EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. — A beloved El Dorado Hills soccer player is being remembered for the mark she left on people near and far. Sophia Torres died earlier this week after being hit by a driver while she was out on a run.
However, her family and friends want people to reflect on all the good she brought to the world.
"Sophia is such a larger-than-life personality. You know, she just made an impression where ever she went," said Katie Blough, who is the Head Coach with the Girls Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) Program.
Torres, a San Juan Soccer Club player, died on Monday after being in the Intensive Care Unit for 20 days. The 13-year-old was fighting a battle after she was hit by a car driving down Serrano Parkway. Officials said no one was at fault.
Family and friends want the focus to be on Sophia's impact on others.
"Since there's such negativity in the world right now, she always brought positivity, and like when it was in really hard times, she would always bring so much like happiness and so much brightness to the world and to the team," said Gabby Ferraro, who is Sophia's teammate.
The club said the outpouring of love has been huge.
It's been coming in from all around the area, with some even creating a memorial at the fields where Sophia trained at.
"You're never prepared for something like this. We as our soccer community... it brought us so much closer here at San Juan. It was just unbelievable the outpouring of love from Northern California to Southern California to across the nation," Blough said.
With Sophia playing on a top five team in the country, she was very well known. Ferraro said Sophia's memory is keeping them strong.
"She was just such a loving person, and like Katie said, her smile and her laugh was so contagious - like you would just look at her and she'd be smiling and the whole team would be smiling," Ferraro said.
Leaving behind a smile on the faces of those who knew her is exactly what Sophia's friends say she would have wanted.
"We want to celebrate her, and we don't want it to be something that is this sad, depressing story. We want to focus on the light that she was," said Blough.
Sophia would have turned 14 in just a few days. Her family is having a celebration of life service this Saturday at the District Church in El Dorado Hills at 1 p.m. and everyone is invited.
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