By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The Mebane community has mourned the death of Jeff Modlin, a fixture on Eastern Alamance sidelines and dugouts for about four decades.
Modlin died July 31 at age 63 following what had been described as a severe illness.
“A great guy and a great friend,” said John Kirby, Eastern’s longtime football coach and athletics director. “Kind of your right-hand guy.”
He had been a coach in some capacity in the Mebane community since 1985. That included longtime stints as an assistant coach for school teams at Eastern.
“Part of kind of the old Mebane,” said Danny McCawley, a former assistant football coach and teacher at Eastern.
Modlin stepped away from coaching following the 2024 baseball season with Eastern Alamance. His final football season with the Eagles came several months earlier in 2023.
Modlin’s youth coaching endeavors included leading three Alamance County Midgets football teams to state titles. He had numerous coaching roles within the Mebane Recreation and Parks Department.
A funeral service last week in Mebane drew an overflow crowd at McClure Funeral Service.
“He knew everybody and coached all those kids,” said McCawley, who noted that Modlin coached both of his sons.
When Kirby began his storied coaching career in Mebane as a coach at Woodlawn Middle School in 1985, he said the logical thing to do was to get Modlin on board to help. They were together through the 2023 season.
Kirby said it had been about a year ago when Modlin’s health problems surfaced.
“He was in a lot of pain recently,” he said. “He was fighting his fight.”
Kirby, serving as interim football coach this year after a one-year hiatus, is no longer athletics director. He said there will be a dedication in memory of Modlin in the football game program.
Modlin also was active as a player with adult traveling softball teams. While unable to compete, he stopped by in support of the Grill 584 team at last month’s senior adult tournament in Burlington.
An Eastern Alamance alum, Modlin had a long working career at Kidde in Mebane.
