Antelope coach dies of COVID-19

AUHS mourns the loss of Joel Arcos

YUMA, Ariz. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - The Antelope Rams family loses a beloved coach to the Coronavirus.

Rams girls head basketball coach Joel Arcos lost his battle with COVID-19.

The 1st year coach at Antelope had been in intensive care at Yuma Regional Medical Center for almost a month before his passing this past Friday night.

Prior to joining the Rams program, he had coached the sport of basketball at Wellton Elementary School and had also done some assistant coaching work at Mohawk Elementary.

He is credited with developing kids in the game before they advanced to the high school level at Antelope Union High School.

Rams Athletic Director Rocky Jaime is deeply moved with how the Wellton-Tacna community has responded to this tragedy.

"It's just showing the beauty of humanity, that can be, you know, it's these tragedies, you can't, you can't explain them you can prepare for them. But, it's just a beaufiful thing to see how the school and how the community has really rallied around everybody."

Rocky Jaime - Antelope Rams Athletic Director

Joel's brother Sal came along with him as the girl's basketball assistant coach.

He will fill in the head coaching duties for the remainder of the season in honor of his brother's memory.