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However, there was more proof. Last Tuesday, the soccer coaches of Montgomery County sponsored a fundraiser game in Alexander’s honor at Magruder, with all proceeds going towards his pregnant wife, Kris, and 3-year old daughter, Sami. It was a smashing success, as a grand total of $26,000 was grossed on the evening.

Even more noteworthy was the turnout. Nearly 50 former county players, high school and club coaches took the field, wearing uniforms with the name ‘‘Scott” emblazoned on the back. Longtime WUSA-TV sports anchor Ken Mease emceed the event. Officials from D.C. United even got involved, raffling off team memorabilia throughout the game, with the earnings going straight to the Scott Alexander Memorial Fund.

Then there were the people he touched in day-to-day life, the people that aren’t as well known, but just as relevant in understanding Alexander’s impact.

Take John Taylor, whose daughter, 2005 Magruder alum Bethany, was introduced to Alexander’s animated coaching style in one of his summer camps years ago. Taylor had only met him a couple times, but Bethany made the hour-and-a-half trek from her school (Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania) to catch the game.

‘‘I met him at a booster club event, talked with him a few times, even held his daughter,” said John Taylor, who also has a son in the ninth grade at Magruder. ‘‘He was just a terrific guy. I mean he had to be — look at everybody here. There’s people that haven’t been at this school in years just for this.

‘‘Look how the whole community is here. This goes beyond school, beyond soccer. It could be band for all I care. This is how many people he affected one way or another.”

The game and its many contributing sponsors (which included Coca-Cola, Blue Ribbon BBQ and Carmen’s Italian Ice), was largely put together by Karl Heimbach, Alexander’s close friend and Magruder’s athletics director. The two became extremely close shortly after Heimbach hired Alexander to fill the Colonels’ vacant boys soccer head coaching position in 2001.

They had much in common. Both were Pennsylvania natives who played Division I soccer at the University of Pittsburgh. And both were extremely active in the county’s club soccer community — Heimbach working for years with Montgomery Soccer Incorporated and Alexander coaching the Olney Pumas of the Olney Boys & Girls Community Sports Association.

That’s why, before the game, Heimbach declared the night a celebration rather than a memorial. Enough tears were cried over the previous two weeks. Tuesday night was about commemorating the good times.

‘‘It was just super to see everyone come together, from coaches to referees to various soccer clubs, private schools, everybody, for Scott,” said Heimbach. ‘‘It was a lot more than just the normal coach-AD relationship. When somebody in his family married, he was coaching the Pumas, so I helped him out with coaching his club team. Now would you come up and run a special practice for someone you weren’t so close to? We were that good of friends.”

Almost all of Alexander’s former players were at the game, watching from the bleachers and cheering for the coaches they’d played against for years. These are the people most qualified to speak about their former mentor.

One in attendance was Mark Eisinger, a two-time All-Gazette first-team defender who played for Alexander from 2002 to 2005. Now a freshman in college he was also a guest speaker at his former coach’s viewing. Looking at the program given to the audience that day, he beautifully summed up just about everyone’s thoughts when he said, ‘‘I can’t stop looking at two numbers, 1971 and 2007. But I realize that the most important [part] is the dash in between them.”

Another was Cooper Tilton, another Magruder standout defender, who finished up his senior season this past fall and signed on to play in college at Winthrop (S.C.). Watching the game from the press box, he can almost hear Alexander’s voice from ground level.

‘‘I know exactly what he’s doing right now,” said Tilton. ‘‘He’s standing up top, up there with Hector [Morales, Sherwood boys soccer coach and Alexander’s close friend], telling everybody what to do. He’d love this more than anything.”

Though the game was a charitable cause, coaches and recent county grads alike played hard, just like Alexander would have. It pit the current county coaches, wearing blue jerseys, against ‘‘other” relevant county soccer figures wearing white.

The coaches struck first, with a first-half goal courtesy of Einstein boys head coach Nougais Metallus, but their younger, spryer opponents countered with two more. When time expired, Mease appeased the coaches with a tongue-in-cheek rationale and declared the game a tie. For most of them, it was the first time they’d played in a competitive setting in years.

‘‘I’m going to have to soak my body in Epsom salt,” said Walter Johnson boys soccer coach Mike Williams. ‘‘I’ll be sore, but I had a blast. They’re talking about doing this every year, so I’ll definitely come out and play once a year.”

Indeed, the game may likely become an annual event, and several coaches approached Heimbach to make their case. Heimbach would be more then willing to honor his good friend every year, as it’s already done so much good. In addition to the current benefits that will be contributed to the Alexander family, Magruder track coach Nathan Timm has picked up sponsors for his run at the 2007 Frederick Marathon, which is scheduled for the first weekend of May. After the race, Heimbach estimates that the community will have raised over $40,000 in little over a month.

It’s almost heartbreaking to think of how many people Scott Alexander influenced, that no longer get to know him. An occupational therapist that literally dedicated his life to helping people, he left behind patients, hundreds of former players, close friends, and most sadly, his family.

But, as Eisinger eloquently put it weeks ago, it’s the dash between his birth and death dates that came together last Tuesday night. All the people who came to show their support and all the help they’ve provided are reason enough to believe that, while Alexander’s death was premature, he did not die in vain.

‘‘You sometimes get down on mankind for the bad things that happen, but this was a good thing,” Heimbach said. ‘‘Sometimes mankind can really come through.”