Unsportsmanlike conduct

To the Editor: Over the last few years, members of the Lenape Valley Indians and Arrows have been in talks to create a new organization. The Lenape Valley Junior Patriots would be the new team made up of children from the high school’s sending districts of Byram, Stanhope and Netcong. During the talks, the one challenge to the existing organizations was which league to play in. Netcong’s board wished to stay in the Morris County league, and the Arrow board wanted to stay in the Sussex County league, which mirrors the high-school league. At the last meeting between the two teams, the Arrows proposed having the families vote on a new board for the new organization and also vote on the league. All involved felt that this could pave the way for the new organization to begin in the 2006 season. However, in January, a new board took over for the Indians. They changed their name to the Junior Patriots and suspended talks with the Arrows. They even misled Lenape’s High School coach, Don Smolyn, by telling him that there was a merger. Mr. Smolyn proceeded to write a letter to the families endorsing the “new team,” and Netcong representatives have begun calling Arrow coaches, encouraging them to leave the Arrows for the Junior Patriots. Bob Nunn Andover