Catching the Schwan's USA CUP "bug," Mike Rolfes style

By Barclay Kruse, NSC Chief Communications Officer

Last month, we posted a blog written by Garry Frankel, a long-time Schwan's USA CUP parent and volunteer. In that essay, Garry described USA CUP as an "addiction," a good addiction, that had affected his family for the past six years.

In response we got another fun testamonial from Mike Rolfes, a Schwan's USA CUP volunteer for "every year but the first." Not all of you know Mike by name, but if you've been to the tournament, you would likely recognize him if he walked into the room. He's everywhere on the campus, every day of the tournament, from dawn until well past dark. Few have such passion for the event, a passion he calls "the bug."

Mike says: "I welcome first-time attendees with the warning, 'You are likely to infected by the USA CUP bug, and there is no known cure." And Mike's annual volunteer commitment is evidence that he's caught the bug.

Mike's great joy is to meet old referee friends, who return to the tournament year after year.

"In the early years of USA CUP, I volunteered as a field manager," Mike says. "I would be in the tent making sure the teams and refs showed up. My friendships with referees began in those tents. Now, when flight 43 lands at the airport on Wednesday and a planeload of UK referees get off, I'm there to welcome my old friends."

Mike tells another referee story:

"I was a field manager at a championship game, years ago. It was a younger division, girls. The center ref was a FIFA ref. After the match, both teams, the parents and the refs spent about an hour visiting and taking pictures. (Back then, the field manager passed out medals, and all of that was done at the field.) Back in my field manager tent the AR (assistant referee) asked the center why he, a FIFA ref, had accepted a young division game, when he clearly could have worked one of the older divisions on the stadium field. The older and wiser FIFA ref looked out -- both teams were still gathered -- and said something like, 'Lad, as you look out and see both teams talking, like this was the best day of their lives, everyone content and happy, well you'll never see that with an older team. This is the type of soccer I want to be associated with.'

"My bet is the young ref's view of officiating changed at that moment."

Many of us on staff know that early morning at USA CUP is a special time, and Mike obviously shares that:

"In the early morning, on a clear and sunny day, before the crowds converge on the NSC, sometimes a group of us volunteers go to the top of the stadium to admire the grounds," he writes. "Fifty fields are set for the day, corner flags are out, garbage picked up, sponsor banners flying and lines freshly painted. At the moment, the world is good, we are content, and I'm proud to be a USA CUP volunteer."