PARKLAND, Fla. _ Marjory Stoneman Douglas athletic director and wrestling coach Chris Hixon was among those shot and killed on Wednesday at the Parkland high school.
Douglas football coach Willis May said Hixon was confirmed dead Thursday morning "a little after" assistant football coach Aaron Feis died around midnight. Hixon was 49.
Hixon was previously South Broward's athletic director before taking over at Douglas. In 2007, his stint with the Bulldogs was put on hold as he had been ordered for deployment to Iraq as a U.S. Naval Reservist.
Fellow athletic directors across Broward County had many strong feelings about Hixon and his death.
"Chris is such a great guy," said Coral Springs High School athletic director Dan Jacob, who is also the school's wrestling coach, like Hixon was for Douglas. "Chris is probably the nicest guy I have ever met. He would give you the shirt off his back. He does so much. That is terrible that it would happen to anybody. It is so senseless.
"I am crushed. ... I am totally crushed."
Among recent athletic accomplishments the school has had under Hixon, the Eagles' baseball team won a state and national championship in 2016.
Cypress Bay wrestling coach Allen Held was upset Wednesday night. Hixon was Held's athletic director while he coached the Bulldogs from 2000 to 2012. Hixon's wife, Debra, heads up South Broward High School's magnet program.
"Chris was a super human being," Held said. "The kind of person who would do anything for anyone.
"If you needed something he was the first one there. He would do anything as an athletic director to make your program better and he was a better person than athletic director. We used to talk wrestling all of the time and make fun of each other because that's what we do. To me, he was a great friend and a brother in life."
Taravella athletic director Jason Stein said he feels for Hixon's wife and special needs son.
"It is devastating," Stein said. "His son was with him everywhere. Chris epitomized what an athletic director was all about."
Hixon was BCAA Athletic Director of the Year last year.
"As a younger athletic director, he always made himself available to answer my questions and help," Cypress Bay athletic director Scott Selvidge said. "He was well respected among his peers and always willing to go the extra mile. It is just devastating."
Hixon's father was a wrestling coach at Boyd Anderson and Hixon served as an athletic director at Blanche Ely before going to South Broward.
According to Hixon's Facebook page, he studied at Broward College, lived in Hollywood and was from Easton, Penn.
