MERIDIAN, Idaho — It’s January 9th, 2015.

Zach Ingersoll takes his seat like he has done for the last four seasons as an assistant coach with the Rocky Mountain boys basketball team.

This was likely his final game on the bench due to an exhausting battle with stage four esophageal cancer. Except, this wasn’t Zach’s final game in that seat, but rather only the beginning of a legacy.

How do you honor someone who isn’t here anymore?

You take them with you wherever you go.

“It doesn’t hit you until practices, and he’s not there,” said Rocky Mountain head boys basketball coach Dane Roy.

“It allows me to still hold onto a little bit of Zach” said Nicole Ingersoll, Zach’s wife.

Zach Ingersoll was a man of many titles, a loving husband to Nicole, an amazing dad to sons Oliver and Max, a teacher, a friend, and an assistant coach for the Grizzlies basketball team. He created a bond with his players built on love, passion, and toughness

“Coach Ingersoll really taught us to play through things, to be tough, to play through adversity,” said Brady Faigl, Rocky Mountain senior forward.

Adversity struck Ingersoll himself in January of 2014.

“We knew something was wrong,” Roy said. “In your head you’re thinking, you don’t want it to be the worst, and it was the absolute worst thing [the doctor] could have said.”

“[Zach] came in and grabbed a chair and that second we all knew something was really wrong,” Faigl added.

“He said, well, it’s esophageal cancer,” Nicole said.

Now a living testimony to his lesson of toughness, Ingersoll faced his unwavering opponent with the same passion he brought to the hardwood, continuing to occupy his seat on the Grizzlies’ bench no matter how taxing each daily battle was.

“You could hold him down, but, he would never stop fighting to get back up,” said Rocky Mountain assistant coach Jason Warr. “That was the way he was, and he took that to his kids.”

“He was here every day, never complaining about his pain or what he was going through,” Faigl said.

Zach’s exhausting fight with stage four cancer came to an end 15 days after he last sat on the Grizzlies’ bench, and just one day after his son Oliver’s third birthday.

He passed away with his family at his side.

“The last thing I do remember him saying to me was, ‘I love you,’ and he put his hand up on my face, and I knew that he did love me,” Nicole said.

So how do you honor someone who isn’t here anymore? You take them with you wherever you go.

“Passing on the legacy of what Coach Ingersoll coached us is how you honor him,” Faigl said.

The Ingersoll family celebrating Max’s birthday.

The Grizzlies decided to honor Zach during his fight, and subsequently after, by wearing the letters “PFI” on their uniforms.

“PFI came about early last year after Zach’s diagnosis,” Nicole said. PFI stands for “Play for Ingersoll.”

For the Grizzlies, healing comes from playing. Honoring comes in the form of three simple letters and a courtside seat.

“It was like, that’s his chair and we are leaving it open, and even today, it just seems right, and you feel Zach’s presence and the purpose. Our kids know that that’s his chair,” said coach Warr.

Zach’s spirit and toughness etched on their jerseys, written on their shoes, his passion found in every dunk and team huddle.

“I love having that empty chair on our bench because we never forget that he’s still here,” Faigl said.

Each game, a chance for the Grizzlies to honor their coach. An opportunity to celebrate a legacy of strength and love through an empty seat. A vessel, connecting team and coach for eternity.

One with a courtside view.

The other, a birdseye view

“Zach put a lot of hard work into coaching, a lot of time, and a lot of heart into coaching. To see the players and the way they are honoring Zach would be fulfilling to him. He’d say they knew I loved them, and they loved me,” Nicole said.