Hughes Springs, Texas, is grieving the loss of one of its own. Bryson Belk, a 19-year-old athlete, youth baseball coach, and Tyler Junior College student, passed away on Wednesday, June 10, 2026.
Reeder-Davis Funeral Home in Hughes Springs is handling arrangements, though service details have not yet been announced publicly.
Bryson grew up in Hughes Springs, attended Hughes Springs High School where he played varsity football, basketball, and baseball, and wore number 7 on the football field. He stood 6 feet 1 and weighed 206 pounds.
After graduating, he enrolled at Tyler Junior College and began building his working life, taking a job at 259 Elite Wood Products LLC before landing at Diamond C Trailers in Mount Pleasant, Texas, where he had been working since June 2025.
By all accounts, he was doing what young men in small East Texas towns do, working hard, staying connected to home, and figuring out the road ahead.
What set Bryson apart was not just his ability on the field but what he chose to do after his playing days in youth sports ended.
He came up through the Hughes Springs Youth Sports Association as a Little League player and never really left. He transitioned into umpiring and eventually took on a coaching role with a 12-under baseball team. Parents, fellow coaches, and kids on that team got to see a side of him that went beyond athletics.
A Coach Who Gave More Than He Took
The Hughes Springs Youth Sports Association honored him publicly after news of his passing spread, describing him as someone who mentored players and built relationships that stretched far beyond the game. He was not in that field for recognition.
He was there because he genuinely cared about the kids he was helping and wanted to pass on what the sport had given him. His fellow coaches stood beside him. The kids he coached looked up to him. And the parents who watched him work saw someone mature well beyond his 19 years.
His family has been open about how much he meant to them. His aunt, Mandy Williams Gammill, wrote that she would give anything to hear him running through the house again and jumping on her bed just to get a rise out of her.
She told him she would love him forever and admitted that despite every threat she ever made to set him straight, he somehow managed to leave her completely speechless in the end. His uncle Tra Young told Bryson to soar like the eagles and asked him to save a seat, saying he wanted to hear everything his nephew was seeing from up above.
Bryson Belk had 555 friends on Facebook, a Hudl profile full of athletic highlights, and a reputation in Hughes Springs that will outlast any statistic or follower count.
He was a ballplayer, a worker, a coach, a nephew, and a young man who invested himself in other people without being asked. East Texas lost someone special on June 10, 2026. He was 19 years old.
