Get To Know Your Fourth Official – Yader Reyes

By: Sean | August 4th, 2008

So, one upon a time I had this brilliant idea to create made-up biographies of the fourth official of the previous game (since only the head official is given beforehand), similar to the Throwball blog Kissing Suzy Kolber does with cheerleaders.

So yesterday’s fourth official was none other than Yader Reyes. Yes, THE Yader Reyes. Now, with Yader being my first installment, he made it all too easy for me. Just ask former Baltimore Blast coach, Tom Wittman:

Wittman charged official Yader Reyes and put him in a choke hold after the California Cougars’ 8-6 win over the Blast. Wittman was pulled off of Reyes by Cougars forward Vicente Figueroa and security staff. He was led off the field by Blast goalkeeper Sagu.

“I saw his (Reyes) face turning purple and his tongue sticking out,” Figueroa said. “He was having difficulty breathing, so I grabbed his (Wittman) hand and started pulling his fingers, but he was really strong and he knew what he was doing” in applying the hold.

..snip..

Reyes, 32, is based in the Bay Area and is in his fifth year as a USSF national referee. He could not be reached for comment.

Reyes is also a “good buddy and friend” (third comment) of Jeff Forward. Shall I take a guess at the difference between the two? No, I shall not.

Yader Reyes seems like a stand-up guy. I mean for someone to reach hundreds of Hispanics
in Indiana South with the Good News of Jesus, that takes some chutzpah.

We will have to wait a couple weeks for our next installment, with the Quakes being off this coming weekend, but don’t worry. More absolutely worthless, time-killing posts like this will be coming soon.