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GREENSBORO — In spite of her grief, Stacey Nickerson looked up Saturday and declared, “Today is a good day.”

Nickerson, along with her family, attended the Smitty’s McDonalds Ervin Outlaw Plum Bowl to cheer for her son Malique Steens’ football team, the Windsor Rams.

“I know he really loved playing football,” Nickerson said.

Malique, 7, and his father, Marquise Steens, were found shot to death in their home on Oct. 23.

“His passing away has been hurtful,” assistant coach Elijah Southern said. “It’s hard trying to explain what’s happened.”

Assistant coach Namon Williams has tried to answer questions about Malique’s death in a way that the children would understand.

“I’ve been telling them to always do right because tomorrow’s not promised,” Williams said.

Southern simply tells the children that sometimes God selects some people to be angels when they are young.

“So, I said that it was time for Malique to go to heaven,” he said.

Both Williams and Southern have sons who play for the Rams. They hold on to their sons and their teammates a little tighter.

“We’re not only a football team; we’re a family,” Williams said.

In the days since the slaying, the community has become family, too. The neighborhood held a prayer vigil on Wednesday and some have donated money to the family.

“I was surprised,” Nickerson said. “I knew a lot of people loved my son. It touched my heart to see them come together like that.”

It’s been that support and prayer that is helping the family cope,” Nickerson said.

During the Plum Bowl, donations were taken, and all the players and coaches from the 24 teams in the Plum Bowl signed a memorial banner and wore decals with Malique’s initials and his number 7.

The Windsor team also made a presentation to his mother.

“This is a help with the arrangements to lay him to rest properly,” Nickerson said.

The team lost to Lewis Black 14-7, but what Nickerson and the coaches said they missed the most on Saturday was Malique’s smile.

“We’re working to accept the fact that we won’t see him,” she said. “We’re missing that smile every day — that hug, but we know he’s in a better place.”

Contact Tiffany S. Jones at 373- 7157 or tiffany.jones@news-record.com