Thomas Lester “Tom” Long, Jr. (Class of 2020)

Tom is a former member of the CVSRA Board and was the first Director of House League Referees, the grass roots referee base for the sprouting youth soccer programs in the Richmond area decades before USSF thought of the Grassroots Referee designation. He started as a House League Referee himself and mentored his son and daughters Tommy, Joan and Jennifer in putting on House League Referee badges, when they were playing in the Pocoshock Valley Youth Soccer League (PVYSL). Tom would often be seen with the whistle on the Providence Middle School fields and Tommy and Joan with flags on his touches. Tommy would go on to become a standout defender on his Manchester High School and Richmond Strikers Premier travel team. Tom was a long-time scholastic referee but was most committed to the youth leagues where he could be seen every Saturday until he hung up his cleats.

Tom was born in Washington, DC, in 1954 but was raised in St. Mary’s County, MD, where he married his wife Ruby Ann. They moved to Chesterfield County in 1976 where they raised their children all of whom remain in the area raising their own families. Tommy and his wife the former Tina Tsironis are sending their daughter off to college from her position as goalkeeper on the Midlothian High School team to Randolph Macon College. Tom graduated Chopticon High School and went on to learn his computer skills with an Associates degree at Ohio Technical College. While working in this field in the Richmond and developing youth referees for the mushrooming leagues in the area, he also volunteered with the Richmond Police Department. His untimely death in 2013 at the age of 59 was a loss to us all.