Phil Green, Pete Zimmerman and Jim Nottingham after the Rec Commission announced last night that Zimmerman would continue to coach for the town’s recreational football program.
May 14, 2010
by Christine Yeres
In a Rec Commission meeting last Thursday, May 6, commissioner John Re announced that the commission will permit Pete Zimmerman to continue coaching in the rec football program. Details of how the program will be run on a night-by-night basis won’t be released for a few weeks, said Superintendent of New Castle Parks and Recreation, Robert O. Snyder.
Reached this week, Snyder confirmed for NCNOW that the department intends to associate the rec football program with USA Football “as a resource, a training tool. USA Football will train the coaches in an online course that costs $20 for each person, which the town will pay for this year. Because of budget cuts next year we’re not sure about whether the town will pay next year. Two or three rec department employees will take it too.” Rec department employee Matt Nordt will be point-person for the rec football program and will likely be one of those who take the course. Snyder was not sure how much time the course would take to complete.
The rec football program will still rely on eight or ten parent coaches, said Snyder, and rec football teams “will still play only ourselves” on the lighted rec field. Asked how the program would differ from last year’s, Snyder responded, “The rec department put the schedule together last year and we’ll do it again this year. The teams are picked in September and we’ll pick them in September this year. I don’t know how the teams will be picked. It may be exactly the same way as last year, maybe different. Will we have a draft? Will we assign players? We don’t know. We will have all this info in a couple of weeks. We’ll develop the program and put it all together so there won’t be any questions.”
Zimmerman’s statement to commission members
Zimmerman, who believed that the rec commission members would decide his fate on Thursday, May 6 was surprised to learn that the commission had met two days earlier and made its decision to allow him to continue to coach.
“I appreciate the fact that you allowed me to come back and coach,” said Zimmerman, “I’ve devoted much of my adult life to my passion, and I don’t believe any organization can bring what I do to the program. I see these kids from the time they’re five and six years old. My job is to find the strength of each individual child, no matter how big or small he is.”
“I’m just as much to blame as the people who made the decision for what happened. I had three more pages to read, but now that I’m back coaching, they don’t matter. I believe in the rec football program. The volunteer coaches and I have made this program what it is, and I really think that we should sit down now together and figure out how to make the best possible program for the kids.”
To find previous Letters to the Editor in Response to “New Football Game in Town,” click HERE.
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org