For more than 16 years, North Atlanta’s head basketball and golf coach, Kerry Sarden, showed up day in and day out to serve the North Atlanta High School student body, staff, and community. In the wake of his untimely passing on Jan. 2, people across the state of Georgia remember his incredible legacy and influence. After guiding thousands of students, developing young athletes, being an example of a model family man, and making many friends along the way, there is so much to celebrate about the life of Coach Sarden.
An avid lover of all things athletic, Sarden had a tenured career as a player across high school, collegiate, and professional basketball. Starting his career in fourth grade, playing for his middle school team at times, he made his way to Southeastern High School in Detroit, Mich., where he would start gaining interest from colleges his junior year. As so many of his players have heard over the years, his focus was on becoming the best high school player he could be before ever turning his attention to college. Soon enough, he made his way to college basketball, playing for the Michigan Wolverines and then for his hometown, the Olivet College Comets, where he was named all-region in his division multiple times. Following his days of stardom in college, Sarden played at the professional level for 10 years in Milan, Italy. Coming back to the States afterward, he came to APS and joined Mays High School as a coach and teacher. “He lived his life for the game of basketball, and I’m not sure anything outside of his family made him happier,” said Athletic Director Andre Regan.
Along with his own basketball career, Coach Sarden will be remembered for the impact he had helping countless students on and off the court. Coaching both the boys’ basketball and golf teams, Sarden shaped the journeys of hundreds of Warrior athletes over the years. Most notably, he led the 2017-2018 team to a 17-14 record overall with a trip to the Final Four of the Georgia High School Association playoffs, which remains the furthest that any North Atlanta team has gone. Balancing being a physical education teacher and a coach, he’d regularly compile a list of five goals for his teaching and five for his coaching to be the best at both that he could be. “He was always motivated to make us better as students but the thing he enjoyed most was seeing us excited to get to the gym and be active,” said student Reis Holzworth.
Sarden was known to spend his time helping his local community away from North Atlanta as he was the vice president of operations for the SaMarc Dream and Achieve Foundation. The organization aims to advance the economic, social, and educational prowess of underprivileged youth in the Columbus/Conyers area. Coach Sarden could regularly be seen during the summer sacrificing his time to run basketball camps for the foundation in order to facilitate the betterment of his local youth. At the end of the day, whether it was in his school or community, Coach Sarden wanted to see his students and campers become better human beings overall. “He was beyond being a coach. He was a mentor. He was funny. He was crazy. He was smart,” said his fellow Samarc Foundation leader and friend, March Upshaw. “He was a family man first. He was a Godly man. He was a man you could trust and depend on.”
For the first time since before much of North Atlanta’s current student body was born, the Warriors will have to finish a school year without the leadership of the late great Kerry Sarden. He leaves behind his loving family consisting of his wife Joan Sarden and two sons Kerry Jr. and Kody. The overwhelming positivity and skill brought every day for the improvement of the North Atlanta Warriors may never be matched by that of Coach Kerry Sarden.
