FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. (WSET) — Franklin County is coming to terms with the loss of their beloved coach. Tony Gill was shot and killed at Carter’s convenience store in Gretna on Sunday.

The basketball teams at Franklin County High School are devastated. They spent almost every day with Gill during their basketball seasons, and they said that life won’t be the same without him.

“I didn’t think it was real, it like shocked me,” the manager of the basketball team, Jaeleel Wade, said

No one believed that this could happen to the happy, outgoing and highly admired coach at Franklin County High School. Former players of Gill’s say that they were in disbelief. Wade had even been with Gill just a few days prior.

The players said that he was always in their corner, rooting for them and making sure they felt loved and seen.

“He was that happy person that would come around you, and he showed his light anywhere he came,” Isaiah Carter, a former player, said.

These former players said that they hope coach Gill’s memory will live on and that every player at Franklin County will take the court with coach Gill in mind.

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“I just hope that everyone who comes through Franklin County now just have a chip on your shoulder. We gotta play for coach Gill,” another former player, JT Lomax, said.

Lomax said that Coach Gill would encourage him on and off the court, reminding him that his life is much bigger than basketball.

Now, they’re just taking on day at a time, remembering that coach Gill would want them to be strong.

“You never know, you just have to live every day by the day, and not take anything for granted,” said Kaniah Copeland, a former player.

Carter said that he is relying on the fact that Gill knew God and that he is in a better place now.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions in this shooting.

ABC13 is told Gill did know the suspect, but we’re still working to learn how they were connected and why they were at the convenience store in Gretna.