Rio Linda High School mourns popular coach impaled in freak bike accident

Rio Linda Knights Football/Facebook

The varsity Rio Linda Heights football team on the bleachers cheering on the JV team at Antelope High School.

Students, teachers and colleagues are mourning the loss of a beloved Central California high school sports coach who died of injuries sustained in a bicycle accident.

Marion Adams was the Rio Linda High School’s track and field coach and multimedia teacher.

The Sacramento Bee reports the 59-year-old looked over his shoulder to say goodbye to a student as he rode away after Monday’s track practice and crashed into a partly open metal swing gate in the school parking lot.

Adams was impaled by the gate arm and was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he died Tuesday of internal injuries.

He graduated from the high school in 1972 and returned as a coach in 2004.

Memorial services in the Sacramento suburb are pending.