor,” his son-in-law Lincoln Dial said.

He did a lot of things around the school, more than I could mention in print for Thursday’s paper. Dial, who also coaches and serves as pastor at the school, said that Gene would make sure everything was locked up at night at the school.

“I was so relieved when he did that, because I didn’t have to worry about it,” Dial said.

They knew he did a lot, but I think now, they’re realizing just how much he did.

“We’ve been going around the school making a list of the things he used to take care of that we need to do now,” Dial said.

I wasn’t witness to his many good deeds, but I will miss the caring evident when he called in his team’s results, win or lose.