Victim and hero: Florida football coach ushered his students to safety before the gunman came for him

Feis was scrambling to usher students to safety, at one point shielding several girls from gunfire, according to witness accounts.

"I saw him running toward the gunshots," said Colton Haab, a junior.

It cost Feis his life — he was one of 17 people killed Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School when a former student entered the campus, pulled a fire alarm and began shooting an AR-15 rifle as students started to evacuate.

The details of how students, teachers and staff members at the Parkland, Fla., school responded to the shooting were still emerging Thursday. But in the immediate hours after the killings, Feis quickly fulfilled the role of hero for a community badly in need of one.Feis was a familiar sight to many of the 3,000 or so students at the school, where he also worked as a security guard, patrolling the open-air hallways in a golf cart.

He was a true Eagle — the school mascot — having attended Douglas, playing center on the football team. He graduated in 1999 and returned as a coach three years later, eventually settling in nearby Coral Springs with his wife, Melissa Feis, and their 8-year-old daughter, Ariel, who would sometimes accompany him to practice and run onto the field.

"He was the nice coach — the one who never yelled at us," said 17-year-old Yohance Williams, a senior who plays linebacker. "He was more of a friend than a coach to us. We all loved coach Feis."

An imposing figure, he could be strict, forcing students attempting to skip school back to their classrooms. But he was also sympathetic.

"He'd smile and just talk to you about your day," said senior Taylor Thompson, 17, a student trainer with the football team.

Haab, 17, had chatted with Feis in the hall Wednesday morning at 10:45, just after second period.

Source :- latimes