Hundreds Attend Visitation for Brooke Ann Coats

Hundreds of people gathered Feb. 23 to pay their final respects to Riverview High School honor student Brooke Ann Coats, who died five days earlier after a bull-riding accident at a greater Brandon rodeo.

That the 16-year-old lived an active life, touched many lives and died from a sport she was absolutely crazy about is pretty obvious from the scores of people interviewed over the past few days at the makeshift memorial that stands in tribute to her memory outside the bullring on U.S. 301, just north of the Crosstown Expressway.

Outside Stowers Funeral Home, about an hour into the visitation, Riverview High School Principal Bob Heilmann had a ready answer to someone who asked: “Are you OK?”

“No, I’m not OK,” he said gently. When a student dies, he said, “it is our child collectively, but it is your child as a principal.” With the students and their families, he added, “you share their joys, you share their pains and you share their losses.”

Coats died in surgery Feb. 18 at Tampa General Hospital after walking away from a bull-riding accident some 90 minutes earlier at the Remington Rough Stock rodeo. A newly planted blue sign at the site announces the “Crosstown Arena,” where bull riding takes place the first and third Fridays of the month.

What stands out about Coats is how universally the 16-year-old was both known and respected, Heilmann said outside the Stowers Funeral Home, at 401 W. Brandon Blvd.

“If you stood on line you would see someone from every stage of humanity, every group, every ethnicity, religion and interest group,” Heilmann said. “Cowboys and wrestlers, singers and cheerleaders. They’re all here.”

“She was a well-rounded girl,” said schoolmate Nick Bynum. “She made friends with all kinds of people.”

At school on Monday, Heilmann announced to the student body the death of one of their own and throughout the day visited with the students in Brookes’ classes.

His job as principal became that of grief counselor.

“Your job is to go forward or to stay where you’re at,” Heilmann said he told the students. “What do you think Brooke would do? She’d get back on the bull and try again, wouldn’t she? So, get up and ride. That’s my opinion, but that’s what I think she would do."

Funeral services will be held Feb. 24 at 10 a.m., in the chapel of, at 401 W. Brandon Blvd.

Internment will follow in the family lot at in Brandon, at 2323 W. Brandon Blvd.

Flowers will be accepted and memorial contributions can be made in Brooke’s memory to the Humane Society.

RELATED COVERAGE:

• Bloomingdale Patch: Friends Express Condolences to Family of Riverview High School Student

• Bloomingdale Patch: Riverview Students Hold Memorial at School 

• Bloomingdale Patch: 

• Bloomingdale Patch: Weighing the Risks of Participating in Sports

• Bloomingdale Patch: No Foul Play Found in Bull-Riding Accident