FRENCH LICK, In. (WAVE/Gray News) – A 10-year-old football player died unexpectedly Tuesday morning after falling ill in the days prior.

Treven Ball played for a youth football team in Indiana. His family said he loved his friends, family and football.

“It was just four days ago he was running up and down the bleachers,” family friend Jessica Alexander told WAVE. “It doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to be the same without him on this field.”

Treven played under the lights for the first time last week.

“This was such a big part of his life – this field,” Treven’s aunt, Megan Murphy, said as his family returned to the place that brought him so much joy.

On that same field, a heartbroken community of teachers, friends and teammates gathered for a vigil Tuesday night to make sure he wasn’t forgotten.

“We knew what kind of kid he was,” Murphy said. “But to just come out here and see all the lives that he has affected. That truly meant something to us.”

“The last thing he did before he passed was try to tell his mom how much he loved her,” Alexander said.

The family did not disclose Treven’s cause of death.