TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — Tarpon Springs High is celebrating 100 years of football this season.

And on a recent Friday night, they were also celebrating homecoming.

What You Need To Know

  • Tarpon Spring football is celebrating 100 years this season, with alum head coach Jeremy Frioud leading the program

  • Frioud was the previous head coach at Northeast High. He lost a player during a game, a death that made a huge impact on his coaching career and life

  • The Port St. Joe High community is mourning the loss of a player who collapsed during a game

For head coach Jeremy Frioud, every day is homecoming.

Ever since he returned to his alma mater to turn a losing program into a winning one, it’s been one big welcome home.

“They believe in themselves,” Frioud said. “And when you get teenagers believing in themselves and working hard, good things happen, you know.”

As fate would have it, the Spongers' homecoming opponent was Northeast, Frioud’s former school. The one that gave him his first head coaching job. But a lot has changed since his time on the Vikings sideline. Frioud has changed.

“I’m a lot different,” he said. “Life humbled me a lot when I was at Northeast with all the crazy stuff that happened. So I have a much different perspective.”

Frioud went through something no coach should ever have to experience. It’s something the Port St. Joe football program is reeling from right now — the death of a player.

According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, Chance Gainer, a captain on the Port St. Joe team, became the seventh student-athlete to die while playing the sport within the past two months.

While at Northeast, one of his captains, Jacquez "Quez" Welch, went down in a game and never got back up. A rare brain condition that could have struck him at any time, struck him on the football field and he died. There is no playbook for a coach in how to deal with the death of a player.

The coach found different ways to cope. For the longest time, he kept Quez’s mouthpiece in his pants pocket. And he memorialized a big moment in the game. Quez scored a touchdown, his second to last play before he went down. There’s a tattoo of the celebration on Jeremy’s leg.

“Talk to him all the time,” Coach Frioud said. “We have a great relationship. He’s doing good, He’ll be here tonight."

Quez is never far from Frioud’s mind.

The memories are what helped him get through the toughest time in his life. They’ve help him become a better coach. He’s creating new memories with his Tarpon Springs Spongers. But he’ll always remember Quez. And that’s Coach Frioud’s message to the Port St. Joe football community — to remember the player and remember it’s all about love.

“You love that person so you honor them. You honor them by being strong,” he said. “Yeah, you’re weak at times, but you make sure those times are short and those times are very to yourself. And then the rest of that time it’s all about honoring that person in what they would want.”