Fund to be set up in honor of ‘Coach Gut’

By Marcus Clem

Colleagues and former students are paying tribute to a longtime educator who died last week.

A public charity that presents collegiate scholarship money, helps families in need and advances the future of the North End is the vision of those who wish to honor Jason Guthery.

Guthery, known to most as “Coach Gut,” died on Dec. 30 at age 39, having worked previously for 15 years at Lafayette High School, where he was also a Class of 2003 alumnus. A celebrated teacher, Lafayette Fighting Irish coach and student support leader in the role of a behavior interventionist, Guthery concluded his service at Lafayette at the end of the 2022-2023 year, the St. Joseph School District said.

“Coach Gut was a person who, once you came across him, he was a person you knew for life,” said Amy Ryan, a retired Lafayette teacher. “He was very personable. Everybody loved him. You won’t come across anybody that will ever say anything ill about him. The impact that he had on kids and the whole North End community — not just where he taught, but the whole North End — it’s just a sad, sad thing for everyone involved.”

Ryan, who mentored Guthery during his time as a student and later worked beside him in education, is in the earliest stages of helping to organize the Jason Guthery Scholarship Fund and related efforts. Though he died before his time, Guthery’s legacy lives on regardless of what others may do, she said.

Together with supporters like Russell Book, the fund and related efforts are meant to recognize that many North Enders choose a path other than a four-year college degree after Lafayette. That may be an industrial trade apprenticeship, going directly into business for themselves or just entering the workforce. Those who benefit from the dollars raised in Coach Gut’s memory will apply them in many ways for a better future.

Book said Guthery had the special talent of recognizing and nurturing a student’s aptitude and interests, so that they would end up doing something that was good for them as a whole person.

“If you don’t have the ability to connect with others, it really doesn’t matter how much information you have or know,” Book said. “And what Coach Gut possessed was the ability to connect, and his ability to connect with others was as good as anyone we’ve had. So, that was a huge deal.”

Lafayette has faced significant attendance challenges with motivating kids to show up each day and engage with their learning. In this way, Guthery’s loss will be particularly hard to replace.

“He could impact kids that wanted to be at school and impact kids that didn’t want to be at school,” Book said. “And that’s a pretty big deal.”

Guthery’s life will be celebrated through Meierhoffer Funeral Home at a later date, according to his obituary, which notes his other accomplishments, including a bachelor’s degree from Northwest Missouri State University earned in 2007 and membership in the Delta Chi fraternity.

Ryan spoke to how she will always remember Guthery’s care and passion for students.

“It’s just a sad situation that the community won’t be able to go to him anymore, kids won’t go to him,” she said. “I know students have reached out to him, parents have reached out to him in the past, and that won’t be there for them anymore.”

According to News-Press archives, Guthery pursued other interests in the community, including a run for Buchanan County Commission in 2018. As always, he dedicated his purpose to the youth of St. Joseph.

“We’re at a time where our youth can decide one of two things: They can turn their head or they can raise their hand and get involved. This community has given me so much, I want to show the kids of this community that if you want change you’ve got to step up and do something about it,” Guthery said in 2018. “And the first step is trying, so here we are.”