The best-case scenario became reality after a San Antonio high school football player lost his class ring nearly 200 miles away from home.

On Sunday, March 29, metal detector hobbyist Mark Gibson posted to the Port Aransas Friends Facebook group that he’d found a Harlan High School class ring along the beach that previous Wednesday. Gibson said he found it while searching Port Aransas — “like I do almost every day all winter long on many beaches all over this area” — for two other lost rings he’d seen on social media.

The Wyoming, Minnesota, native who calls himself the Ring King said he’s been wintering in Port A — recently dubbed the “best beach in Texas” — for 12 years. According to him. Lost rings are hard to reunite with their owners. He would know, as his post says, he found his 750th just a day after locating the Harlan class ring. However, class rings can be the exception. This one had the name of the school, a first name and the player’s jersey number, making it easy to call the school.  

“I left my name and number,” Gibson said. “Less than two hours later the kid’s mom who lost it called me with a positive ID and was over the moon with excitement.”

Continuing, he recalls the story of how the senior’s ring was lost. 

“They were in Port A about a month ago and her son was playing football in the water with his friends and lost his ring,” Gibson wrote. “She said the football moms prayed someone with a detector would find it some day and try to return it.”

The ring hasn’t quite found its way back to the owner. Gibson says after he offered to send it back, the football moms said they’ll be driving down to Port A over the Easter weekend to retrieve it themselves and meet “Mr. and Mrs. Ring King in person to help celebrate this joyous occasion.”

Gibson told MySA via text message that out of the 750 rings he’s found, his “favorite ones are the ones I have been able to return on my own to the owners or if they have called me to help find their lost ring and I was able to go do that for them.” 

“Returning lost rings is the least I can do for folks that may never have seen their ring again had I not gone over it with my coil,” Gibson said. “God is good.”