Brian Schmetzer: “On Saturday, we’re going to win one for Don Ruiz”

In March 2009, the Sounders FC press box became a very different place to the previous year. The massive success of the ownership in marketing the club also extended to their success in tweaking the interest of local journalists.

Many faces have come and gone since then but two who have remained there since the MLS Sounders debuted are Don Ruiz and John Zielonka.

Ruiz has provided coverage for the Tacoma News Tribune since Day 1 and has become a well respected fixture on match days and at training. Zielonka has provided coverage for a several outlets including GOAL.com and yahoo.com, before joining Prost Amerika.

Earlier this week, Ruiz announced his departure from the post of soccer beat writer at the Tacoma News Tribune, a paper he had served for 28 years.

Zielonka spoke to Ruiz about his departure and his career covering the Sounders. Ruiz explained that initially soccer was to be a part time thing for the TNT but the enthusiasm of the supporters changed minds at the paper:

“When the Sounders first came to town and I was asked to do the job, the plan was not really to do it as a full time job,” he explained, “it was the reaction of the fans that forced us to do better than that.”

In the period Ruiz has reported,  the Seattle Times has had three soccer beat writers, Matt Pentz being the third. He too paid tribute to Ruiz:

“He will most certainly be missed. From the beginning when I started, it could have been an adversarial thing, two newspaper guys fighting for stories, but he welcomed me in. It’s just been a pleasure working with him and alongside him, and even learning from him and his institutional knowledge.”

Steve Clare, owner of Prost Amerika saw the same comradeship that Matt Pentz has seen.

“Don is a first class journalist and a great colleague. You could always turn to him if you needed some audio or wanted assurance your perception of a story was shared. He always had time to talk Sounders FC and our team in Seattle regarded him as a friend of the site as well as one of the best around.

“When they tell the story of Sounders FC in the early years, Don Ruiz will be a big part of that story.”

It wasn’t only journalists that spoke warmly of Ruiz.

Sounders legend and club Ambassador Alan Hinton called Ruiz a “first class gentleman and a real good servant to the game”  while and Sounders FC assistant coach Brian Schmetzer ends the touching video by vowing that on Saturday the Sounders “were going to win one for Don”.