OLATHE, Kan. — A beloved Olathe West baseball coach died Thursday within weeks of contracting COVID-19.
Derek Leppert was an associate baseball coach and attendance clerk at Olathe West High School, where he'd worked since the school opened three years ago.
"He’s one of a kind and he has touched so many lives," Owls head baseball coach Rick Sabath said.
From players and coaches he impacted through baseball to his family, Leppert's legacy, which includes stints with the MidAmerica Nazarene University baseball program and on Sabath's staff at Blue Valley Southwest, spans the entire Kansas City region.
"Baseball brought us together, and we’ve all watched him play and supported him through all the different teams that he was on," Leppert's widow, Stacy Leppert, said.
The reaction to his death is a tribute to how Derek lived.
"Not only did he teach baseball, he taught life — and I think that’s why you see the outpouring of support that you do," Sabath said.
Among those he taught was Ben ByBee, who Derek coached this summer on the Royals Scout Team.
Asked for his thoughts on "Coach Lepp" as he was affectionately known, ByBee said, "Just an awesome guy, definitely a mentor to a lot of players. Everyone looked up to him."
ByBee had been following Derek's updates on Twitter about his COVID-19 battle, including a tweet Wednesday evening that said he had settled into room at a long-term care facility.
"Hear the news that he was out of the ICU, he’s was awake and he’s doing good and that he was going to start a recovery — that’s the good news," ByBee said. "You hear something like this and it’s just like, 'Man, that’s tough to hear.'"
According to medical experts, it's not uncommon for someone's health to go downhill suddenly during a COVID-19 infection.
"We certainly do know that you can get the disease and start to feel better but, at some point after that — whether it’s five, seven, 10 days after that — having a turn for the worst for one reason or another," Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist with the University of Kansas Health System, said.
COVID-19 even made news of Derek's death difficult to pass along.
"With the team, it’s been especially difficult with this environment (and) having to do it either through text or just social media," Stacy said. "There’s a lot of baseball players here at Olathe West."
It's obviously a painful loss for the Leppert family, for whom Sabath organized a Go Fund Me, but they have been comforted by the outpouring of support from the community.
"It’s not easy to do, to talk to your children about something like this, and we appreciate all the support we’ve had from the community," Stacy said. "It’s been overwhelming, the response. I’m totally shocked, so we really appreciate that. Thank you very much."
Derek was an award-winning baseball coach, including the 2019 American Baseball Coaches Associations Assistant High School Coach of the Year.
The Royals will hold a moment of silence in Derek Leppert's memory during a game this weekend.
