Former Florida State Seminole and Dallas Cowboy, Char-ron Dorsey, died Monday following complications from a stroke.
Dorsey was 46 years old.
Following his football career, Dorsey became a high school football coach and was coaching until his death. One of his assistants expressed his grief at the passing of his head coach.
“Just at a loss for words thinking about my brother,” said Mike Holloway of Terry Parker High School. “We’ve been doing this for a very long time until now. We see kids that we’ve coached now are coaching or have kids themselves.
“We built a legacy on hard work and doing it ourselves, letting kids know through hard work and dedication you can make it and be successful.”
Dorsey also made his mark on Florida high school football as a player. He received First-Team 4A All-State honors three times as a defensive tackle. After a solid freshman season at Florida State under the legendary Bobby Bowden, Dorsey moved to the other side of the ball and played right tackle.
Dorsey earned accolades there as well, making the All-ACC team in 2000.
The former Nole became a 7th-round pick of the Cowboys in 2001. In Dallas, he played nine games, including two starts. Dorsey was waived at the end of the season and picked up by the then-expansion Houston Texans in 2002.
After football, Dorsey found great success coaching at the middle school he once attended. In 2018, he moved up to the high school ranks and took over a struggling program at Terry Parker High School. At the time of his hiring, the school had not had a winning season in a decade. However, in only his second season, Dorsey led Parker to a district championship.
“He cared for the kids,” said Parker Athletic Director Brad Bernard. “The kids were his main priority. He fought for them tooth and nail. He was a great example as a man. He could relate to the kids. No kid could come to him and tell him something that he didn’t understand. He could relate to them. I think he saved some kids. … If a kid came up to him and said they were going through hard times, he encouraged them to fight through it because he went through it.”