Former player donates kidney to Georgia high school softball coach

LAGRANGE, Ga. - It was special moment for a local high school softball coach and his former player. 

Coach Charles Parker of LaGrange Academy threw out the first pitch for the start of the GIAA state softball championships that started Thursday in Columbus. Five months ago, Lucy Wynne donated a kidney to save Parker’s life.

They had not been on a softball field together in 22 years. Parker is in 38th year coaching at the age of 69. Lucy played for coach and graduated in 2001.

"He was tough on us. He said things like you can’t hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle, and you should have caught the ball," Wynne said. "I can say that I loved him, but I didn’t like on a day-to-day basis."

Needless to say, Lucy's heart had softened over those two decades for the toughest, yet most loved coach she said she ever had.

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Coach admits that what came next, he didn’t expect from his two-time-state-champion third base player, and he’s coached thousands. Of all the players, he says he was not expecting Lucy back in his life.

"I tell you what, if you don’t believe in angels, standing to the right of me is an angel," Parker said.

On Christmas Eve 2022, Lucy showed up on Coach Parker’s doorstep to reveal that she had secretly been tested and was a match for the kidney donation he desperately needed.

"My whole family was there, and I couldn’t stop crying," he said.

"It was overwhelming. I wanted to throw up and was so grateful at the same time," said Lucy.

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Parker says he developed kidney disease from hig

The transplant was successfully performed in May at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. They are both in good health.