![\"Displaying](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TPD-L-kp0418_Ziemer_02.jpg\")
Displaying the colors of Borussia Dortmund, a German soccer club, Justin Selander pays tribute to Marcus Ziemer during a public memorial for Ziemer, Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Sonoma State University. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\nOn a row of white chairs in front of the stage lay a scarf.<\/p>\n
Black and yellow, featuring the logo of German soccer club Borussia Dortmund, it might have seemed out of place in a gym at Sonoma State University.<\/p>\n
But not on Saturday afternoon, when hundreds of friends, family, fellow coaches and former players of Marcus Ziemer came together to remember the longtime Seawolves coach who died last month.<\/p>\n
Borussia Dortmund was Ziemer\u2019s favorite team, and he was in Germany in mid-March to see one of their games when a crash while riding a scooter caused a traumatic brain injury from which he would not recover.<\/p>\n
Ziemer, 63, was a well-known figure in the world of soccer in Sonoma County and beyond. He had been the SSU men\u2019s team coach for 35 years until the school eliminated its athletic department as part of sweeping budget cuts last year.<\/p>\n
In the wake of that decision, Ziemer became a leader in the \u201cSave Seawolves Sports\u201d movement that lobbied for the restoration of athletics at SSU, a step the university is now pursuing.<\/p>\n
He was also a beloved husband, father, brother and uncle.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, he\u2019s irreplaceable,\u201d said Trisha Ziemer, Marcus\u2019s wife of more than 30 years. \u201cThere will never be anyone like him in my life again. The only thing that keeps me going is that someday I hope to be with him again, hold his hand, and maybe we\u2019ll take Freddy (the family dog) for a walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ziemer was known to wear his black-and-yellow scarf when he was in Dortmund for soccer games. But in a testament to his wide-reaching impact as a longtime coach and promoter of the sport, the vase of 14 white roses on the stage at Saturday\u2019s celebration of life was surrounded by scarves from numerous teams: England\u2019s national team, Dinamo Bucharest, Ajax, Barcelona, Manchester United, Manchester City, FC K\u00f6ln, Tottenham Hotspur and Leicester City, among others.<\/p>\n
Displaying the colors of Borussia Dortmund, a German soccer club, Justin Selander pays tribute to Marcus Ziemer during a public memorial for Ziemer, Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Sonoma State University. (Kent Porter \/ The Press Democrat)<\/p>\n
A video of Ziemer in Dortmund\u2019s Signal Iduna Park was played at the opening of Saturday\u2019s memorial, featuring the coach belting out the theme song of his favorite club, \u201cYou\u2019ll Never Walk Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n
The packed crowd gathered to remember Ziemer served as a reminder of just how true that can be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never known life without Marcus,\u201d Chris Ziemer, one of his three brothers, told those assembled. \u201cAnd over this past month I never will. Losing him doesn\u2019t take him away; it just changes where we look for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former players wore the same jerseys they once donned while playing for Ziemer at SSU. Other attendees brought their own team scarves. Even a few brought signed jerseys from another team.<\/p>\n
More than 700 people showed up for the celebration of life that took up an entire half of the \u201cWolves\u2019 Den\u201d gym at SSU. Not a single seat in the stands was empty.<\/p>\n
Ziemer was a pillar of Sonoma State athletics during his three and a half decades at the school. He compiled a 360-200-70 record, highlighted by a Division II national championship in 2002, when he was also named national coach of the year. In all, Ziemer won eight conference titles, appearing in the California Collegiate Athletic Association tournament 15 times since 2000.<\/p>\n
Marcus was the eldest of the four Ziemer brothers, and his younger siblings \u2014 Andrew and Benjamin, in addition to Chris \u2014 all spoke at the ceremony. Marcus Ziemer\u2019s longtime assistant Ben Langwith, friend Fred Jungemann and Marcus\u2019s son, Thomas, also addressed those gathered in the gym.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a gaping hole now in so many lives that will never be filled \u2026 I\u2019m so incredibly sorry, but I\u2019m also so incredibly grateful,\u201d Benjamin Ziemer said. \u201cThank you, Marcus, and in your memory, rave on, rave on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcus Ziemer\u2019s daughters, Tera and Taylor, closed the ceremony with remarks before a short video showcasing their dad\u2019s well-known smile was played. Tears flowed, but so did laughter from the many in attendance whose lives intersected with his in some way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a row of white chairs in front of the stage lay a scarf. Black and yellow, featuring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614085,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,3335,48,543,112527,11763,561,164574,82],"class_list":["post-614084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-college-sports","tag-north-bay","tag-northern-california","tag-soccer","tag-sonoma-county","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}