“He was a flier,” Dan tells FOX19 NOW. “He was a middle man most of the time, but after the competition was over and the lights went out he became very humble. “He is very humble.”

Her father says cheer is like a second family to Lilliana.

“Naturally he was pretty good at it, he found success there,” he says. “He was comfortable there. In this way, we can establish a common bond with children.”

Dan says they were about to race in Columbus in 2019 when they realized something was wrong.

They took him to the emergency room and he died a few hours later.

“Ultimately the diagnosis was sepsis,” says Dan. “His blood was contaminated. After all, it was due to streptococcus.”

Dan tried to continue to honor Lilliana’s name through the sport she loved most, coaching cheer at Highland High School for a year and designing bracelets in her memory.

Many of the bracelets are inspired by quotes on her dream board.

Dan says “14,000 of these groups were distributed in his neighborhood.”

Following her death, Premier Athletics’ general manager Rosalind Schmidt renamed the annual competition after former member Lilliana.

“He was the embodiment of everything you wanted your child to be: nice, kind, competitive, but always the first to put his arm around another teammate,” Schmidt says.

A portion of the proceeds from Sunday’s “LJS” Competition will go towards the annual scholarship in Lilliana’s name.

“Even if you don’t have a cheerleader or dancer, show up and support them,” Schmidt says. “Support the scholarship fund. He was an amazing person who was taken from us too soon. “I want to keep his memory alive and honor him every day.”

Dan says that although there is still much to remember about her, it makes him happy to be able to keep Lilliana’s memory alive in the sport he loved.

He tells an anecdote about how the family always had to buy extra school supplies from him so that they would have them available if anyone needed them.

“He loved everyone,” Dan says. “He wanted everyone to participate. He wanted everyone to participate.”