No one can protect themselves fully from risk and a Sacramento, Cal. football and track coach from Rio Linda High School has reminded us of that unfortunate truth.

According to WVTR.com, Marion Adams, who was a broadcasting teacher as well as a football and track coach, was riding his bicycle home from work after practice and crashed into a gate near the school and was impaled.

"It's like a nightmare. I keep waiting to wake up, just hasn't hit me all the way," son Joe Adams said to CBS in Sacramento.

He had turned to wave at a student outside the football ground when he crashed at speed into a large yellow car-park barrier, impaling the end of the half-opened gate several inches into his stomach, according to Daily Mail.

"He looked like he was going to be OK. He was nodding his head yes and no. I was thinking he was going to be alright," said member of the track team, Marcel Brown, reported sportsworldreport.com.

President of the Rio Linda Knights supporters club, Mark Manning, said: "This was a terrible loss, not just to those connected to the school but to the entire community. Marion was a man of solid strength and very good-natured. A man of honor who put 100% into improving our world by teaching our children both on the field and off.," according to CBS Sacramento.

He was remembered as a jovial man with a flair for one liners, liked by all in the school community. He was a huge 49ers and Giants fan and even decorated his house in team colors, according to Daily Mail.

While public schools through the country cut many programs like sports, he was said to have used his own money to keep youth football and little league alive in the California city, reported Daily Mail.

Mike Morris, the high school's Athletic Director, told the Sacramento Bee: "Marion was the most popular and nicest man on campus; just a great guy. 'It's a huge loss, devastating to our community. He's an example of how great Rio Linda is as a school and community. This place meant everything to him."

He leaves wife Kathy, son Joe and daughter Sarah and his two beloved grand-children who feature on all the coach's happy Facebook pictures.