‘Fly Your Kite

On Domingo’

(The Bee has received this open letter to Keith Thompson in response to last week’s open letter addressed to Greg Simon, athletic director of NHS.)

Dear Mr Thompson:

As an employee of NHS and the boys’ varsity soccer coach, it was with great disappointment I read your letter addressed to Mr Simon in The Newtown Bee last week. Mr Simon is an organized, well prepared, and thorough athletic director. Not only does he make sure that all athletic events are scheduled appropriately, but he personally oversees how each program is run, and attends almost all athletic events. He is supportive both to the athletes and to all coaching staff members. For you to make such strong allegations against a professional educator is inappropriate and intolerable. Mr Simon puts his heart and soul into his profession and makes personal sacrifices to be supportive of the sports programs at NHS.

My hope would have been for you to have the respect to contact Mr Simon, Mr Manfredonia, or me to acquire accurate information before making such allegations towards the boys’ soccer program. This team works very hard and displays a high degree of sportsmanship in all of their practices and games. In addition, they are active participants in the Newtown community. Several of these players act as role models for younger soccer athletes by volunteering as trainers in the Newtown youth programs. In no way would Mr Simon, myself, or any of the players portray a negative, prejudicial image for our team or our school.

In your letter to the editor, you claimed to have heard songs played by our boys’ soccer team that said the “n” word. Please understand that all songs are edited before they are played by any of our teams. There is only one song that you possibly could have thought you heard the “n” word used. It is a song named “Jonathan,” a song sung in Portuguese by a young Brazilian boy. It was selected by one of our students who just recently moved to Newtown from Brazil. The boys on the team had it played as a tribute to him.

The Portuguese lyrics that you heard were, “Sabado e Domingo eu solto pipa c jogo bola.” The English translation is “on Saturday and Sunday I fly a kite and play soccer.” After having listened to the song again the word “Domingo” (Sunday), when sung may have sounded like the word you made reference to in your letter. In reality and when translated, it is the word Sunday.

I would hope that in the future you feel free to contact anyone associated with any of the school’s programs should you have questions or concerns. With one simple phone call, further investigation would have addressed your concern. We as a team and a school would also hope that your son understands that this was a mistake on your part and that he fully recognizes the high values and morals of the players on our soccer team.

Sincerely,

Coach Brian Neumeyer

12 Berkshire Road, Sandy Hook                          November 5, 2003