The Morning Sun -- A 2003 Coleman High School graduate who was killed in Iraq earlier this week was remembered Friday as an excellent student and athlete.

Casey P. Zylman, 23, was killed while serving in the Army but information had not been released as of Friday afternoon by the Department of Defense, the Associated Press reported.

Zylman was Coleman's football and baseball teams throughout high school, was a member of the student council and served on it's executive council when he was a senior, Coleman High School Principal Mary Pitchford said.

"He was just a kind, caring polite young man," Pitchford said Friday. "I can't say enough. "He was just a tremendous young man."

An excellent student, Zylman was an offensive-defensive lineman on the Coleman High School varsity football team who kept his teammates motivated and helped "turn the team around" during his senior year, when the squad won the 2002 Mid State Athletic Conference championship, said Joe Albaugh, who retired from coaching the team this year.

The football team was 4-0 in the conference that season and 8-1 overall.

Zylman was a "good, all-around" student who worked hard in sports and in the classroom, Albaugh said. "They lost a good one," he said.

Randy Zylman of Coleman confirmed his son's death and said that the family is requesting privacy, the Associated Press reported Friday afternoon.