STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Omar King had one foot in the door at the unemployment office.
 
Then Stony Brook football head coach Chuck Priore called.
 
King nearly didn't pick up. Typically, he doesn't answer the phone if he doesn't have the number. This time, on his way to file for unemployment, he made an exception.
 
Priore had an opening on his staff at Stony Brook and saw King as a solid candidate.

King, who was coming off his lone season at Rhode Island, had no idea that Priore was familiar with him. They had met a few times, but King didn't think he was on the radar.
 
King interviewed with Priore and landed the job in 2014 — first as a defensive backs coach, then beginning the following year as running backs coach.
 
He now enters his seventh season coaching at Stony Brook.

There were many stops and stories along the way.
 
King found football in a beauty parlor. Growing up, his parents led a church, with his mother the lead pastor and his father the elder. When his father wasn't at the church, he was working at an auto shop during the day and in the sanitation department at night.
 
That meant King spent the majority of his time with his three older sisters in their beauty parlor. He would go straight from school to the parlor to do his homework and spend the day.
 
"There was no one really around to take me to the field to play Pop Warner," he said.
 
He hadn't really been exposed to much football anyway, with the bulk of his time spent hanging out at the parlor. That changed when a television was installed in the parlor. Thanks to the TV, King discovered his passion for football.
 
"I remember watching games on Saturdays," King said. "I just picked up football and fell in love with it and what it looked like."
 
King, then 10 years old, decided to take a football outside the parlor and start playing by himself. At 13, he played his first competitive football with the Springfield Rifles in Queens. A year later, he began playing for his high school team.
 
After a strong prep career, he joined the St. John's University football team. As he was entering his sophomore year, he began to take note of the Hofstra University football team. The program was on television every week and was getting solid recognition. King decided to transfer. He played two seasons in a backup role.
 
From there, King didn't know what he wanted to do for a career. He took a job working security, but wasn't getting the fulfillment he desired. He had a conversation with a friend, who sparked the idea of coaching.
 
"He said that every time we used to play football as kids, I was coaching them and teaching them the way I wanted things done," King recalled. "He said, 'Why don't you go coach at your old high school?'"
 
So that's what King did. On top of getting a job at a school at Rikers Island, he returned to Holy Cross High School, where he discovered a strong passion for coaching. He served as the offensive coordinator and running backs coach for two seasons before his head coach summoned him for a conversation. A running backs coach job had opened up at Iona College, and his high school coach suggested King apply.

He got the job and spent five seasons in New Rochelle. He spent the next five years at LIU Post coaching running backs, but then was faced with a big life decision. King was married and had a son and a step-daughter, and money was becoming tight.
 
"It was at a point where you're either getting gas or you're getting lunch," he said. "If I needed gas to get to work for the next few days then I wasn't buying lunch."
 
He decided it was time to look at jobs outside of coaching. He interviewed for a job in house remodeling, where he would sell windows. He didn't get the job.
 
About a week later, King got a call from an old coaching friend. He told King about an opening at Rhode Island coaching wide receivers. King interviewed and landed a spot on the staff. It was his first time working outside of New York.
 
"I lived in the office for the whole year," King said. "It was myself and two other coaches living in the office. It was hard because I had to leave my family, but it helped me grind."
 
Rhode Island was in the midst of several down seasons. The program made strides while King was on the staff, but they decided to make a change after the 2013 season and he came back home to Long Island. Money became tight again, and King was ready to file for unemployment. That's when Priore made the phone call. The rest is history.
 
It hasn't been the simplest path, but it led him to a job he always wanted in the state in which he's nearly always lived.
 
"Being able to coach the game I fell in love with on the television in the beauty parlor," King said, "it just means the world to me."