East Bernard football coach Jeremy Jenkins and his wife Brandy, who were killed in a car crash Saturday night, are survived by their three sons.
Jeremy Jenkins / Facebook
East Bernard ISD athletic director and head football coach Jeremy Jenkins and his wife, Brandy, a teacher at East Bernard Junior High School, were killed Saturday night in a car crash, the district announced Sunday.
Superintendent Courtney Hudgins confirmed the couple’s deaths in a letter to the East Bernard community.
The crash occurred about 10:07 p.m. on Texas 60 near County Road 210 in Wharton County, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
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According to KHOU, DPS said Jenkins, 51, was driving a 2025 Tesla Model Y north on Texas 60 and approaching a curve when the vehicle left the east side of the roadway and overturned. Jenkins and his passenger, Brandy Jenkins, 46, were pronounced dead at the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
“Jeremy and Brandy were much more than their titles or the roles they held within our schools,” Hudgins wrote. “They were colleagues, educators, mentors, friends and family.”
Brandy Jenkins had recently joined East Bernard ISD. Hudgins wrote that in the first three days of the school year, “her students LOVED her.”
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“Brandy loved the Brahmas, their three boys, Jeremy, all of the coaches, and her close circle of coaches’ wives,” Hudgins wrote.
The district will provide on-site counseling and support services for students and staff.
“East Bernard has always been a place where people show up for one another, and now is a time when that love and support are needed more than ever,” Hudgins wrote. “In the days ahead, we will need to lean on one another with love, patience, compassion and grace.”
Jeremy Jenkins was 20-7 in two seasons at East Bernard, including a run to the Class 3A Division II state semifinals last season.
East Bernard Athletic Booster Club / Facebook
The East Bernard Athletic Booster Club also mourned the couple’s deaths Sunday on Facebook, describing Jenkins as the community’s leader and his wife as one of the athletic program’s “biggest and most unconditional supporters.”
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“Coaches are supposed to live forever,” the post said. “They’re supposed to be there year after year — standing on that sideline, walking through the field house, coaching our kids, pushing them, believing in them and loving this community right alongside us.”
Jeremy and Brandy Jenkins have three sons: Tyson, Gage and Jake. The booster club said the community’s immediate focus would be supporting the boys and their family.
“Right now, football doesn’t matter,” the statement read. “Wins don’t matter. None of it does. What matters is surrounding these boys with the same kind of love and support their family has given to so many of ours.”
Hudgins described Jenkins as someone who “lived and breathed all things Brahma Family.”
“He watched film non-stop, coached up our kids in the most loving way, truly wanted what was best for ALL kids, challenged us to see things through a different lens, loved his fellow coaches, and was an ‘all in’ kind of man,” Hudgins wrote.
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Jenkins was preparing to begin his third season leading the East Bernard football program. He guided the Brahmas to a 20-7 record over his first two seasons, including a run to the Class 3A Division II state semifinals in 2025. East Bernard began last season with three consecutive losses before winning 10 of its next 11 games. The Brahmas defeated Poth, Lexington and previously unbeaten Tidehaven during the playoffs before falling to eventual state champion Newton in the semifinals.
East Bernard is scheduled to open the season Friday, Aug. 28, at home against Sweeny.
Jenkins was hired by East Bernard in February 2024 after two seasons as athletic director and head football coach at Harmony High School in East Texas. He led Harmony to the Class 3A Division II state semifinals in 2022 and a 10-3 record the following season.
Jenkins previously served as head coach at Mount Enterprise in 2019 and Tenaha in 2020 and 2021. He compiled a 67-24 record across seven seasons as a head coach.
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A Cayuga High School and UT Tyler graduate, Jenkins had worked in education for more than two decades.
“We will show up,” the booster club statement said. “We will wrap our arms around these boys, their family, our coaches and our athletes. And we will carry one another through the days ahead.”