Soccer and travel were two passions that helped define the late Steve Newman, the former longtime Mercer Island High School boys soccer coach who passed away in the fall of 2012.

Though four generations of prep students have come and gone since Newman’s untimely passing, Newman’s family and current boys soccer coach Colin Rigby have made sure to keep his legacy alive by passing on his two loves to the soccer players that have come after him.

This past spring, Islander David Braman became the latest recipient of the Steve Newman Spirit Award, an annual award given to one member of the Mercer Island soccer team for an all-expenses-paid soccer-related trip. As this year’s award winner, Braman will spend six days in Los Angeles with the LA Galaxy.

Braman was one of four finalists for the award, which included teammates Reis Kissel, Matt LeProwse and Noah Talerman. He is the fourth person to win the award since its inception, with previous winners including Nate Umlauf, Ryan Hill and Alex Chung.

“I think it’s just a good representation of Steve and who he was. He loved to travel and he loved soccer,” Rigby said of the award. “Steve was all about learning new cultures and going to watch whatever local soccer [would be] going on. We try to replicate that as best we could.”

Braman, who graduated in June and will attend New York’s Skidmore College in the fall, said he was “overjoyed” to win the award.

“It was crazy because it’s the biggest honor that we’ve got in the program,” Braman said. “There were a lot of good guys on the team last year, but not a definite first-place candidate for the award. It was such a good group and must have been a crazy hard decision. I’m completely honored to win this award, it was pretty cool.”

Braman said he will be hosted by the Galaxy’s vice president of marketing and will be in the LA Galaxy facility every day. Other than that, he wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.

“I think it will be a lot of learning what the inner workings of a professional soccer team look like and hanging out with the team a little bit,” he said, adding he hopes to get some playing time in with the pros. “From what I’ve heard from the other guys that went, it was awesome.”

Mostly what Braman said he’s looking forward to doing is meeting some of the star-studded players on the LA Galaxy roster, which includes the likes of international players Steven Gerrard and Giovani dos Santos.

“If I got to meet one of them alone, it’d be a great day, and I’m meeting them all at once,” he said. “I’m looking forward to meeting these guys and asking them a bunch of questions.”

Soccer seems to be firmly ingrained in the Braman DNA. Both Braman’s younger brother, Adam, and sister, Amy, play on Eastside FC teams, and Adam finished his freshman year in the MIHS soccer program this year. His father, Don, played varsity soccer at Mercer Island High School and is the varsity boys and girls soccer coach at Skyline High School. His mother, Koni, also is a former soccer player.

“My mom and dad met playing intramural at UW,” Braman said. “It’s really big in my house.”

Braman was a freshman at MIHS when Newman passed away in 2012 and never got the chance to play under the former varsity coach. Though Braman said he’s familiar with the Newman family, seeing them at Mercer Island home soccer games as well as at the soccer program’s annual spring banquet.

“It’s really important that we demonstrate the award each year and make sure everybody really understands it and gets it,” Rigby said. “We’re coming into the years now where the players didn’t have Steve as a coach and don’t know much about his legacy. It’s up to us to continue to provide the history and culture.”

“I’m really grateful to the whole Newman family to get this opportunity,” Braman said. “It’s amazing.”