January 13, 2015
Groton players, residents plead to keep coaches
GROTON — Varsity football players, parents and residents made heartfelt pleas Monday to the Board of Education, urging officials to rehire head coach Jeff Lewis and his staff for the next season.
About 75 people attended the meeting, including every member of the 2014 football team.
The players also read and circulated to the board letters supporting the coaches, Mike Lockwood, a football player’s parent and a former member of the board, said after the meeting.
The board decided in December not to rehire the high school varsity football team’s veteran head coach Jeff Lewis and assistant coach Bobby Brull for the 2015 football season after what school district officials and the police have called a hazing incident this past fall in the boys’ locker room.
Football players stated after the meeting the coaches bear no responsibility for the actions on Sept. 10 in the boys’ locker room and challenged the description of the incident by the school district and police as “hazing.”
Varsity football players Anthony Goodsell, a senior, and Matt Gombas, a sophomore, both said after the meeting they had never been part of any hazing rituals on the team.
“We don’t believe in that,” Goodsell said. “The rite of passage is that you play good. There’s no hazing.”
The coaches were not responsible for the behavior of the players since the incident occurred before the beginning of practice and the coaches had not arrived yet, Gombas said.
“Not at all do I believe they were responsible,” Gombas said of the coaches. “They weren’t in the building at all.”
The locker room is usually left open after school and the football coaches did not open it for the players, Goodsell said.
The players credit the coaches instead with being good role models and mentors.
Lewis has been there for the players and taught them many life lessons, Gombas said.
“I would like to see Coach Lewis and his coaching staff reinstated,” he said.
The coaches deserve their positions and would benefit future players as the team’s leaders, Goodsell said.
“I think it would be a very big mistake to fire these coaches because over the years they turned boys into men,” he said.
Two students pleaded guilty to first-degree harassment in Groton Town Court for their roles in the incident and are set to be sentenced Wednesday. They could face up to 90 days in jail and $500 in fines, plus a surcharge of $205.
A football player held down a student while a second football player “rubbed his genitals” on the student’s face, according to a witness statement on the incident given to the Groton Police Department.
Board President Sophia Darling said after the meeting the hiring of coaches is based on the recommendation of the district superintendent.
Former Superintendent of Schools James Abrams recommended the board not rehire the coaches before he resigned from the district Jan. 5.
Interim Superintendent of Schools J.D. Pabis started working at the district Monday.
Board member Monica Dykeman declined to comment after Monday’s board meeting on whether the board would further address the coaches’ employment.
“I think we really can’t speak to a personnel issue in an open forum or to the public,” Dykeman said.
A petition with 355 signatures urging the board to reinstate the coaches was also given to the board Monday night, Lockwood said, noting the large volume of signatures.
“That’s more than the total voter turnout for budget votes,” he said.
Another petition started on Change.org takes the opposite stance and urges the board to stand behind their decision not to rehire the coaches. That petition had 214 supporters late Monday night.
Many parents and residents also spoke in favor of the coaches at the meeting.
Clayton Skinner, of Groton, told the board he played as a senior under Lewis and now Lewis is coaching his son.
Lewis is able to help the community move past the locker room incident, Skinner said.
“This town has been torn apart by this,” Skinner said. “He’s got the stability the town needs to go on.”
While the incident in the locker room was terrible, Lewis is a caring, hardworking coach who does not endanger the players in any way, Rob Neff, of Groton, said.
Kathy Hatfield, a mother of a senior football player, extolled Lewis as a role model.
“My kids consider him a father figure,” Hatfield said.
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