It's a loss felt by an entire community as people remember a former Rock Island soccer coach who lost his battle with cancer.
It's been just a day since students, friends and family got the news that former Rock Island High School soccer coach Conan Dalton lost his seven-year battle with brain cancer on Sunday, November 30th, 2014.
"He absolutely had a passion for coaching. He loved kids and he did it all for the right reasons. Conan never went for numbers," said Amy Kent, Conan's friend and coaching partner.
Conan spent 11 years coaching soccer.
"As a little kid, since I can remember, he always had me around a soccer ball and that kind of got him into coaching and it just really took off from there," said Conan's brother, Cory Dalton.
Cory says his brother was more than a coach on the sidelines, "When you start hearing some stories and talking to people throughout the community, it's hard to claim him just for myself as him being my brother. He was like a brother to so many other people."
Now family and friends are throwing a fundraiser to help his family, his wife Gretta, their four-year-old son and another child on the way. It's called Kicks for Conan. The two-day fundraiser is happening on December 27th-28th at the River's Edge in Davenport.
There will be soccer games, silent auction and much more.
"Conan's legacy is no one fights alone and that doesn't necessarily mean just in the brain cancer he had, it means in everything you do in life. You're really not alone and we want to leave a legacy for Gretta and the kids, that they're not alone," said Kent.
Not only a way to help Conan's family, but also to keep his memory alive.
"It's amazing when tragedy like this happens, what a community can do and how well they can join together and that's what really Conan was all about," said Cory.
Kent says they plan to make this event a yearly event and hope to raise $10,000.