my response to tj newgard

This is letter in reaction to the one from America’s favorite “former Pipestone student-athlete.” Mr. Newgard managed to slam a state tournament basketball coach, encourage obnoxious behavior from fans, and pretend to be an adequate writer all in the form of a seven paragraph letter, compressed into three. Despite his apparent lack of writing experience and expertise, I managed to pick a few points out of his letter for reaction.

Mr. Newgard claims to be disturbed by the alleged lack of professionalism in Mr. Rops’ behavior. This is somewhat ironic considering the bleachers at every high school activity are full of professionals. Teachers, insurance agents, professional wrestlers, and scientists fill the stands each game and yell obscenities at players, coaches, officials, and cheerleaders. Yet their supposed professionalism is overlooked at this point, conveniently, by Mr. Newgard.

Reacting to the alleged obscenity being said in front of Mr. Rops’ young children, again we encounter another convenient oversight. What of the parents in the stands who yell at the slightly overweight official while their small child takes this in as appropriate behavior? Are Mr. Rops’ children selectively blind and deaf to people other than their father? Mr. Newgard also stated “Players are young kids” which seems to point at the fact that they are impressionable themselves. Should they also ignore the wave of obscenities from the crowd?

Next to be addressed should be the timing of this letter. Realizing, of course, that the event occurred within the last few weeks, this letter could not have been put out much sooner. However, is it really necessary to call for action against a respected member of a community on the word of a whining little man with an apparent case of “Napolean Syndrome” who never aged past seventeen or got over high school?

Another point to be addressed is the arena in which Mr. Newgard brought his concerns forward. If anything were to be done in reaction to these allegations, Mr. Schaefer, Luverne High School’s superintendent seems to be the person to talk to. The general public, through the newspapers, has little or no actual power in determining an appropriate action. The only reason I can see for publishing this as a letter to the editor is an apparent attempt at stirring up controversy.

Finally, Mr. Newgard I think next time you write a letter, especially one that will be published in the public arena, you might consider having someone from Luverne edit it. Your three mile long sentence to begin paragraph two of your letter may or may not follow the rules of sentence structure and English grammar. Somehow in the giant mass of words you call a letter you also seem to have left out one important step; congratulating a fine Luverne basketball team on their first trip to the state tournament since (year). These young men have put forth an amazing effort this winter and because of this hard work deserve a chance at a state title.

Isaac Schmidt - formerly of Luverne, current mature adult