GRAHAM - Joe Terry Helms was born May 26, 1968, to Mary and Terry Helms. He was a veteran of the Army Reserve, serving from 1987 to 1995. During that time, he graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He went on to impact the lives of many young people across the state of Texas at 6-man football schools including Dell City, New Home, Dawson (Welch), Grady, Bryson, Grandfalls-Royalty, and Gold-Burg. While coaching and teaching he earned a Master of Education degree from Sul Ross University. His dedication was admired as he educated high school students in English while serving as a principal and superintendent.
He was a man of great character who taught kids, led people, and loved his family. He was promoted to heaven on 04/26/2023. He is remembered not only for his strength in coaching but also for his belief and faith in God. He was an active member in the Baptist churches in or near his home towns. He encouraged his players to pray and to find hope in God.
His leadership style was focused on the task at hand and he was a masterful problem-solver; developing schools but most importantly, developing people. His serious demeanor was challenging for some until they recognized his love for them. He enjoyed joking around with students and friends on a personal level and sought to build up everyone around him in a positive direction. He made it a priority to meet folks where they were and aimed to help them become the best person that God has created them to be. While winning was always important, his main goal was to guide each person that he encountered to become their best - 100%!
He was an active member of the Texas Six-Man Coaches Association for 27 years. He served as an officer for 6 years and a district director for 18 years. He was an all state selection director for 2 years and he served as an all regional director for 6 years. Joe was elected coach of the year 11 times at the district level, 4 times at the regional level, and once in 2007 at the state level. He coached the west D1 All-Star team in 2008 and was selected as the East D2 All-Star coach in 2022. In January 2023, he was honored to be voted into the Texas Six-Man Coaches Association Hall of Fame which is to be acknowledged in July 2023 at the All-Star Games.
In addition to football, he has coached both boys and girls basketball with playoff appearances for both. He has led track teams to 13 district championships and 1 of those onto an area championship. He has had athletes advance to state competition in most all events over the course of his 27 years of coaching.
He is survived by his wife of almost 32 years Tammy Helms; his children Julian (Kara) Helms, Jalen (Presley) Helms, and Pito (Sydney) Morales; his parents Terry (Oma Sue) Helms, Mary (Stan) Mantooth, and Delton (Gay) McNabb; his siblings Jim (Brandy) Helms, Misty (Dusty) McDonald, Jamie (Billie) Patterson, Cynthia (Ben) Kautz, Jeremy (Stephanie) Mantooth, Josh (Amanda) Mantooth, John (Jennifer) Manley, Jason (Angela) Manley, and many nieces, nephews, other family members, friends, coworkers and students.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to The Texas Six-Man Coaches Association Scholarship Fund (TSMCA c/o John York P.O. Box 97 Wellman, Texas 79378) or Beyond Faith Hospice www.beyondfaithhospice.com (604 Oak Street, Suite 105 Graham, TX 76450).
Visitation was Apr. 30, at McMillan-Satterwhite Funeral Home in Graham, . Celebration of Life Services were at the First Baptist Church of Possum Kingdom Lake on May 1, followed by a graveside service at Pickwick-McAdams cemetery on Possum Kingdom Lake.