MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Football is back at Minneapolis Roosevelt after a year hiatus for the varsity team. They have their numbers up and they’ve got motivation in the form of a teammate who lost his life.

“It felt good getting a chance to play with my friends out here,” Terrance Hicks said.

They still don’t have enough bodies to do everything they want to, but it’s a start.

“We just keep them motivated,” Dijon Frazier said.

Trequan Sykes was slated as a key starter. But he was shot and killed on the last day of school this year — his life cut short by an altercation at his home.

“It’s senseless violence and it’s things that could be worked out through conversation,” Perry Singleton said. “The kids now days are into trying to prove something.”

So they return to the program with excited spirits and heavy hearts, re-establishing Roosevelt in football with a teammate’s memory as a driving force.

The gunman was convicted in July and Roosevelt plays under the lights against Minneapolis Henry tonight.