CENTRAL FALLS — Kevin Cesario, 20, who died in a single-car crash Tuesday on Hedley Avenue, was a quiet, respectful young man who loved sports, said his family.

While growing up in Central Falls, he was a familiar face on T-ball league and soccer teams. He also played on the baseball, basketball and soccer teams at the William M. Davies Career and Technical School from which he graduated in 2005.

After he got out of high school and started working in construction, he still made time to go out with his friends for a game of basketball.

His father, Daniel Cesario, said his son liked to be successful and part of that success was working hard and buying what he wanted. He had had his new Cadillac Escalade SUV for just two weeks when he crashed into two parked cars, flipping over the SUV. He was killed. He died on the same street he had lived on as a child.

Cesario said his son was not wearing a seat belt and that he was pinned under the car. The police say that speed was apparently a factor in the crash. Kevin Cesario had driven a smaller Nissan Maxima before getting a SUV and wasn’t used to it, his father said. He did not realize the vehicle is top heavy, he said.

Police Chief Joseph Moran said that one of his daughters had gone to school with Cesario and knew him from when he played T-ball and football in the city leagues. “He was a good kid from a good family. This is a tragedy,” he said.

Daniel Cesario, of Pawtucket, who was a coach in the Central Falls Youth Soccer Association and was the director of Central Falls T-ball, said he and his son shared a love of sports and a love for the outdoors and scary amusement park rides.

Cesario said Kevin, as a child, never gave him trouble, never raised his voice. “He liked doing well. He was always positive,” his father said. “That is what is eating us up.”

Cesario had had custody of Kevin since he was about 9 years old, he said. He lived in Pawtucket with his father and his father’s girlfriend and children.

“In Central Falls, I tried not just with Kevin but with the other kids to keep them off the streets by doing something constructive,” Cesario said. “[Sports] helped Kevin in school,” Cesario said. Being on the team helped his son make friends and fit in.

Once a year, the family would go to Florida. They would go to amusement parks such as Six Flags and ride the roller coaster. “He liked rides like that,” his father said. “We loved our amusement parks. We loved traveling, the outdoor camping, all our lives. We would leave for the weekend, set up a tent and be with friends or by ourselves,” he said.

Diane Troiano, of Pawtucket, said that Kevin and her daughter, Cristina Pagnano, were like peas in a pod. They had been going out for more than three years. “They were each other’s love of their life. They were like a married couple,” she said.

Kevin, Cristina and Troiano’s husband would sit home together and watch baseball and cheer for their favorite team, the New York Yankees.

“He was a very, very good kid. He got along with everybody. He had a great sense of humor. I think this earth will be very poor without him,” Troiano said.

tpina@projo.com / (401) 277-7394