Jerome Tang shares uplifting message with parents of K-State student killed in crash

NEW YORK (KWCH) - The Kansas State University men’s basketball team won a thriller Thursday night in the Sweet 16 in New York City, but the most impactful minutes for Head Coach Jerome Tang happened before the ball was tipped. Remembering the life of a student he’d met, he decided to make a call unrelated to the game, momentarily stepping aside from the massive stage on which his team was about to play.

Lily Koehn was a freshman at Kansas State University who graduated last year from Maize High School. She was an avid Kansas State basketball fan who met Tang when the first-year Wildcat coach had dinner with her sorority chapter.

On March 10, Koehn died from her injuries in a car crash in Harvey County. Tang experienced sudden loss when his brother died 14 years ago and he recalled his mother describing the death of a child as the worst pain a parent can experience. Prior to Thursday night’s game against Michigan State, Tang called Koehn’s parents, Warren and Julie.

“When I heard what happened, I’ve been wanting to get the number so I could reach out to her parents because of that pain,” Tang said. “So, (Thursday), sitting 40 minutes before the game, instead of just me thinking about what could go wrong and everything like that, I said, ‘you know man, I could use this time to bless somebody’s life. So I was able to reach out to [Koehn’s] parents and just talked with them and just let them know I was thinking about them and praying for them.”

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