Jeremiah Tate, 19, remembered as role model at Lower Richland, Wofford

The Lower Richland High community is mourning the loss of a graduate who had played the past two seasons on the Wofford basketball team.

The York County Coroner’s Office identified the Camp Thunderbird counselor who drowned in Lake Wylie early Monday as Jeremiah Tate, a 19-year old Columbia resident. Tate was a three-year player for the Lower Richland basketball team as well as a track and cross country performer.

Tate played basketball under coaches Zeke Washington and Willie Thomas at Lower Richland.

“You don’t find kids like him today,” Washington said. “For him, it was always about the team, the community and the school. He lived and breathed the Lower Richland community and that basketball team. The most important thing to him was if the team did well. You can’t find a better person than Jeremiah Tate.

“He was a great kid and role model. Every day, it was a blessing to coach him. He was always a fun young man to coach and be around. We’re all just very hurt with the news.”

The news spread through the community and basketball world. ESPN personality Jay Bilas tweeted – “Heartsick over the passing of Wofford’s Jeremiah Tate.”

Carey Rich, a former USC player who keeps tabs on nearly every player who comes from the Midlands, was rocked by the news of Tate’s passing.

“This one hurts,” Rich said. “He’s a kid that you root for. He’s a high character kid that is very well-respected. It was like a punch in the gut for me today, because he’s the type of kid I would want my daughter to marry. He embodied everything you look for in a young man. He’s gone much too soon.”

Longtime Lower Richland girls basketball coach Debbie Stroman remembers Tate as a leader and role model to everyone at the school. Tate was president of the student body and a member of the National Honor Society. In high school basketball, he was named an Academic All-Star. He earned all-region for the hurdles in track and was all-region and all-district in cross country.

“You don’t meet these kind of kids often,” Stroman said. “He had everything together. You just knew he was going on to big things in life. It saddens me that he will never get an opportunity to do it.”

Tate’s body was found in Lake Wylie around 4:30 a.m. after he and another counselor from the YMCA camp reportedly jumped off the bridge about 2 a.m., according to The Rock Hill Herald.

“The entire Wofford College family is devastated and saddened today by the loss of Jeremiah Tate,” director of athletics Richard Johnson said in a news release. “Our thoughts, prayers and deepest condolences are with his family. He will be truly missed.”

Services for Tate will be announced at a later time.