PROTEST OR PREJUDICE? HOMESTEAD JV SOCCER COACH FAULTED FOR IGNORING ANTHEM AT GAME

Special for the readers of www.milwaukeeworld.com

[Updated August 31st, 2007]

By Michael Horne, [HHS ‘71]

The coach of the Homestead High School Junior Varsity Soccer team was “so focused and excited about the first game of the season that he did not tune in to the fact that the National Anthem was being played at the same time he was addressing his team,” according to principal Mark Roherty.

According to reports, the Highlanders were visiting Arrowhead High School in Hartland on August 27^th when some spectators took the team’s lack of respect of the anthem as a form of protest. “It was not a protest,” Roherty said in a statement to www.milwaukeeworld.com.

Coach Mohammed Sethi, 20, is a Homestead graduate, and was released from team Chivas U.S.A. on Friday, July 13^th 2007. He had been signed to a one-year development contract in March, and played one match during his professional career, logging a total of 44 minutes. Sethi, born in Milwaukee to Pakistani immigrant parents, was on the Wisconsin All-State team as a senior in 2004.

It is possible that his Middle Eastern heritage may have led some spectators to conclude a protest was underway, since his ethnicity was mentioned to this reporter. These feelings may have been exacerbated by the rural location of the match; Mequon, the principal city of Ozaukee County, borders Milwaukee, which is Wisconsin’s largest metropolis. With a population of 21,823, of which 93.3% are white, Mequon is positively cosmopolitan compared to the western Waukesha County hamlet of Hartland which has a population of 7,905, of whom 97.7% are white, according to 2000 U.S. Census figures. Neither community is known as a hotbed for sports-based symbolic political demonstrations, except of the utmost patriotic type.

Although news of the “protest” traveled through the stands, it did not make its way to the Homestead principal until an inquiry from this department. Roherty says he has yet to talk to the coach, although he says the episode was confirmed for him in a conversation with athletic director Charlie Gross.

Roherty went on to say this for the milwaukeeworld readers: “Needless to say, we will be contacting our coach directly to get his version of what happened and also will be clearly indicating to him our expectations related to the proper etiquette and respect when the Anthem is played. The team "meeting" will have to be adjusted accordingly. Your message was the first I heard about it so we will continue to look into it and make sure that it doesn't happen again."

[Update: Friday, August 31st, 2007 -- Principal Roherty has since spoken to the coach and has sent this note to Milwaukeeworld:

After further investigation by our athletic director, the actual time that the coach was meeting with his team was after the junior varsity game and just before the start of the varsity game. His focus was on the team and obviously not on the fact that it was time for the Anthem. This will not happen again, and the message has been conveyed.
I do appreciate the fact that you brought this matter to my attention because it provided a learning opportunity for a new coach and the team.
Thanks again.

Mark Roherty

--Ed.]

[UPDATE MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd 2007 -- Milwaukeeworld received this note from a Homestead soccer e-mail address. It raises, for the first time, a question of mistaken identity.:

I just want to let you know that the article you wrote about my coach/soccer team is completely incorrect. First off you have two people mixed up. Mohammed Sethi is not our coach and was not even at the game. Even though Mohammed Sethi is our coaches birth name, he goes by Omar Sethi. The Mohammed Sethi you described in ur blog is his professional soccer playing brother fyi. Second i dont know how anybody could possible think that was a protest to America. Also it is irrelivant that Omar is from middle eastern descent especially since he has lived in america his whole life.Maybe he was in the middle of a heated lecture and we did not want to stop him from talking? Or maybe we were just tired from destoying Arrowheads JV team? Or maybe we were paying attention to our coach and didnt realize it was going on? long story short it was in no way a protest and our coach had nothing to do w/ it so mind ur own business.]

IN OTHER SPORTS NEWS

Johnny Logan is telling friends that all 16 living members of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves team are in town tonight for a banquet at the Potawatomi Bingo Casino, a Milwaukee entertainment facility. Fifteen of the veterans are staying at the Milwaukee Athletic Club. The 16^th , Henry Aaron, is staying at the Pfister Hotel.

--Michael Horne