Two weeks after Hillsboro-Deering High School athletic director Mike Dupont was fired from his coaching positions for making a vulgar comment at a soccer game, his students have rallied to support him.

"He's human, and people make mistakes," said varsity soccer co-captain Brandon Gonnion after a Hillsboro-Deering school board meeting last night. "I've been taught it's okay to make mistakes. But here it's as if you screw up once, that's it."

Mike Dupont, 29, was appointed the high school's co-athletic director this summer. He has taught social studies for three years, and coached soccer and baseball for two seasons. But last week, Dupont was fired from the three athletic positions because of an incident that happened on Oct. 2.

During halftime at a boys' varsity soccer game at Sanborn Regional High School that day, Dupont addressed his team, which was losing. Dupont wanted to fire up his players.

"It was almost like they were being toyed with by Sanborn," Dupont told the Monitor last night. "They were playing very lackadaisical."

He continued: "I was trying to talk about taking pride in what they were doing . . . that if you're not going to take pride in this, you're not going to take pride in anything you do."

During that speech, he asked the boys, "What do I have to do to piss you guys off?" According to Tim Grass, whose son is on the team, Dupont then said, "f--- you mothers."

Last night, Dupont said that sounds "about right," although he said in his mind, the statement was, "You wouldn't care if that team went to your house and f---ed your mother."

When play started, Grass's son refused to go back on the field and told Dupont he was offended by the comment, according to both Grass and Dupont. Dupont said he immediately apologized.

"That was when I realized . . . I must have gone over the line," Dupont said.

That night, Grass said, his son told him about the comment.

"I couldn't believe it," Grass said. "It's one thing for a boy on the team to talk that way. It's not for a role model, a teacher, coach, athletic director to become one of the boys."

Grass complained to High School Principal Chris Elkington the next day. Elkington said he investigated the complaint, including talking to Dupont, students and staff. He placed Dupont on paid administrative leave for about a week, Dupont said. Elkington could not discuss details of the investigation but confirmed that Dupont was still a teacher at the school, but not a coach or athletic director. He referred questions on the decision to fire Dupont from those jobs to Superintendent Barbara Baker, who said she could not discuss personnel matters.

Dupont said he takes responsibility for his comment, saying his language is left over from his 10 years in the military and the National Guard.

"I'm a little rough around the edges," he said. "I'm not your typical teacher. It's something I'd always worried that I would do, that I'd slip up somewhere and say something stupid, which I did."

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