Date: Fri 29-Mar-1996

Ashmore Column

It was just over five years ago when I made my way out behind the Newtown High

School parking lot, walked through football practice, and made my way down to

the school's soccer field where I was just showing up, unannounced, to

interview NHS soccer coach Larry Ashmore for the first time.

He was out on the field, actually running drills along with the members of his

team, hollering instructions and letting his players know, in no uncertain

terms, how he wanted things to be done.

" Mr Wyatt, " he said, a smile crossing his face, as he approached me with his

hand extended to shake (first class all the way, Ashmore alawys addresses you

as Mr, Mrs, or Miss).

Mr Ashmore was one of the more eloquent subjects I had ever interviewed and he

has continued to be over the years as we've developed a friendship that has,

at times, gone beyond the professional relationship that formed out there on

the soccer field.

Two weeks ago, members of Newtown High School and the NHS athletic department

were shocked, but none more shocked than I, to hear that Mr Ashmore had not

been approved to coach the girls' freshman softball team this spring.

Three members of the school board voted against his coaching the team, two for

personal reasons that they didn't want to discuss, and the deciding vote -

admittedly uninformed - voted 'no' because the other two did.

I've never made it a hobby to frequent town meetings and subsequently don't

know how these types of things are done. But that's scary.

It's that kind of Mickey Mouse politics that end up damaging peoples'

reputations, never mind what could potentially happen when a more important

subject than girls' freshman softball goes before the board.

Almost as disturbing as the board's voting Ashmore out, were the comments made

regarding that decision. The board made it clear that it had no problem with

Ashmore coaching boys' varsity soccer, but that " he would not make a good

coach for girls' softball. "

The fact that he already coached the freshman girls' softball team for 15

years and the girls' freshman basketball team for 13 years make that comment

ridiculous and unacceptable, and make reprehensible implications against Larry

Ashmore's fine character.

I have known and worked with a hundred coaches in my lifetime, met thousands

of people, and have never met a more honorable man than Larry Ashmore. He is

the personification of exactly what I'd want in a coach for my children.

I have marveled over Mr Ashmore's coaching performances, but have been in

absolute awe of the respect he earns in his athletes and students as well as

his peers.

Case in point, Bob McHugh resigned as the jayvee softball coach, a position

that he loved, because of the Ashmore incident.

Ashmore's response: he thanked McHugh for the support, but then wrote a letter

to the school board asking it not to accept McHugh's letter of resignation.

That's just the way Larry Ashmore is. A class act all the way.

Almost as unfair, and certainly as ludicrous, as the board's turning down

Ashmore's recommentation, was it's suggestion for his replacement. It said

that the school could hire anybody it wanted to replace him.

That suggestion, coupled with the entire Ashmore incident, tells me that the

school board - at least as far as matters such as approving high school

coaches - is a meaningless rubber stamp.

The school principal and athletic director aren't nominating rapists and

serial killers for coaching jobs and members of the school board - in most

cases - are voting to approve or disapprove people that they have never met

and know nothing about.

The whole process is a glaring waste of time.

Apparently the school has found somebody to replace both McHugh and Ashmore.

But there's a big loser here. A lot of losers, in fact.

First, the people of Newtown who expect that their government decides issues

in a responsible and professional manner.

Most hurt by the issue, though, are the girls on the freshman softball team,

and then their parents who will never know the overwhelmingly positive

influence that one coach would have had over their daughters' lives.

Believe me.