Alfonso Cardenas loved everything about soccer and passed that love to his players at the Tampa Bay Chargers Soccer Club.

“Everyone knew him as the coach who’d always yell,” his daughter Alejandra laughed.

That love transcended the field into everything he did.

“He would always help people,” daughter Jhoana recalled.

That included being the best dad he could be to his 20-year-old twin daughters and his 14-year-old son, Ivan.

They all grew up playing soccer alongside their dad, and Ivan follows in his dad’s footsteps. He lives and breathes soccer.

Cardenas not only coached his kids on the field, but he also coached them through life.

He’d been raising them on his own since his wife, Clara, died of cancer six years ago.

But on August 2, after a month of battling Covid-19, Cardenas passed away.

He tested positive at the end of June and quickly took a turn for the worse.

He spent most of July in the hospital.

“We couldn’t talk to him or see him since he was intubated,” Jhoana said.

By early August, he tested negative for the virus so his kids got to see him one last time before he died.

“We lost our mom when we were 14. So we’ve been like moms [to Ivan]. And now we’ve gotta be both,” Alejandra cried.

As they figure out how to navigate life on their own, the community is stepping in to help.

Maggie Pesaresi, a long-time family friend and part of the soccer club, started a GoFundMe account to help them with finances.

“I right away started thinking how are we going to handle this because, even though they have family, I feel very close to them,” Pesaresi said. “For some reason I really feel like I’m responsible.”

Donations initially started coming in from folks at the soccer club but have since spread to come from generous souls across the Tampa Bay area.

“A lot of people loved my dad, and he would have been happy that so many people are helping,” Alejandra said.