'Not D. Hill': Classmates Gather To Mourn North High's Deshaun Hill After Fatal Shooting

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- "How are the children?" Larry McKenzie quoted, as part of his time on the microphone before the Minneapolis North High School boy's basketball team played Hopkins. He spoke before a packed house, there to remember Deshaun Hill, a fellow student and quarterback of the Polars football team.

The community is grieving.

"Last night I slept for the first time in a couple days. Actually slept," said McKenzie, a leader Northside, far beyond the court. "There's no training, no manual, no anything that prepares a coach for the kind of situation that we had to deal with."

Hill wore number 9 on his jersey. On Saturday, North High School's warmups bore his number and name. After the first tip, teams let nine seconds wind off the clock before beginning play. All this, as people still reconciling what happened.

"It didn't feel real. It didn't feel normal. Not D. Hill, though," a classmate of Hill's expressed.

The game took a back seat when fans rose from theirs and welcomed Hill's family, Honoring a child with an enduring impact.

"I remember, in November during tryouts, getting up in his grill, and all he did was smile. So I guess that'll be my memory of that young man forever," said McKenzie.

So much more than an athlete lost, and now remembered through sports.

North High School is holding a balloon release Sunday, as well as a worship service in memory of Hill at the school's gymnasium.