The Sprayberry High School community was thrown into shock this week when athletic director Timothy Crunk — a longtime fixture in Cobb County high schools as an athlete, coach and administrator, and a man described as a role model for young people by his peers — died Monday of a heart attack. He was 52.

Crunk, a resident of Acworth, was stricken while running Monday night.

A 1978 graduate of South Cobb High School, Crunk spent most of his career in Cobb County as a coach at South Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain high schools, before moving into administration as the athletic director and assistant principal at Sprayberry in 2009.

“We’re losing a very good man,” said Steve Jones, director of athletics for the Cobb County School District. “I knew him for many, many years. He’s a Cobb County guy — went to South Cobb High School. He was an excellent athletic director at Sprayberry, and he did a great job at Kennesaw Mountain and South Cobb. He was a real role model for the kids, and he touched so many lives. We’re truly going to miss him.”

Sprayberry principal Ed Wagner also expressed shock over Crunk’s untimely death.

“Tim was a great guy and a good friend,” Wagner said. “He will be missed by the Sprayberry community.”

Crunk, who also played baseball, was a quarterback for the South Cobb football team in the 1970s when he matched up against Marietta’s Andy McCollum, now the defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator at Georgia Tech.

“Tim was a good person and a good friend,” McCollum said. “I had the opportunity to play against Tim — me playing for Marietta and Tim playing for South Cobb — and he was an outstanding quarterback and was a tough guy to stop. He was a man of faith and as a good a person as you will ever meet.”

Crunk began his coaching career in Cobb County at his alma mater, serving as head baseball coach and assistant football coach at South Cobb from 1991 to 2000.

He then moved on to serve on the inaugural staff at Kennesaw Mountain, where he coached slow-pitch softball, served as an assistant baseball and football coach and taught science. He also served as the school’s athletic director from 2004 to 2009.

“He was a great coach and administrator, but he was also a great friend,” said John Kelly, who succeeded Crunk as the athletic director at Kennesaw Mountain. “He’s the kind of guy that made you want to be a better person. He had a great sense of humor — a real salt of the earth guy. The most important thing to know about Tim is that he was a great family guy.”

Scott Jones, formerly the head football coach at South Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain, coached with Crunk at both schools and has fond memories of his friend and colleague.

“We coached together at South Cobb and Kennesaw Mountain, so we knew each other for so long,” said Jones, now the head football coach at North Paulding High School in Dallas. “He was such an inspiration. He was the kind of person that I wished I could be. He has impacted so many people in a positive way. I’m going to miss him. It’s a sad day.”

Like Jones, Kennesaw Mountain baseball coach George Hansen was quick to credit Crunk for the work he did with the Mustangs’ athletic program — particularly in baseball.

“I was the head coach in name only — Tim and I were truly head coaches together,” Hansen said. “We really built the program into what it was together. He was a big influence on Kennesaw Mountain baseball and what it became.”

Crunk spent the last couple of years at Sprayberry, where he focused more on administration as the athletic director and assistant principal.

“It was a great experience working with Tim,” Sprayberry Touchdown Club president Eddie Johnson said. “It is so shocking to see him leaving that way at such a young age. My heart goes out to his family. He will be greatly missed at Sprayberry.”

Outside of his scholastic service, Crunk was involved with Cedarcrest Church in Acworth. He volunteered with the church’s Haiti Education Project and which he recently made two mission trips with his wife, Leslie, to Haiti.

In addition to his wife, Crunk is survived by his daughters, Hillary and Anastasia, and his son, Corey, a recent graduate of Kennesaw Mountain. Corey Crunk followed in his father’s athletic footsteps, standing out as a baseball player and swimmer for the Mustangs.

“Corey could have gone to Sprayberry with his father, but he chose to stay at Kennesaw Mountain,” Hansen said. “He’s an outstanding kid, and he’s just like his father.”

Visitation will be today from 4 to 8 p.m. at Marietta Funeral Home, with Crunk’s funeral scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday at Piedmont Church in east Cobb.

In lieu of flowers, the Crunk family requests that donations be made to the Tim Crunk Memorial Fund at Wells Fargo Bank or to the Haiti Education Fund at Cedarcrest Church, 3590 North Cobb Parkway, Suite 201, Acworth, GA, 30101.