MIDDLETOWN, N.J. – The Monmouth Ocean Soccer Association announced its 2021 Hall of Fame Class Monday, with the inductees being Alex DeJohn, Mark Geiger, Richard Spector and Chris Thorsheim.

MOSA has set its 2021 Hall of Fame Dinner for Thursday, Dec. 2, at the Colts Neck Inn in Monmouth County, N.J.

“Alex, Mark, Richard and Chris truly are all role models to the thousands of participants in MOSA,” MOSA 1st vice president Eric Offenberg said. “This year, we honor two soccer players who established themselves in the top leagues in Europe and North America, while at the same time inducting an international referee as well as MOSA Club Board Member who was key to shaping the league.”

MOSA consists of teams that compete in the Monmouth and Ocean Counties of New Jersey. MOSA is a member of New Jersey Youth Soccer, and the league operates in accordance with NJYS policies.

The inductees

Alex DeJohn

DeJohn plays for Atlanta United of Major League Soccer. He played youth soccer for the Marlboro Magic travel and then collegiately at Old Dominion University, where he was a four-year starter. After declaring for the MLS SuperDraft during his senior year, he was selected by the New England Revolution. He decided to play in Europe and signed with Ekenäs IF, a Finnish second division club. After winning the league that year, he signed with a top league club in Finland, Turun Palloseura. Those two years in Finland allowed him to make a move to Norway where he next signed a two-year deal for a top league club named IK Start. After playing with IK Start for two seasons, he signed a two-year deal with a first division club in Sweden called Dalkurd. Dalkurd won promotion to the top league.

Following his six-year experience in Scandinavia, DeJohn signed an MLS deal with Orlando City, where he competed for two seasons. He lives with his wife, Lisa, and their one-year-old son, Madden, in Atlanta.

Mark Geiger

Geiger first became involved in soccer in 1980 when he started playing in the Beachwood Soccer Club. He has been a player, coach, referee, referee mentor and referee administrator, servicing matches in MOSA for a significant portion of that time. His biggest accomplishments, however, have been made in officiating. Geiger began as a referee in 1988 by working youth matches throughout Ocean County. He became a State Referee in 1997 before he moving up to a National Referee in 2003. He was nominated to the U.S. Soccer International Panel of Referees in 2018, and he remained a FIFA Referee until his retirement from the field that same year.

Geiger started working amateur, semi-professional and professional matches throughout New Jersey in 1997 and continued to do so until 2003. He later officiated games in MLS in 2004 and finished his MLS career with 186 regular season matches. He was named the MLS referee of the year in 2011 and 2014, and he was the fourth official for the 2008 MLS Cup and the referee of the 2014 MLS Cup. His final MLS match was on Nov. 29, 2018, when he officiated the Western Conference final between Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers.

Internationally, Geiger has officiated in several Concacaf and FIFA competitions. In 2011, he was selected to work the Under-20 World Cup in Colombia, where he was in the middle for the final between Brazil and Portugal. He was selected for the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the 2013 Club World Cup in Morocco. From 2016-2018, he was a Video Assistant Referee ( at the FIFA Club World Cup and was appointed to the final in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, he was chosen for the FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia.

The highlights of his career came in 2014 and 2018 when he was selected for the World Cups in Brazil and Russia, respectively. In each of those tournaments, he was the referee of two group stage matches and a Round of 16 match. In 2018, he also featured as a VAR in eight games, including the third place match between Belgium and England. For Concacaf, he has officiated in the Concacaf Champions League, including the 2017 Final between Tigres and Pachuca of Mexico. He also took part in the 2013, 2015 and 2017 Concacaf Gold Cups. Currently, Geiger is the Director of Senior Match Officials with the Professional Referee Organization, overseeing the match officials in MLS. He is also a FIFA Technical Referee and VAR Instructor.

Geiger was a VAR Instructor at the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France and a Technical Referee Instructor at the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup. He has most recently taken part in the Women’s World Cup Referee Candidate Course and the World Cup Referee Candidate Course in Doha, Qatar, preparing referees and VARs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Australia/New Zealand.

Richard Spector

Spector was involved with youth soccer in New Jersey for nearly 40 years. He spent many years on the board of directors at the Manalapan Soccer Club, beginning shortly after its inception while serving many board positions over the years. He co-founded the annual MSC Memorial Day Tournament with Jim Roberto, and he was heavily involved with the competition until his passing in 2019.

He also worked on the refereeing side of youth soccer, first as an official and then as a state referee assignor. He demanded the best from his officials, and all who worked for Spector respected him. He is survived by his wife, Jan, and their children Jennifer, Jason and Matt, in addition to his grandchildren.

Chris Thorsheim

Thorsheim began his soccer career in MOSA with the Manalapan Red Tribe in 2003 before moving onto the Toms River Galaxy from 2007-2011. From 2009 to 2011, he became a member of New Jersey ODP as well as the ODP East Regional Team. Thorsheim joined the Red Bulls Academy from 2011-2016 and then progressed to Danish club, Middelfart Boldclub, in 2016. The next year, he moved to Danish first division team, Nykobing FC, where he remained through 2021.

He graduated from Christian Bothers Academy in 2012 and captained CBA to a 2011 State Championship with a 21-0-0 record. The team was ranked number one in New Jersey and number four in the United States. He then attended Bucknell University, captaining the team his senior year and receiving multiple accolades over the span of his time there. Among those honors include being Bucknell’s first ever four-year All Patriot League selection in men’s soccer.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.