Referee who died at game remembered as sports-loving man who enjoyed sports, coaching children

The quiet time driving to refereeing assignments at Friday night high school football games was when brothers Mike and Dave Roebuck could catch up.

Their conversations often turned to sports and their families — the two subjects were so intertwined, recalled Dave Roebuck of West Newton.

In addition to being a fixture on area sidelines as a youth sports coach, Mike Roebuck was picking up more refereeing gigs — he resumed working at high school football games this past season after a few years off and recently started working basketball games.

“He enjoyed refereeing, it kept him around the game,” Dave Roebuck said. “He was also talking about getting certified for baseball as well.”

Michael P. Roebuck, 45, collapsed during halftime of a basketball game he was refereeing in Mt. Pleasant on Friday. He died at Frick Hospital from an acute cardiac event, according to Westmoreland County Coroner Tim Carson.

Roebuck was about to take the court for the second half of a junior varsity boys basketball game between Mt. Pleasant and Yough. People at the game, including athletic staff, coaches and others in the stands, performed CPR until paramedics got there.

Mt. Pleasant boys basketball coach Annie Malkowiak said the team’s boosters donated all of the proceeds from the 50-50 raffle to his family.

The four Roebuck brothers grew up around youth sports — their father was a coach for more than 25 years, Dave Roebuck said.

“We spent our evenings in the summer at the baseball field,” he said. “Many of our dinners were eaten at the concession stands at the ball fields.”

Mike Roebuck picked up the same interest. He worked with children in a Yough midget football league, a Hempfield recreational basketball league and the Sewickley Area Athletic Association baseball and softball leagues, as well as travel teams, according to his brother. Often, he helped coach teams on which his children, Kaelyn and Luke, played.

“It’s kind of in the blood,” Dave Roebuck said. “Sports is a big aspect of the Roebuck family way of life.”

Jerica Roebuck said her husband was dedicated to coaching his own children, but also felt it was important to help everyone on a team. Players loved him, she said.

“If there was a way for Mike to be part of a sport and to have an impact on kids, he was all for it,” she said. “Once he started coaching a kid, any kid, they became his kids, he truly loved each and every one of them.”

“He had a way of saying things that just resonated with the kids,” she said. “We had so many kids who followed Mike year after year after year. He loved doing it.”

As a family, their lives revolved around sports, traveling with their children to games or playing ball with them out in the yard.

“I am so thankful that my kids were fortunate enough to experience the devotion and love and dedication,” she said.

Both Dave Roebuck and Jerica Roebuck described Mike Roebuck as having a goofy personality.

“He was always pulling some kind of corny joke out of his back pocket,” Jerica Roebuck said.

Brian Pritts met Mike Roebuck when Roebuck helped coach a Westmoreland County-based travel baseball team on which their sons played last year.

“My impression of Mike Roebuck was he was a genuinely good man who deeply cared about his children and the teams with whom they were associated,” said Pritts, who is the athletic director at Southmoreland. “He was very, very helpful to all of the boys on the team with getting better and coaching them up.”

“My heart goes out to his children and his wife and his entire family,” he said.

Mike Roebuck was a Yough graduate who played football, basketball and baseball. He graduated from Penn State University and was working at Messer Gases, according to his obituary.

In addition to Jerica; Kaelyn, a junior at Hempfield Area; and Luke, an eighth grader, Roebuck is survived by his mother, Mary Roebuck, as well as his brothers and other relatives.

Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the J. William McCauley Jr. Funeral Home in West Newton. A funeral Mass will start at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Holy Family Church, West Newton.