A Buffalo little league football team had its first practice on Tuesday since one of their coaches was killed.

Norzell Aldridge, 36, was shot and killed Saturday night following an altercation with several people.

As the team processes this unexpected loss, they are determined to keep his memory alive.

Before the Beast Elite Ducks practiced Tuesday evening, they huddled together for some words of encouragement days after the sudden loss of Aldridge. They say they’re not grieving his death, but rather celebrating his life.

“He helped found the Ducks,” said Kenya Peoples, the team’s president. “We started with five, six guys. He was one of them guys and he put it in every day, every day he came in and he’d give you all he had, he never shortchanged anybody.”

Aldridge was shot just feet away from Emerson Park, where the Ducks play.  No arrests have been made.

Now the team is joining forces with other teams and organizations in the city to put security measures in place to make sure kids are safe when they’re on the field.

“Despite myths and people want to take their kids out of the little league football, now is not the time, now is the time to show solidarity, all the little league football organizations and let everybody know that our kids are safe, there’s men out here, there’s women out here that’s going to protect our kids,” said Kenneth Simmons, a local pastor.

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown visited Tuesday night’s practice and tried to comfort the team.

“There’s too much senseless gun violence all across this country, something has to be done about that,” he said.

The team plans to honor Aldridge by having a prayer vigil at Emerson Field on Thursday at 7 p.m. They also plan to have a march and start a scholarship fund in his name.

“This man was full of life and we can’t take that from him,” Peoples said. “We have to continue on, we have to put a legacy in place.”

The team wants to make it clear they aren’t a sob story and they plan to continue pushing on as a team.

“We just want everybody to know that we’re here and we’re safe,” said team co-president Douglas Hunt. “I don’t want people to have the idea in their head that they can come here and do anything to us to hurt us because that’s not going to happen because we been here and we’re going to continue to be here.”