To the editor:

I am writing about the recent WCCO story about Missy Marti being fired as head coach from the New Ulm Cathedral Sonics Dance Team because of her living situation. As a NUACS alumna, it is deeply disturbing to hear that the NUACS administration would choose to display judgment of their own community members when the Catholic faith is one of love and acceptance. While Missy is not Catholic she has been a member of the NUACS family for over 15 years, serving many young women on the Sonics Dance Team and the NUACS administration has not considered the negative impact of this decision on its own athletes and programs.

I was a dancer for Missy from 2005-2009 and from her I learned many valuable life skills that I still use today such as working with a team to achieve high goals and continually developing my leadership skills and style to the benefit of those with which I am working. Missy would never let her living situation impact the way she coaches her dancers and to remove her from a coaching position due to something unrelated to her coaching is heartbreaking.

The NUACS administration has set itself up for self-destruction because we all know that no one is living a perfect Catholic life, so to watch this administration fire those who are living in an un-Catholic means that at the end of this road NUACS will have no coaches, teachers, or even administrators left. I am planning to write to Msgr. Grams, Bishop LeVoir, and the NUACS School Board to encourage them to reconsider their decision. They should not overlook Missy’s positive impact on the young women of the Sonics Dance Team. NUACS should not be a community that ostracizes its own members because they are living in an un-Catholic way but rather a place that welcomes all members and encourages them to grow in their faith journey, whatever that may be at the time.

Emily Eckstein

2009 CHS Alumna

Peoria, Ill.