Coach, father figure to many is mourned
Man who died last week in boating accident had 11 children, was known for his charisma
The last time Tenesha Robbins heard from her husband, they were texting each other Friday night.
Jermaine Robbins was three days into a fishing trip with his friends on Lake Conroe, so she shot him a quick note: “I love you.”
He wrote back and said he loved her, then punctuated the declaration with a kiss emoji.
“That’s the last thing we said to each other,” she said this week.
On Saturday morning, Robbins and his friends were fishing near Seven Coves when a large boat passed by, creating a wake that capsized their smaller vessel and sent all three into the water. The men were wearing life jackets, according to the Montgomery County Precinct 1 Constable’s Office, and Robbins’ friends bobbed to the surface and started swimming to shore.
But not Robbins. The 46-yearold stopped breathing in the water. Friends and a bystander tried CPR, but according to Precinct 1 Justice of the Peace Wayne Mack, Robbins died on the way
to a hospital .
It was a stunning loss to the family and to the east Houston community. Robbins was father to 11 — seven of his own and four stepchildren, ranging in age from 9 to 26. But family and friends say he was a coach, a mentor and a father figure to hundreds of other young athletes in Channelview, North Shore and east Houston.
For nearly 20 years — since his own children were small — Robbins coached kids ages 5 to 12 through the Youth Football and Cheer Federation and the East Houston Basketball Association. He also started his own track club for young runners, his wife said.
Robbins was a service manager for a company that provides sanitation products and cleaning services. And after his workday ended, he’d spend several nights a week on the basketball court or out on the football field, teaching kids how to play and how to live.
“He always told me, ‘I don’t want to be just a coach, I want to be a life coach for these kids,’” his wife said.
Loved fishing, barbecue
Robbins loved fishing — he’d been talking about this trip to Lake Conroe for three weeks, said friend D’Andre Hardeman. He could also work the barbecue pit, and he often cooked after games for the kids he coached and their families.
He always watched the 10 p.m. news, his wife said. If he couldn’t be home, he’d record it.
Robbins, a Marshall native, had been a standout high school football player. And he was especially proud of the kids he’d coached who went on to get scholarships to play college ball, said Ronnie Hill, who coached with him for more than 15 years.
Robbins was known to his friends as “Chop,” a nickname that dated back to his 20s, when he was involved with Swishahouse, the music label that was putting out the Houston style hip-hop music known as chopped-and-screwed.
But that evolved into “Coach Chop” as he got older and started devoting his spare time to coaching youth basketball, football and track.
Robbins was “an allaround good dude,” said Hardeman, who is president of the East Houston Basketball Association. “He was someone you’d want your kids to grow up to be like.”
Robbins was a commissioner for the organization, Hardeman said, and he took on a lot of administrative duties with a smile on his face. But he was happiest when he was teaching young players.
“He just had the charisma to deal with kids,” Hardeman said. “He was just great with kids.”
One big household
Laid-back and kind, with a genuine heart. That’s what Tenesha Robbins first noticed in the guy she met a decade ago while signing up her kids to play youth sports. Both had just gone through divorces and neither was ready for a relationship, but they kept bumping into each other. Soon, that turned into talking all night, and eventually it turned into marriage and combining his seven kids and her four into one big, busy household.
“He was just different, you know?” she said. She was “a little broken” from bad relationships, but “he loved me through all that,” Tenesha Robbins said. “He repaired my heart.”
She’s been gratified, then, to hear about her husband’s kindness from other people. Since Saturday, she said she’s heard from former players and some of their parents, telling her the impact Coach Chop had on their lives.
“I knew that he had planted a lot of seeds in the community, but I never expected the harvest to be this amazing,” she said. “I’ve had mothers say ‘I loved him. He saved my child. He didn’t give up when everybody else did.’ ”
That was classic Robbins, Hill said. “He’d go over and beyond.”
If a kid couldn’t afford equipment, he’d go out and buy some. If a player needed to eat, Robbins would give him a ride home and stop for a burger on the way, Hill said.
Tenesha Robbins remembers that generosity. If young players couldn’t afford to join a youth team, he’d often sponsor them, paying for their uniform and registration fees.
“He would come home and say, ‘Don’t be mad, but I sponsored six kids today,’ ” Tenesha Robbins said with a laugh. “I’d be like: ‘We’ve got 11. What?’ (But) he’d make a way.”
Robbins said she wants to start a fund soon that will sponsor kids in the community who want to play youth sports. “I know that giving back to his community was very important to him,” she said. “I want to create a fund in his name so he can continue, even while he’s gone, to sponsor children.”
It’s a way Tenesha and Jermaine Robbins can both keep saying “I love you.”
Services for Jermaine Robbins are scheduled for Friday at Fellowship of the Nations Church, 13305 Woodforest, Houston, 77015. Viewing is at 3 p.m., followed by a service at 7 p.m.