By Kim J. Harmon

As it turns out, it’s another short retirement for coach Brian Reiff.

Several weeks ago, it was announced that Reiff – citing desires to be with his family and to pursue other interests – would not return for his ninth season as coach of the Newtown High School boys’ swim team.

But a lot has happened between then and now and this week Newtown High athletic director Gregg Simon said coach Reiff would be back on the pool deck when practice officially opens on Monday, November 27.

“We had two people we were considering for the job that we thought would be good,” said Simon, “but both suddenly decided to stay where they were.”

That was only one reason why Simon put in a call to coach Reiff and ask him to come back for one more year. The other reason was that the swimmers would be returning without their teammate Greg Chion, who recently passed away after a year-long battle with leukemia, and coach Reiff’s long relationship with the kids would certainly help.

Chion would have been a captain.

The last time coach Reiff retired, just a couple years into his term, it seemed like he didn’t really want to leave but commitments at home and at work were making it tough. Dan Winsett and Bob Zito, the athletic director at the time, figured out a way coach Reiff could ease his work load and return.

This time, coach Reiff wanted to leave. He had plans to spend more time with his family and to pursue efforts to bring a middle school swim program and new pool to Brookfield.

Those plans are on hold.

Me, I’m glad coach Reiff is coming back. He is one of the finest people I have ever met and one of the best coaches I have ever been associated with. And I am also not surprised he would so readily agree to return.

For coach Reiff, it is always about the kids.

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Life certainly can be cruel.

Nope, there is no question about that.

Kate Bouteiller knows that better than anyone, I suppose, after getting she and the rest of the Newtown High School girls’ soccer team got beat, 2-0, by Simsbury in the CIAC Class LL state tournament.

Bouteiller is a goaltender and let’s point it out right now – she did not get beat by a couple hard smashes from somewhere in the box, or tough headers off long crosses from the wings.

No, she stopped all of those. In fact, she made 19 stops in the game and at least half of ‘em were not easy.

That must have ticked fate off pretty good.

In the first half, with just a minute left, Bouteiller did what she should have been doing by sidling across the end line as the ball moved across the field. All of a sudden, though, a Simsbury player got a foot on a pass and sent a weak shot toward the goal. Boutty had stopped on a dime, but the soft, wet field betrayed her and she fell down – then helplessly watched as the ball trickled into the goal.

In the second half, on a shot was drilled from the top of the box, Boutty leapt as high as she could only to hear the ball strike the crossbar. Now, the ball could have rebounded up or straight out, but this time it had a slight downward trajectory and rebounded off Boutty’s back and into the goal.

It just doesn’t seem fair, does it? Boutty spends the entire game getting dirty, scrambling around to withstand an almost relentless barrage by Simsbury, and guards the goal with all the zealousness of a dog guarding its last soup bone and life just comes along and – yoink – takes it.

Life is cruel.