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Players, colleagues and coaching adversaries across Prince George's County have spent the past week trying to process the death of David "Nick" Lynch. The longtime Suitland High School football coach and athletic director was killed in a two-vehicle accident in the early-morning hours of Dec. 31 at the intersection of Branch Avenue and Brandywine Road.

At a candlelight vigil on Suitland's football field Friday night came word that the District Heights school would rename the field in Lynch's honor. He was remembered as a dedicated, passionate coach and a father figure to many players who came from difficult circumstances at home.

Lynch, 43, guided Suitland for 13 seasons, compiling a 117-33 record. His teams won state championships in 2004 and 2006 and lost in the state final in 1997 and 1998. The 2006 team set a record by erasing a 21-point deficit in its 39-38 overtime win against Sherwood in the Class 4A state title game. It is the largest deficit any team has overcome in a state final. He is survived by his wife, Ivornette, and his son, David Jr.

"You never believe that you could lose someone like that," said Suitland senior linebacker John Darr Jr. "Just a week before he died we rode up to Crab Bowl together and he told me that he really cherished these four years together. He would always call me before games and make sure I was at home and didn't break curfew. He was a very intense and strict coach. We respected him a lot."

"I just started thinking about all the positive things he stood for," said Suitland senior captain Anthony Thomas. "Suitland football is a family and he was our father. He believed that no man was better than the next, that we were all equal. He stood for honesty. You just don't lie to coach Lynch. Somehow he was gonna find out."

Ram tough

Prior to Lynch's tenure at Suitland, the Rams never qualified for the state playoffs. But that changed almost immediately, as he led his team into the Class 4A state championship game in 1997 and 1998, his second and third seasons.

Suitland made state quarterfinal appearances in 1999 and 2002 before breaking through for its championships in 2004 and 2006. Under Lynch, the Rams quickly gained a reputation for hard-hitting play.

Even as the team entered the 2008 season with no returning starters on offense, Lynch maintained high expectations, and he found subtle ways to get the most from his players.

"I remember the first practice of the year we didn't know how we were gonna be and we were nervous about the season," recalled Suitland senior Eric Walters. "We were expecting a really tough practice but he came out and was laughing and joking around with everyone. He said, ‘Don't worry, we're gonna play how we play and we're gonna do well.' His attitude took a lot of pressure off of us and it set the tone for a pretty good season."

Without question, Lynch and his teams had their greatest rivalry with Eleanor Roosevelt and former coach Rick Houchens, who guided the Raiders from 1997 to 2007. Games between the Rams and Raiders are hard-hitting dogfights, and it was one such game nearly a decade ago that Houchens remembers for its significance in Roosevelt's path to a state title. He recalled a first-round playoff game against Lynch's Rams in 1999 as "probably the most physical game I've ever been a part of." Roosevelt earned a 19-13 win against a Suitland team that had been a state finalist the previous two years. The Raiders went on to win the state championship.

Asked for his memories of Lynch, Houchens responded with a laugh: "Wars. We knew the state championship went through Suitland. You don't want to see this guy, and he felt the same about me.

"We played them during the regular season at Suitland one year and we were up by two touchdowns and they came back and beat us by one point. And he came up to me afterward and hugged me and looked at me and smiled and said, ‘Always a war, ain't it?'"

The fraternity and

the father figure

Lynch's death leaves a gaping hole in the Prince George's football coaching fraternity and a tremendous void at Suitland.

"He did so much," said John Darr Sr., president of the Suitland High Boosters. "He always made sure that the boys got breakfast. He was a great coach and he was always very strict and fair. He was one of those guys that you couldn't say no to and you wanted to be around. Whoever takes that position is going to have big shoes to fill because he did so much for the community."

Harriet Colbert of Suitland, a former Suitland High PTSA delegate and parent, said she was shocked and saddened by the news of Lynch's death.

Her son, Melvin A. Colbert II, tried out for the football team as a freshman in 2001. At the time, Melvin was struggling with the idea of balancing time between football and academics and decided to quit on the last day of preseason training camp.

"When I went to talk to Coach Lynch he made sure to tell me school comes first," Harriet Colbert said. "It really struck me as an extremely positive thing about him."

Lynch was most interested in getting the students adjusted to high school, she said.

"That, of course, is the type of coach every parent wants to see [because] at the end of the day they are students first."

During his four-year tenure as a head coach in the county at DuVal High and now at Henry A. Wise High, DaLawn Parrish said he had become good friends with Lynch.

"If you ask me or anybody, they'll tell you that Nick Lynch was the face of Prince George's County football," Parrish said. "He was the head of the coaches' association and we always had the meetings over at Suitland. Whatever he did, he always gave 110 percent. He really was like a big brother to me. He was very funny and he would always give me advice and even seek my advice."

Parrish recalled an afternoon last fall when he met Lynch for lunch at Suitland and Parrish's car broke down in the school parking lot. Lynch had a local mechanic look at Parrish's car and the Suitland coach loaned him his car so that he could return to work.

"When I got in the car, I looked at the dashboard and saw that there was hardly any gas in the car," Parrish said. "I said, ‘Hey Nick, there's no gas in your car,' and he looked at me and said, ‘Well, put some gas in it before you bring it back.' I mean, he was always saying something funny."

Charles H. Flowers coach Mike Mayo said he received a text message from Lynch on Dec. 30 and planned to save it as long as possible. Mayo and Lynch were fans of one another's teams when Mayo coached at nearby Forestville High in the late 1990s. And when Mayo took over the program at the then newly opened Flowers High in 2000, he and Lynch became friendly adversaries. Aside from regular season meetings, their teams have squared off three times in the 4A South Region playoffs since 2002. Suitland beat Flowers in the regional final in both 2004 and 2006 en route to its state crowns.

"Right before the [Christmas] break [Lynch] came over to the school and we sat down for two hours and talked," Mayo said. "We had wanted to do that for a long time, mainly football and some personal stuff. It was something that was long overdue. It's kind of surreal right now.

We always had a lot of respect for each other. From the very beginning when I was at Forestville, all of our kids were in the same neighborhood. We knew the kind of situations that we were dealing with. A lot of kids looked at us like we were their parents. He cared about his kids and took care of his kids. He realized that some of the only discipline they got was from him."

"He was a father to a whole lot of kids at Suitland," Houchens said. "You look at wins and losses, but what about your standing at your school, and how do you touch all those young kids you deal with on a daily basis? He was a big difference maker on that end, and that's the real loss besides the tragedy to his family. A lot of sons and daughters at Suitland lost a father too."

Mayo said in subsequent years he will put the initials "NL" on all of his players' helmets. It is the kind of tribute Lynch made common practice at Suitland. This past season, the Rams wore helmet decals commemorating three former Suitland players who have died.

"Our players need to know the stories and the history behind our program," Lynch said this past October. "I want these kids to know how special and short life can be."

Staff writers Seth Elkin and Robert Klemko and Megan McKeever contributed to this report.

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.