High school flag allegation not supported

On Aug. 29 Batavia played St. Charles East in the first football game of the season. Articles written about the game in the Kane County Chronicle and the Daily Herald quoted St. Charles Head Coach Ted Monken as saying when the Batavia team ran onto the field, they planted their school flag on East's field. Video recordings of the pregame show that the flag was not planted in the field. Coach Monken then said he didn't actually see it but was just repeating what his assistants had told him. Even though the incident never happened the accusation hurts our reputation.

Mike Gaspari has coached football at Batavia High School for 24 years. He has built this football program to a very competitive level and in the process has shown impeccable sportsmanship. We are extremely proud of our coaches and athletes at Batavia. Good sportsmanship is paramount to our programs and our coaches, athletes, students, and parents strive to conduct themselves in the most sportsman like manner.

On Sunday, Aug. 7, the Chronicle wrote a small retraction within an article about J.R Kaba's injury and on Saturday, Aug. 6, the Daily Herald buried a retraction in an article about St. Charles vs. Geneva football game.

It is appalling that Coach Monken would make such a callous accusation to the press without having witnessed the incident first hand. His comments were very insulting and damaging to our reputation; and then the papers insulted our program further by not printing an appropriate retraction.

Debbie Rocholl

President

Batavia Bulldog Boosters