Heroes of everyday life – a series that will be revived by us. To start, we remember Norbert Strehl, who passed away at the age of only 66.

Big words were not his thing. “Just don’t make such a fuss on the pitch here,” he once explained to the chronicler when the latter asked him to come to his “living room” for a photo session. But if there was anything to do at his TuS Querenburg, he was there. Now Norbert Strehl has passed away ten days before his 67th birthday.

His home was the Waldstadion, located just a stone’s throw from the Ruhr University in Bochum-Querenburg. Anyone who came into contact with TuS Querenburg in the past decades was guaranteed not to pass him by. He was never president, he was never youth director. But he was the good soul of the club. At times, perhaps even too good. On the pitch and on the club grounds, he felt at home. But please, without cameras.

When Strehl joined TuS Querenburg as a youth player in 1966, the district was still rural. With the construction of the Ruhr University and its satellite towns in Hustadt, the change began. As early as 1977, after returning from military service, he took over as coach of his first youth team. And stayed.

Meanwhile, helping hands are hard to find in many clubs. Even more so in structurally weak Querenburg, where unemployment and the proportion of migrants are higher than in the other districts of southern Bochum.

The proportion of foreigners in the youth teams is 70 to 80 percent. Parents often speak hardly any German or only broken German and often have completely different problems than taking care of their children’s sports. From an integration point of view, people like Norbert Strehl are therefore hard to replace.

“The club is my family,” he always said. He often spent seven days a week at the facility and was immensely proud when the Waldstadion finally got an artificial turf pitch after many years. After all, Strehl’s father Ede had already chalked off the ashes here in better times. He inherited his father’s first name as a nickname. He also inherited his passion for TuS. For 32 years, he was a youth coach for his club on the line. After his knees and back went on strike, he switched to the senior team and became head of the soccer department.

Now there is a huge gap in our midfield.

Marian Kellermann

In the past, he had coached two teams at the same time. Until the end, he was responsible for supervising the referees and was deputy head of department. In 2012, he was honored for his commitment with the honorary award of the Bochum soccer district. But that only inadequately reflects his life’s work. “He organizes trips for the youth and is active in all departments. If you need anything, you can always go to him. Even when he doesn’t actually feel like it, “Ede” never says no,” chairman Marian Kellermann once characterized him.

“As long as I can, I’ll keep going. If I had no more fun at all, I would stop. But I basically can’t do without either,” Norbert Strehl always said when asked about his commitment. “Now there is a huge gap in our midst,” says Kellermann. All of soccer Querenburg mourns.