Ken Kea can often be seen reaching inside his North Carolina hat to share with others a token of his past.

Tucked in his hat, which he wears almost every day, are light blue laminated cards with a poem on it.

Soccer

To some just another sport ...

To me it's a stage,

I go on to it and I'm the star,

And no one can make me fall.

Everyone has their own thing,

This is mine.

The poem was written by Kea's daughter, Laura, about a year before she died in a car accident on Feb. 19, 1995, while traveling to Phoenix for a soccer tournament. A huge soccer fan, she played the sport while a sophomore at Salpointe High School. She was 17.

It would have been easy for Kea to withdraw from the world and forget about the game of soccer, but that was not an option for him.

In fact, he has done just the opposite.

Kea, a long-time soccer fan, coaches the 10-to-12-years-old girls team for the Ft. Lowell soccer club. He is involved in community soccer events and is dedicated to Arizona's program, which helps him remember his daughter and the love she had for the game .

"I can watch her friends and see her out there, too," said Kea, who has a son, Casey, 10, and is divorced. "It's just a way of being close to her through soccer."

He lives his life for his daughter and passes on her thoughts and love for the game to others. Winning was not important to her. Instead, she stressed hard work and dedication. Kea said he passes this message on to others to keep her spirit alive.

"People don't realize winning or losing these ball games is nothing," Kea said. "It's what you bring to it from inside. You can lose every game in your life and still be a winner and excel in this game."

Kea has become a familiar face to soccer fans and players around Tucson, including those of the Arizona's soccer program.

"I like seeing him out there helping the community and being a dedicated Wildcat fan," said Krista Bogdan, a freshman forward for Arizona who went to high school with Kea's daughter. "It makes you really appreciate soccer, and him being out there reminds us that some people are not that lucky to be out on the field."

Kea has passed on his daughter's message, that winning is not important, to a team that managed only five victories this season.

"He has been extremely supportive of our program," UA coach Lisa Fraser said.

He went to two to three practices a week, watching and talking to the players, and attended every home game, sitting in his lawn chair just left of midfield.

Kea does not just sit and watch what is happening on the field, though. He talks to the players and helps them through their problems.

"He is always there for me," UA midfielder Veronica Ramirez said. "After one game I was crying because I didn't get to play and he was motivational and telling me not to give up."

Ramirez, who joined the team this season, said that when jerseys were passed out she discovered her number 13 was already taken, so she combined her original number with Laura Kea's number to get 25.

"I like number 25 because thinking about my number means something," she said.

Ramirez, a sophomore, had been friends with Kea's daughter since they were 8 years old. Both played on the Ft. Lowell Premiere Soccer Club team together.

After Kea's death, Ramirez got her ankle tattooed with the Adidas symbol, a staple in Kea's wardrobe. Kea's number 12 and initials were written on the leaves of the symbol.

Kea continues to honor his daughter's legacy in more ways than just words.

He has a tattoo of the Adidas symbol as well. His, however, has a heart with the number 12 in the middle.

His daughter's dream was to play soccer for North Carolina. Her room was full of Tarheel merchandise. She could always be seen wearing a UNC shirt or hat and she even wrote a research paper on North Carolina athletics.

"North Carolina is where the best go and Laura wanted to be the best," Kea said. "All the North Carolina stuff I do is to keep her dream alive even though she is not here."

Although Kea is a Florida State fan, he has put the Seminoles aside. In fact, Kea can be seen sporting the light blue color of UNC nearly every day. He even decorated his Suburban with Tarheel soccer players in addition to the heart tribute to her on the back of the car.

"The reason I do what I do is because she's not here to do that," Kea said. "But I'm so proud of her that I want to give something back because how great soccer was to her."

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