Ron Twigg never took a paycheck for the countless hours he spent establishing, building and coaching the Chelsea High School lacrosse team.

Now people plan to pay him back by continuing the program in his memory.

Twigg, 54, died June 15 from injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident near the Zeeb Road exit off of I-94. He left behind his wife, Peggy, 18-year-old son, Derek, and 16-year-old daughter, Hunter.

And a lacrosse program that Peggy Twigg says will be his legacy.

Peggy remembers the first time Ron stumbled upon lacrosse nearly a decade ago while flipping channels. An avid hockey fan, Ron was drawn to lacrosse’s similarities.

“(Ron) said, ‘Hey Derek, come here,” Peggy recalled. “Would you like to play that?’”

Derek said yes, and he joined the fifth-grade team at Emerson School in Ann Arbor. When Derek enrolled at Chelsea High School, there was no team.

Not yet.

“To say he was the founding father would be an understatement,” Chelsea athletic director Wayne Welton said. “The short of it is that we wouldn’t have a lacrosse program today, or it would not be what it is today, without his and Peggy’s tireless efforts and countless hours of hard work.”

By the time the spring season of Derek’s freshman year rolled around, Chelsea had a school-sanctioned club team. And a coach.

Welton asked Twigg a few times to present him with a budget to pay coaches, but always got the same response. Absolutely not. Twigg was adamant about keeping player costs at a minimum and making sure everybody played.

“I know a lot of kids like myself, we wouldn’t have had the money,” said William Murdock, who tried to start a team at Chelsea as a sophomore to no avail. Murdock played his final two years.

“There are some kids who came to lacrosse to see if that was their niche, and Ron wanted it to be their niche. He wanted it to be a self-esteem builder.” Peggy Twigg said.

She recalled one player wanting to quit, until Twigg convinced him to stick it out. The player eventually became team captain.

“I can’t imagine what that did for that boy’s self esteem,” she said.

Matt Gillespie played four years of lacrosse at Chelsea, was team captain as a senior and hopes to play at Alma College next year.

“He was a fantastic great guy, on and off the field,” Gillespie said. “Thank God for his son.”

Gillespie said Twigg had a way of keeping practice fresh with new ideas and drills, but affectionately recalls his catch phrases, which were always delivered with a signature nasally tone.

“He’d always say, ‘You can beat these guys,’ and ‘my beautiful wife, Peggy,’” Gillespie said. “Never just ‘my wife,’ or ‘Peggy,’ always, ‘My beautiful wife, Peggy.’”

Twigg started the team so his son could play, but it eventually became a way for so many other sons to have that same opportunity.

Fred van Reesema met Twigg at an informational meeting that first year and has been helping with the program ever since.

“A lot of people will carry this on in his memory,” said van Reesema, who plans to help start a middle school program in the near future. “We expect it to carry on his memory.”

Joe Koengeter graduated from Chelsea in 2002 and picked up the game while playing for Central Michigan’s club team in college. He was a volunteer coach during Chelsea’s first year and said Twigg’s work to build a foundation for a program gave him pride as an alumnus.

“He did nothing but give back. Never looked for compensation, did this for love of game and opportunity,” said Koengeter, now the varsity coach at Huron. “He dedicated his time to getting a program up and running and was as unselfish as anyone could be.”

Asked by AnnArbor.com his team’s strengths and weaknesses for a season preview last year, Twigg took a humorous jab at himself and listed “coaching” as a weakness.

At the conclusion of this season, Derek’s senior year, he stepped down confident the program was in a position to replace him with someone with more formal training in the sport.

The coaching search may yield someone with more in-depth knowledge of the game. But make no mistake, there will be no replacing Ron Twigg.

“It’s absolutely going to be Ron’s legacy,” said Peggy. “I hope our community in Chelsea will support the sport, not only in memory of Ron, but because it’s a great opportunity for kids.”

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. he can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.