Montevideo man who died of cancer honored at high school baseball game
MONTEVIDEO, Minn. — Minnesotans honored on Tuesday a family man and community pillar whose life ended too soon.
Andy Coulter died of cancer in March, leaving a hole in the Montevideo community he loved dearly.
Before the high school's varsity baseball game, a ceremony was held for Coulter.
Tim Epema, the varsity coach who also coached Coulter, says he was a gritty ballplayer growing up.
"Gave you tough at-bats, played hard, just diving," Epema said.
Coulter shared his love for baseball with his wife, Kari, and their three sons.
"He took pride and joy in watching all the boys and their sports," Kari said. "This last six months or so, he was very tired and had a really hard time getting to events, and I think that absolutely broke his heart."
Kari says her husband didn't have a mean bone in his body.
"He was very big into doing stuff for the veterans," she said. "Just kind of his way of giving back. He was in radio for numerous years and through that, he got to know a lot of the people."
Those same friends and neighbors paid tribute to Coulter Tuesday at the game with shirts that had his favorite phrase on them.
"Everything was, 'Classic,'" Kari said. "You would say something, and his one-liner back was, 'Classic.'"
The varsity players wore the shirts out on the field too.
Before the game, there was a short reading about Coulter over the PA system.
"Andy's huge heart and strive for giving back to the community and volunteering was evident in everything he did," it said.
The ceremony was capped with his sons throwing out the first pitch.
"You can see he instilled the same things in his kids: they're funny kids but when it's go time, it's go time," Epema said. "It's time to get down serious."
"He was a very kind person, and I wish we had more people like him in this world," Kari said.
Kari says a memorial tree for Coulter will be planted this summer and it's going to be next to the baseball field.
