NYPD Officer Dirk Wrede
NYPD Officer Dirk Wrede passed away on Sunday, November 3, 2002 in New York while playing in a soccer match with the NYPD team. He apparently suffered a possible heart attack. Officer Wrede was our friend, colleague, soccer player and "Stop the Violence" soccer campaign advocate.
Dirk was one of the captains for the NYPD team. He has participated in our “Stop the Violence” tournaments for the past eight years. He was very proud to be a member of NYPD and even prouder to be a member of the NYPD soccer team. The events of September 11, 2001 were tragic enough. It is something those guys will never get over. Then they had to deal with the passing of one of their own once again.
Dirk was a huge supporter of our "Stop the Violence" campaign. He believed in DC SCORES, NY SCORES and the entire AMERICA SCORES programs, the organization that we play our charity events for. He believed in what we were doing for the kids. He will be missed by the entire North American police soccer community.
Dirk is survived by his wife, Jolene, and 2 children. Our hearts and prayers go out to the entire Wrede family and the NYPD soccer teams. A scholarship program will be established for Dirk's children through the NYPD soccer team. For more information on this program please contact NYPD Soccer at nypdsoccer@aol.com.
Below is an article from the New York Daily News on November 7, 2002.
A Tough Loss to Take
By MICHAEL LEWIS
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS
Dirk Wrede couldn't get enough of soccer.
"He adored the game. He was a passionate lover of the game," police Sgt. John Huber said. "Only someone who has played the game can appreciate that. You play until you can't play or can't walk anymore." On Sunday, the popular police officer from the 114th Precinct in Queens did just that. He died on a Seaford, L.I., soccer field from apparent cardiac arrest while playing for the department's team, the College Point Enforcers.
Teammates believe he was hit with the ball in the chest or was hurt during a collision late in the match with the Mineola Portuguese.
"It was ironic he died on the soccer field," Huber said. "If you asked him where he wanted to die at 150 years old, he would have said on a soccer field." It will take an autopsy six weeks to determine the actual cause.
Wrede, who was 32, leaves a wife, Jolene, six months pregnant, and a three-year-old son, Jarrett.
It has been difficult for friends and colleagues to come to terms with someone so healthy dying so young.
"It was a tragedy," said teammate Sgt. Pete Meehan.
"We think we're in a nightmare," said Huber, one of Wrede's closest friends. "We think we're going to wake up and he's going to be there. ... He was full of life. I loved him like a brother.
"Dirk was the heartbeat of the team. He kept the team together. It's a heavy hit for the team and for his family. I don't know what we'd do without him, I don't know."
When you're a policeman, you have several families. There is the family at home and one at the precinct. The Enforcers consider the soccer team family as well.
The team, which plays in the Long Island Soccer Football League, is represented by nearly 20 city police precincts.
They play together. They party together. They laugh together. And yes, they even cry together.
In September, Wrede and Huber cried together when the Enforcers captured the coveted North American Police Championship in Los Angeles, the crowning achievement of Wrede's soccer career.
"Absolutely, without a doubt," Huber said. "We were working for that for eight years. It was huge. .. It makes me feel a little better that he won the trophy."
All LISFL teams will observe a moment of silence on Sunday. The Enforcers have postponed their game. Instead, they plan to go to church and have lunch with the firemen who make up the College Point Flames, and talk about establishing a scholarship fund for Wrede's children.
These teams have been hit with tragedy for the second time within a year. Last year they established the Sergio Villanueva Cup, named after the policeman-turned-firefighter and member of the Flames who died at the World Trade Center on Sept. 11.
A wake for Wrede will take place at the Boyd-Spencer Funeral home in Babylon today from 2-4:30 p.m. and 7-9:30 p.m. The funeral is 10 a.m. tomorrow at Grace Roman Catholic Church, followed by burial at St. Charles Cemetery.
Originally published on November 7, 2002
