You only needed about 20 seconds to determine what Ja Osterhage enjoyed most.
“He loved the game of soccer, there’s no ifs, ands or buts about it,” Ja’s dad, John Osterhage said Wednesday. “He ate, slept and breathed anything that had to do with it. As he got older, he was on every forum you could imagine.”
That love of playing and refereeing the game is one of the things the Osterhages hope people remember. James Michael “Ja” Osterhage, of Highland Heights, passed away Sept. 6 after a brief illness; he was 37.
“He was a pleasure to have in our soccer realm,” Beth Wilson, treasurer of the Villa Hills Soccer Club, said.
Ja (pronounced “Jay”) Osterhage graduated from Dixie Heights High School in 2005; he was a stopper on the soccer team.
“He loved the defensive part of the game,” John Osterhage said. “Fortunately, in high school he was 6-3, 6-4; he was a big kid, so he was able to control the middle of the field from a defensive standpoint.”
Ja later earned a bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Northern Kentucky University and took a job at Sheakley, a business services firm in Cincinnati. (He had recently started a new position at PrestoSports, a Rockville, Maryland company that provides sports technology solutions and support to help athletic organizations, at the time of his passing.)
Ja’s mom, Diane Osterhage, remembers her son’s rule-following nature.
“He didn’t believe in gray areas very much,” she said. “If it was a rule, you did it, you didn’t break it.”
John Osterhage said Ja refereed his first game at age 11 – and exhibited his mom’s placid demeanor when soccer parents lost their minds over a call.
“Fortunately, Ja is totally like his mother in everything, he just was level-headed, even keel about everything,” John said. “I, on the other hand, would’ve been argumentative.”
Diane Osterhage agreed.
“John’s a little bit more hotheaded than me,” she said. “’I’m usually trying to make excuses for everything.”
Wilson, who later assigned referees, remembered the time Ja yellow-carded her daughter – a decision she didn’t agree with at the time.
“He wasn’t the bossy-type ref; it was matter-of-fact,” Wilson said. “You knew when he was center ref, you were going to get a fair game.”
Ja joined the KHSAA in 2005 and worked state high school boys and girls championship games from 2013-2017. He also conducted refereeing classes.
“He wanted to see other people to get the opportunity to do that,” John Osterhage said. “He did what was on his bucket list.”
Ja Osterhage is also survived by his sister Carrie (Jake) Lawson, his niece Nora, his nephew Kain, a beloved cat, Remi, and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Visitation will be from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday at Linnemann Funeral Homes, 30 Commonwealth Avenue in Erlanger. A service follows, and burial is at Floral Hills Memorial Gardens, 5336 Old Taylor Mill Road in Taylor Mill.
The family asks for donations in Ja’s name to the Kentucky Youth Soccer Association (KYSA), 158 Constitution Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40507. Online condolences can be left at LinnemannFuneralHomes.com.