BATON ROUGE — Coaching legends Dale Weiner and Willis Stelly are being remembered for their lasting impact on high school sports in Baton Rouge. The longtime friends and football coaches both died Wednesday.

Stelly coached multiple sports at several capital-area high schools, including Baker, Glen Oaks and Istrouma. He also spent a year on the coaching staff at LSU before becoming head football coach at University Lab, leading the Cubs to a state championship in 1988. He retired in 1998.

"He took pride in the fact that he held himself out to be a molder of men. He used to say that all the time, and that was his legacy, that was so important to him, that was so much more important to him than the championships and the accolades; it was the impact that he made on his boys, you know, his players," said Stelly's daughter, Deshea Stelly Richardson.

His influence reached well beyond his own sidelines.

"A lot of kids that my dad didn't actually coach but he knew, coached against, that reached out from private schools to Episcopal to Catholic High School, that reached out to me and said, ' Hey, your dad had a true impact on us in our careers after football, and after high school," said Stelly's son, Willis Stelly III.

Stelly battled Alzheimer's disease for the past 10 years, and his daughter DeLynn Stelly said his final days were difficult.

"Cause it was a fight to the end; he didn't want to give up, he wanted us all to be together, and it was something very special, and I'm not sure if you're aware, but the death of Dale Weiner also yesterday, it's just crazy how God works sometimes," DeLynn Stelly said.

Family members said Stelly and Weiner were close friends.

Weiner coached football at Catholic High School for three decades, guiding the Bears to a state title in 2015.

"My first year here was the year after he retired from coaching, but he still worked at the school. He was somebody who was an incredible mentor, left an impression on everybody that he met, a Godly man, a man that impacted thousands of lives," said Catholic High head football coach Hudson Fuller.

Fuller said the strength of the Catholic High program stems not only from Weiner's coaching, but also from his character.

"A coach who really used coaching as a ministry, and impacted lives in that way and used his faith to help other people," Fuller said.