Gwinnett Daily Post

The way Shannon Jarvis puts it, he was blessed to have played for and coached with Danny Daniel.

Jarvis, the head football coach at Mill Creek, isn't alone. Daniel, who passed away after suffering a heart attack at his house on Sunday, made countless friends during his long journey of coaching high school football, which meandered through Gwinnett in recent years. He was 57.

Daniel coached at his alma mater, Oglethorpe County, Madison County, Elbert County, Georgia Southern (as a graduate assistant) and the job he held currently at St. Pius. He coached under T. McFerrin for seven years at South Gwinnett, then coached with Jarvis for two more seasons at Mill Creek before his retirement. The veteran coach had worked recently as a substitute teacher at Mill Creek.

"That's a great man right there," said Jarvis, who played for Daniel at Elbert. "You never met someone who didn't have a Danny Daniel story or didn't have great things to say about him. Danny's the perfect guy to have on staff, if you needed something done, he got it done. ... Outside of my father, he's probably the greatest man I ever knew. That's the kind of impact he had on me."

Daniel, also was a renowned high school tennis coach earlier in his career, leaves behind a wife, Cindy, and two children, daughter Laney and son Clark, a junior tennis player at St. Pius.

Visitation will be Wednesday from 4 to 6 p.m. at Wages Funeral Home in Snellville. The funeral service will be afterward in the Wages' chapel.