We lost some great Spokanites this week. The Spokesman-Review quite rightly commemorated the passing of former high school coach Pat Pfeifer, an unquestioned giant in prep sports here in the Inland Empire.

However, in many homes on the North Side, we mourn the passing of a man whose name will never adorn a field or a fieldhouse, but will be remembered as the embodiment of the “volunteer” whose personality has lit countless fields over the past 20 years in youth baseball, basketball, wrestling and running.

Mike Webb left the confines of this earth this week and we are all poorer with his passing. Mike was “that guy” who took the “butterfly chasers” and the “castoffs from other teams” and brought youth sports, teamwork and character to life every day and on every team or athlete he coached, mentored and loved.

Mike was the coach who took on the legally blind second baseman who had the “one life-changing hit with the bases loaded.” Mike took the girl who wanted to play on the boys’ team. He took the single-parent kids who needed a ride to every practice and who weren’t “invited” to the select teams. He was the guy who drove the carload of kids to Pullman for the special tournament and the guy who took the kids to Arby’s and ice cream after the game because their parents “couldn’t make it” that day or that week or that year.

Mike was the guy who was still shouting encouragement to the infield to “keep your head up and your tail down” when they were trailing 22-0 in the home half of the second inning with the other team still stealing at every opportunity. He was the guy whose first comment to the kids after losing to that same team later in the season 7-2 was, “Hey, you know I think we could beat these guys if we could play them again.”

He didn’t quit even though he was faced with his life-ending illness long ago. He kept loving, he kept leading, he kept volunteering in Pony and American Legion Baseball, YMCA and AAU basketball and the Salk and Shadle Park sidelines long after his own children had passed through.

I was lucky to coach with him and raise my children next to his. We were all lucky to have him and others like him as he did the work no one else could or would. He sang encouragement in a world of noisy critics whose personal courage ended when asked to do something positive.

We should all strive to be more like him.

We will miss you, Mike Webb. We are all poorer now that you are gone.