That tradition continued. They later worked together at Cupertino High School, where Panos is the varsity soccer coach and Marks worked with junior varsity. "He built up a program that was really strong and took them to their best record in 10 years," Panos says. "Two seasons ago, the JV team beat Monta Vista for the first time in five years. That was his crowning moment."

The Cupertino High School soccer community is just one of the groups reeling at Marks' sudden death. The 35-year-old restaurateur was found at his Monta Vista establishment, Bruschettas Pizza, on the morning of July 15 after suffering from a tear in his aorta.

Marks opened Bruschettas in 1999.

"His pizza place was always where you had your soccer parties," says Rebecca Nicholas, who initially paired Marks and Panos for AYSO. "He's coached my son since the age of 9, and he gave him a job in the restaurant. His death has left a big hole in the community and in our hearts."

Wesley Marks was born on Jan. 8, 1969, in Tillamook, Ore., where his father was a fisherman. Marks' mother, Susan Palm, says the family moved to Santa Cruz in 1971. After Mark's father died and his mother remarried, the family moved to Illinois and then Pennsylvania. He has one brother, Richard, who is two years younger, and a sister, Virginia Foxton. Both live in the South Bay.

His teenage years began a period of exploration. After one year in boarding school in New York, Marks moved to New Paltz, N.Y., to live with his uncle. He attended community college there before graduating from the State University of New York at Plattsburgh with a degree in business marketing. Marks took jobs on Long Island, in Manhattan and in Arizona prior to moving to San Jose in 1997. He later moved to Campbell.

The decision to open a restaurant stemmed from Marks' growing love for cooking. "He had known he wanted to do food," Palm says. "He was apprenticing with fancy breads and thought he would open a bakery, but he wanted a partner, and his partner wanted to do pizza."

That partner was Tao King, now the owner of Coffee Society in Cupertino. "I met his brother in college, so I'd known Wes for a long time," King says. After putting the plans for Bruschettas in place, King's job in the tech industry heated up, so Marks bought out his share of the restaurant before it even opened. The two remained friends and even had plans to play tennis the afternoon of Marks' death.

Tennis was just one of the ways in which Marks was active. In addition to tennis and coaching soccer, Marks enjoyed going to ballgames, playing hockey and camping on his brother's land in the Santa Cruz Mountains. He had also just begun a relationship with his girlfriend, Lily Boston, who he met just two weeks before his death. "He had already brought her to meet me," Palm says.

"He was one of those guys who lived life the way it should be lived," King says. His friends and family say that he did things the way he wanted, whether that was using a tough-love approach with his soccer teams or speaking his mind. While it sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, it also made him a lot of friends. "He was a man of few words, and his words mattered," his mother says.

A memorial party was held at Bruschettas on July 19, and 150 people ranging from his soccer players to their parents to Bruschettas regulars attended. "He always used to open up the restaurant for all his friends, and he's done parties like that for his employees," Palm says. "I've learned so much about him since he died--his accountant was his friend, his landlord was his friend. There was a sign up at the restaurant that night, and it said, 'Employees by chance, friends by choice.'"

Bruschettas will soon go up for sale.

Marks leaves behind his mother, a brother, a sister and brother-in-law, his paternal grandfather, four uncles and 19 cousins.

Panos and Nicholas are working to continue Marks' service with a scholarship fund. To contribute, send donations to the Wesley Marks Scholarship Fund, c/o Rebecca Nicholas, 1127 Cameron Place, San Jose, CA 95129.