A much-loved former Brevard County school resource deputy and basketball coach died last week after a three-week battle with COVID-19, family members said.
Retired Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Mike Doyle died Dec. 4 at Health First’s Palm Bay Hospital, sisters Katie Doyle and Theresa Doyle Blazek said. He was 59.
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Doyle, a U.S. Army veteran, was the school resource officer at Herbert Hoover Middle School in Indialantic from 2008 to 2019, where he also coached the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, his sisters said. He retired in July 2019 after a nearly 30-year career with the sheriff’s office, according to News 6 partner Florida Today.
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Called “Captain America” by family and coworkers after his abiding love for the Marvel Comics superhero — “It was the license plate on the front of his patrol car. It was tattooed on his arm,” Katie Doyle said — Doyle was known as a caring officer and coach who loved a joke.
“He never excluded anybody. He wanted to make them feel like they belonged and feel like they were valued,” Theresa Doyle Blazek said. “He would listen to them, and that’s what his gift was.”
“He was just always laughing, joking, being a prankster,” nephew Keith Blazek said.
Doyle coached basketball for each of his three children, including daughter Jessica Doyle, who went on to play for NCAA Division II Armstrong State University, and for the Brevard County Police Athletic League.
He would often drive from his home in Palm Bay to watch his daughter play at Armstrong’s home court in Savannah, Georgia, his sisters said.
“Sometimes, he would drive all night and still work the next day,” Theresa Doyle Blazek said. “He was so supportive of his kids.”
As a deputy, Doyle’s career carried him from patrol assignments in Barefoot Bay and Micco to his role as a youth counselor at Camp Chance, a BCSO day camp in Cocoa for disadvantaged kids, Katie Doyle said.
In a statement to Florida Today, Sheriff Wayne Ivey said Friday: “Mike Doyle was an amazing man and Deputy who through his years of service with the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office impacted thousands of kids with his badge and his uniform, but even more importantly transformed the lives of thousands of kids, and all of us for that matter with his mentoring, whistle and passion for the game of basketball!!”
“He will be deeply missed by our agency and entire community!!” Ivey said.
Doyle’s family is holding a celebration of life Friday afternoon at the Hoover Middle School campus. In lieu of flowers, they are asking for donations to the Toys for Tots Foundation or Disabled American Veterans.