THE LEGEND
OF KING.

THE KID WHO TAUGHT ME THE GAME.

I was fortunate enough to coach King from the time he was four years old. His father and I played ball together in Loreauville. Thankfully, I was older—so you know.

The way that kid played the game was unlike any other kid I’ve ever coached. The highest level of effort went into every drill, every practice, every part of conditioning. They say the greats practice after practice. King lived to train. King wanted to be the best, and that desire showed up every time he played.

Football is a true gladiator sport. It is physical, demanding, and unforgiving. There is a clock running, a job to do, and somebody across from you determined to stop you. The game asks you to meet that challenge with everything you have.

And King was such a kind kid. Always laughing. Always smiling. Looking out for his younger teammates. But when the whistle blew and the clock started, that same kid competed with a level of effort and intensity that demanded your attention. He respected the game enough to give it everything.

As a coach, you’re teaching a kid how to play. The younger the kid, the cleaner the slate. I’ll never claim I know more X’s and O’s than the next man or that I’m a better coach. But what I learned from coaching King—and what the men behind Legend Football carry with them—is a purity in the game that King Lee taught us.

When he was seven, King took a rare break on the sideline and told me:

“Coach, I don’t want to run over people. I want to score.”

So I explained that he did have the option to get around them. But if contact was coming, what do you do?

That King smile lit up.

From there on, it was poetry. He was going to score. And if you tried to tackle him, he was ready for the battle.

In that moment, that kid taught me more about a game I had played and watched for 31 years than I could have expected. Imagine eleven people doing their jobs with that mindset. Every player giving everything he has for the game and for the brothers beside him.

That is The Legend Mindset.

It’s all for King. It’s always been for King. In my heart, LPWA belongs to King. And yes, JP, you contributed too.

The grit. The fight. The humility to accept defeat and take accountability, then return better. The willingness to overcome adversity in a physically demanding game alongside ten other people who are counting on you.

Football can take you from the lowest feeling of failure to the highest feeling of glory. You experience it together. Eleven brothers willing to fight for one another. King showed me what it means to honor that bond with your effort, your preparation, and the way you play.

King is still here, battling with us, as I pass on to as many kids as I can what King taught me.