Extra Points: RIP Michael Brestle

RIP Mike Brestle

The local high school sports and boxing communities are mourning the loss of one of their biggest supporters.

Michael Brestle, a former Holy Spirit High School football player and popular boxing executive, passed away unexpectedly earlier in the week.

Brestle, 52, was a 1992 Holy Spirit graduate who played linebacker for a Spartans squad that went a combined 21-1 his junior and senior seasons. In the fall of 1990, under the guidance of the late coach Ed Byrnes, Holy Spirit went 11-0 and won the Cape-Atlantic League American Division and South Jersey Non-Public A championships.

After playing for Rutgers University, Brestle eventually became president of Calvi Electric, which has been an avid sponsor and supporter of local sports for decades.  His longtime association with boxing led him to join with Holy Spirit graduates Leo Hamlett, Jim Kurtz, Brian Little, and Mike Holland to form Spartan Promotions in 2010.

For the last six years, the Margate native and Linwood resident has lent support to current super-middleweight boxer from Millville, Thomas LaManna, and his mother, Debra LaManna, in Rising Star Promotions.

(Editor's note: The promotion has hosted approximately 20 boxing cards in Atlantic City over the last 9 years, and LaManna is a well-known figure in the South Jersey boxing community.  Brestle was famous for his generosity towards many people in South Jersey.  We here at Townsquare Media Atlantic City and 973 ESPN South Jersey want to extend our condolences to Mike Brestle's family, and we hope his example inspires others to step up in support of the local community in the ways that he did over the years.)