But two days ago, I received the news that a pillar of the referee community had passed away, and it shook me to the core. I am referring to Mike Newman. If you worked the FPYC Father's Day tournament (a rec tournament that was always a lot of fun) or State Cup, you were bound to come across Mike. He was always around. He checked in on his referees and his emails were slightly sarcastic and always made me laugh.
I was supposed to work this last Father's Day tournament but a couple of days before my wife suffered an accident where she broke a finger on her toe and would need help getting around that weekend and I had to cancel. I knew it would be the last time I could work together and now I regret even more not having been able to help him that one last time.
He moved out to Vegas shortly thereafter and passed away on Tuesday. My fondest memory of him was during a U12 President's Cup match some many years ago. My daughter and I were supposed to work it with another referee and instead Mike shows up. This was probably in 2014-2015 and we do the match, he was a hoot with the parents as AR2 and after the match we come to the conclusion that the goals were actually the wrong size. They were smaller than the regular U12 small sided goals were supposed to be. I cannot remember exactly what quip he said, but it was spot on and funny.
Along with Harvey Finberg, whom also helped me be the referee I am today and who, like Mike, is now hopefully reffing soccer greats from yesteryear, it is hard to not feel a sense of loss. Mike, may you rest in peace.
