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by Stephen Underwood
ROCKFORD MI 2/6/02 -- Dathan Ritzenhein, who needs no introduction
to the DyeStat running community, quickly established himself as
one of the most vocal supporters of Rockford coach Brad Prins when
the stories first began running in the Grand Rapids Press Jan. 30.
He carefully prepared a letter with his thoughts for DyeStat.com
late last week, which we are now publishing with our other interviews.
To DyeStat and the DyeStat Community:
I want to start out by showing my full support for Mr. Prins. Few
people will ever know the extent of his kindness and what he has
done to help me and so many others.
I will not lie and deny that Mr. Prins would sometimes have "medications"
and over-the-counter supplements available to take "if you
wanted to." However, you had to get it from him and it was
not forced upon anyone. He has said it himself; however, I do not
believe he continues to give these things out. The article misquoted
a few of the people who were interviewed, and after speaking with
Mr. Prins and many other people, I have come to the conclusion that
he has stopped it all together. I also want to make it a point that
the only thing I ever took was Advil, and I never took a single
thing my senior year. That is one more reason for me to believe
that he has long since stopped bringing anything to practice with
him.
I was very disappointed with the outcome of the first Grand Rapids
Press article on the 30th of January. I felt it was slanderous and
very lopsided. In reference to the article, I am going to go ahead
and say some of those people have not told the truth. Some of my
former teammates and their parents have come out and passed blame
onto Mr. Prins. I have no reason to believe that any runner was
negatively affected by anything that was given to them or that they
say was given to them. As far as the accusations of Mr. Prins being
overbearing in making athletes take things against their will, that
is simply not the case. People have a voice and if they are too
"naïve" to stand up for themselves then there is
something wrong with them.
I never was afraid to say anything to Mr. Prins and I was the one
with the most at stake. Mr. Prins is a different type of guy and
many people do not like him because they have different views than
him. Many of the people that are pursuing the administration to
fire Mr. Prins seem to be very different people than I remember.
These people attempted to be my best friends during the recruitment
process, in hopes that I would attend college at their alma maters.
These same people tried to befriend Mr. Prins. When I did not sign
at the school they had hoped I would, there was a sudden change
of heart.
This is not the only time that these people have tried to get Mr.
Prins fired. They have tried religiously to get him removed as the
cross country and track coach. Some people have come forth with
comments of resigning if Mr. Prins stayed on as the coach and my
reply to that is to say, "Let them go." How many national-caliber
athletes have they produced? I am struggling to figure out why so
many of my past teammates and their parents and other community
members are now making these allegations, while the topic was never
brought up when their children were running well and looking at
full ride scholarships to Division I schools. If they are bothered
so much by the presence of Mr. Prins, then why did they not complain
when they were reaping all the benefits?
Mr. Prins has pushed the envelope and whatever the administration
does is their decision. However, the people that think negatively
of Mr. Prins are heavily outweighed by the people who are in full
support of him. I feel that there is no way these people would have
attempted to do this while I was in high school, putting Rockford
on the map. If this situation had occurred while I was there, I
would have quit without hesitation and continued to train with Mr.
Prins. No matter what happens to Mr. Prins, I fully support him
and I will always fully support him. I owe to him much more than
I will ever be able to repay.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dathan Ritzenhein
Rockford Michigan Controversy
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