Aaron Feis

He spent more than half his life at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, more than 20 years. The only thing Aaron Feis loved more than his school was his family — wife Melissa and daughter Ariel.

“He was Douglas football,” head coach Willis May told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “He played here. He coached here. He loved the team and he had nothing but concern for the kids at all times.”

Feis, 37, went from player and student in the 1990s to assistant coach and staff member, a security guard who would roam the sprawling campus in his golf cart. “People called him ‘the mayor,’ ” former coach Mike Virden said at Feis’ funeral. “Because if you needed anything or anyone, he was the guy to go to.”

Football was his life, and his absence was felt this past season. ESPN recently spotlighted Feis and the Eagles’ 2018 season in “Parkland 17.”

In the TV special, May recalled how Feis would go out of his way to help players, taking time to put together highlight tapes from game films to impress college recruiters. “He was trying to get them in college,” May said. “He did it for nothing, for no money.”

Feis was often generous and gentle, but he could be strict when it came to coaching the offensive line, his former position. “One day we jumped off-sides in practice a couple times,” football player Gage Gaynor told the Sun Sentinel. “He made us do like 50 up-and-downs [exercises] to make sure it didn’t happen again.”

Feis helped players and students struggling with personal problems and difficult home situations. Although he liked to win, his brother Ray Feis said in the ESPN special, “For him it wasn’t so much about playing [or winning] … it was about teaching kids the skills through football to live their lives.”

Feis was large and physically imposing. As an offensive lineman, his role was to sacrifice for others, clearing holes for running backs and protecting quarterbacks. Life as a security guard was similar. Students recall how Feis would sit in his golf cart, arm draped over the steering wheel, as he kept a watchful eye over the parking lot in the morning when students got dropped off by parents.

“It’s like he was saying, ‘Don’t worry, I got ’em. I’ll watch out for them. I’ll take care of them,’ ” Ray Feis told ESPN.

Melissa Feis says those who want to make a donation in Aaron Feis’ memory may contribute to StandWithParkland.org, an advocacy group formed by Parkland victims’ families to promote safety and combat violence in schools.