‘Goodbye, brother’ - Jason Morgan pays tribute to slain friend Nicholas Neufville
Published:Tuesday | February 16, 2021 | 12:26 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
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Diligent, quiet, yet dedicated to his craft. They were among many qualities that Olympian Jason Morgan used to described Calabar High School track and field coach Nicholas Neufville, who was murdered recently. Neufville’s body was found yesterday...
Diligent, quiet, yet dedicated to his craft. They were among many qualities that Olympian Jason Morgan used to described Calabar High School track and field coach Nicholas Neufville, who was murdered recently.
Neufville’s body was found yesterday morning by a group of passers-by in an open lot in Portmore, St Catherine, with the body of a 19-year-old woman later identified as Raheima Edwards.
While an outpouring of sadness has come from the local track and field fraternity, it is more personal for Morgan, whose friendship with Neufville spanned over 20 years. The 38-year old discus thrower said that he thought of Neufville as family and even gave him the nickname ‘Soapman,’ by which the majority of his peers referred to him.
“I knew him since [he was] nine years old,” Morgan told The Gleaner. “[We] ran on the same under-10 team at Waterford Primary. Ran on the same under-12 team. We got a scholarship together for Calabar.
“Nicholas was definitely a good friend. I don’t even call him a friend. I call him a brother because if I am there, he is there with me. If he is somewhere, then I’m right there [with him]. We never yet leave each other.”
ENCOURAGEMENT
It was Morgan who taught Neufville the triple jump, the event that Nicholas would compete in at the ISSA/GraceKennedy Boys and Girls’ Athletics Championships (Champs) during his junior career. It was also Morgan who encouraged him to take up coaching when he was not able to join him in the United States for university.
“I’m the one who told him he needed to venture out because when I realised he [was] not going to be able to take on the scholarship to come to America, I told him to take on this journey and see what goes on from [there],” Morgan said.
The coaching journey for Neufville since included wins at Champs for his alma mater as well as guiding young athletes at the regional level. It was a journey that Morgan said filled him with pride whenever they spoke, and what Morgan describes as Neufville’s calm demeanour and good-natured personality has made the loss more difficult for him to bear.
“I told him that this is a great deal – what you are doing – because now you are coaching and you are mentoring young athletes,” Morgan said. “And the same positivity that I have, of course, he let that flow with the same [attitude] towards the younger athletes.
“When I say he’s kind, humble, ask anybody. That’s why the impact is like this because everybody knows that he doesn’t trouble anybody.”
Jamaica Athletic Administrative Association (JAAA) president Garth Gayle paid tribute to Neufville, celebrating his commitment to the athletes under his care, both for Calabar and for Jamaica.
“Whichever school you represented when you were on the national team, he treated all of them equally,” Gayle said. “He showed no favouritism. He would take care of all of them and wanted to see them do exceptionally well. To have his life cut short in this manner, it is a sad situation.
“The JAAA offers condolences to his immediate family, Calabar High School, and to the track and field family because we have lost a dedicated coach.”