Hundreds gather to mourn Apalachee High School teacher and football coach

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Those who knew him best say Ricky Aspinwall always felt right at home on a football field. 

On the field at Flowery Branch High School in Hall County Sunday, family and friends gathered to remember.

“I’ve been doing a lot of crying lately,” one friend told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen.

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He was affectionately known as Coach “A.”   A beloved football coach and school teacher. 

But first and foremost, a loving husband to his wife Shayna and a devoted father to two young daughters, Addison and Emery.

“He was a ‘girl dad.’  He loved being a girl dad.  They loved him.  When he came over their faces lit up. 

They loved dad,” fellow football coach Mike Hancock said.

Aspinwall was among the two teachers and two students who died September 4th in the gunfire at Apalachee High School in Barrow County.  Several others were injured.

Hundreds gathered at Flowery Branch High, where his wife works.  Friends and fellow coaches shared stories.  Over the years Coach “A” was on the sidelines with three different metro area teams.  All opened their hearts to help lift up a family, seated together in the front row, that now must carry on without him.  “We have to show up and let his family know that our prayers will be with him, and he will never, ever, ever be forgotten,” friend and fellow coach Gail Devers said.

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