'Disappointing' story included 'uninformed opinion' of Harlem athlete

Editor:

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It was very disappointing that an April 2 News-Times story highlighting the Harlem High School soccer team and one of its outstanding athletes, A.J. Thibodeau, included Thibodeau's opinion of Harlem's baseball coach, Jimmie Lewis.

The story states that Thibodeau says he has more fun playing soccer than he would playing baseball for Jimmie Lewis. Thibodeau goes on to say that "I really don't see him as a good coach at coaching me."

While Thibodeau might be a fine travel ball baseball player, the fact remains that he's never even tried out for the Harlem baseball team. So should the story have included the uninformed opinion of an 11th-grade student-athlete concerning a coach who is as well-respected as Jimmie Lewis? I'm sure if your writer wanted, he could go to each high school in Columbia County and find uninformed opinions about baseball coaches at Lakeside, Greenbrier and Evans.

The fact is that all of these schools have fine coaches who have at one time or another made enemies of parents and students. But should your paper highlight those negative opinions, or report on the accomplishments of our highly successful baseball programs?

Your readers were not treated to an article about a Harlem baseball victory over region rival Thomson; they were instead given a soccer player's opinion of a baseball program he's never played for. We expect better.

Steve Beasley, Harlem