THE senior football team at Kings Meadows High School has based its winning philosophy around the inspiration of former teacher and coach Aaron ``Kingy'' King.
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The beloved teacher died suddenly on Australia Day, leaving behind a devastated family and school fraternity.
Co-captains of the senior side, Jordan Bennett and Ben Murfett, described finding out about his death as one of the saddest days of their lives.
``He was just such a nice person - you couldn't find anyone who would say a bad word about him, he just got along with everyone,'' Ben said.
This year the memory of Mr King spurred the side on to have an undefeated season, winning the Northern region premiership against Riverside and then taking out the Tassie Hawks Cup Championship against St Virgil's.
``It was amazing to win because we played the whole season for Kingy, so it made the win that much better,'' Ben said.
``It was his love for football and our love for football, as well as our love for him as a bloke, that made us really want to win for him,'' Jordan said.
The co-captains said the whole pre-game preparation was all about ``winning for Kingy'' and they wore black armbands and wrote ``Kingy'' on their hands.
``Every change we all put our hands in and shouted `1, 2, 3, Kingy','' Ben said.
``And if you needed any inspiration while you were on the ground, all you had to do was look at the name on your hand.''
After winning the regional premiership flag, the team went to Mr King's grave so they could share their win with him.
``Thursday morning the team came to me and said they would like to get a laminated copy of the premiership flag and walk over to Aaron's grave at Carr Villa,'' team coach Adrian Dean said.
``They all formed a circle and stood there in silence for almost two minutes and then we sang him the school song, it was a very emotional moment.''