Sporting Kansas City continues to mourn the passing of Ron Newman, the club's first head coach who died Monday at age 84 in Tampa, Florida.
Among the hundreds of players Newman competed with or coached during his storied soccer career was Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes. Both have been inducted into the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame and left indelible impacts on the sport in this country.
Vermes reflected today on Newman's life and legacy as a free-spirited soccer pioneer who played an integral role in advancing the game during Major League Soccer's early years.
"Anytime there’s a passing of anyone, it’s obviously a sad occasion. My first thought is to Ron's family. I hope they know that the Sporting family’s thoughts and prayers are with them. I was fortunate enough at one time to be on a team where Ron was a coach – he was one of the assistants at the first-ever Futsal World Cup in 1989 in the Netherlands. John Kowalski was the head coach and they were in pretty good tandem with Joe Machnik as well.
"They had a great way about them and one of the things I always remembered about Ron – and I could see it from afar because I always played against his teams in the league in the early years – was that he was an incredible motivator. He always got the best out of players. He knew what made guys tick; he was a great man-manager in that respect. I know that there are a lot of players that actually had really good careers because of the way he brought them along and got the best out of them. There are probably a lot of guys out there that are extremely sad to know of his passing, but more importantly, he was a big influence on their careers. And they’re probably extremely thankful and appreciative to that.
"From my point of view, just getting to know him at that time as a coach and playing for him, it was a great experience, especially getting a feel for how he managed people. He always had a very upbeat way about himself, very enthusiastic, loved the game and you could tell. That’s one of the reasons why he came to work every day, loving what he did, and he brought and incredible passion and enthusiasm to it.
"It’s never easy when you go into a foreign land either as a player or a coach. It’s always very difficult in this sport. He came here and, man, he was incredibly successful in the indoor game. His teams always played very well in Major League Soccer, so I would say that he’ll no doubt go down as a guy that was a winner and knew how to build teams, and entertaining teams as well. His teams, they attacked, they scored a lot of goals and they were a pleasure to watch, so for sure he’ll go down that way.”
