Below is complaint that I sent to the Georgetown Youth Girls Softball Association.
GYGSA board members,
I want to share our experience with you all regarding Reese Bruechner-8U-MACAWS coach and how this year has played out for us so far.
Let me start out by saying that I have never had to inquire with a coach about how they are handling playing time so I never imagined that I would feel compelled to be writing you all this.
I also fully appreciate and admire youth sports coaches who provide positive impacts on our children's skill and development.
I have coached my daughters team the last 2 years and have 10+ years of youth sports involvement between all 3 of my daughters multiple sports. I have never witnessed this level of preferred/outcast player treatment. When we reached out to the coach to inquire about Kassidy not getting infield playing time as we expected due to the players position assignment sheets he gave us before the first game. I was coming from a skills and expectations perspective. His response immediately mentions there are no rotation rules and makes it very clear that it’s up to coaches.
“There are no rules on who is benched or a rotation as far as the league goes. It’s up to the coaches. As far as what position they play it’s up to the coaches.”
“I’ve been rotating based on combination of age&ability.” -You will see below that is not true.
There is no real rotation anywhere outside ofoutfield->bench and bench->outfield.
Recap of Kassidy's usage 2023 season
Game 1-pitcher
Game 2-outfield/bench rotation
Game 3-outfield/bench rotation
Game 4-outfield/bench rotation 1-at bat
Game 5-outfield/bench rotation 1-at bat
Game 6-outfield-2-at bats
Coach Preferred players
There has been ONE infield<->outfield rotation this year and that was after the 1st game Kassidy<->Outfield
Infield- same players, same positions, every inning of every game.
Coach1 child- Catcher-Batting 1st
Coach2 child- 3rd base-Batting 3rd
Coach3 child- 1st base-Batting 4th
I look at this from an opportunities perspective (Ball touches + plate appearances)
The opportunities that the favored infield players vs the outcast outfield/rotation group is by a factor of 10x-12x
“I’ve been rotating based on combination of age&ability.” -You will see below that is not true.
There is no real rotation anywhere outside ofoutfield->bench and bench->outfield.
Recap of Kassidy's usage 2023 season
Game 1-pitcher
Game 2-outfield/bench rotation
Game 3-outfield/bench rotation
Game 4-outfield/bench rotation 1-at bat
Game 5-outfield/bench rotation 1-at bat
Game 6-outfield-2-at bats
Coach Preferred players
There has been ONE infield<->outfield rotation this year and that was after the 1st game Kassidy<->Outfield
Infield- same players, same positions, every inning of every game.
Coach1 child- Catcher-Batting 1st
Coach2 child- 3rd base-Batting 3rd
Coach3 child- 1st base-Batting 4th
I look at this from an opportunities perspective (Ball touches + plate appearances)
The opportunities that the favored infield players vs the outcast outfield/rotation group is by a factor of 10x-12x
We joined gygsa league this season with the intention to continue building Kassidy's ball skills and development while introducing her to softball vs boys baseball league.
Her step brothers (twin boys-same skillset) joined GYBA at same time and have had complete opposite expierence. Amazing coaches, rotations everywhere almost every inning, they haven't lost a game and the amount of quality reps they are getting is DRASTICALLY different. Our principled approach to youth sports is that our children are skilled enough to be recognized based on skills and merit alone without having to play politics or know someone. At the very minimum we expected each child to have a fair opportunity improve their fundamentals and make plays. 7 of 13 girls on this team are simply NOT getting those opportunities.
There are responses below that coming from a youth sports coach indicate questionable charater flaws and some that I don't ethically agree with.
“Play perfectly when she gets opportunities in outfield. She can develop and earn more time playing infield by doing that”
-Our record is 0-6. Infielders are all making many mistakes and we get 5-run ruled most innings on defense every game. No one is playing perfectly yet the same 5-6 girls continue to get all the opportunities. He also mentioned most of these preferred players by name in his response. I cheer and root for these girls at every turn but you have to be honest to yourself as a coach. You should probably make tweaks and adjustments to the lineup in an effort incrimentally improve the outcome of the games. If the game is well out of reach, its probably time to mix up positions and give someone a new opportunity. I would never say that a child needs to play perfectly in the outfield at every opportunity to "earn" playing time in the infield when my infield has been nowhere near perfection. These are just ethical things from my coaching mind that are missing from coach Reese's character.
“We had identified Kassidy early as possible infielder.”
-Admission that she does in fact have the skillset and ability to play infield. Also inconsistent with his overall message that she doesn't possess these skills. He handed out “position assignments” paper to each player at the last practice before Game 1. Kassidy’s assignment paper- Starting Pitcher, 1st Base-Backup, Outfield listed in that order. Again, I coached 6u the last 2 years at NAO and you don’t assign a player to starting pitcher and 1st base unless you are comfortable with them handling the ball. Which made sense to me because last 2 years at NAO, Kassidy was a major contributor to her mostly boys team playing pitcher, second, and 1st base. So what happened?
“She needs to listen. She has not been coachable”
-You flat out don’t tell a parent that their kid is not coachable as a youth sports coach. Outside of the fact that i’ve been to most practices and every game. I know that all the girls have this problem and often the coach makes all of them run when they’re not listening. His responses were obviously defensive, demeaning, inconsistent and blatantly false.
“Play perfectly when she gets opportunities in outfield. She can develop and earn more time playing infield by doing that”
-Our record is 0-6. Infielders are all making many mistakes and we get 5-run ruled most innings on defense every game. No one is playing perfectly yet the same 5-6 girls continue to get all the opportunities. He also mentioned most of these preferred players by name in his response. I cheer and root for these girls at every turn but you have to be honest to yourself as a coach. You should probably make tweaks and adjustments to the lineup in an effort incrimentally improve the outcome of the games. If the game is well out of reach, its probably time to mix up positions and give someone a new opportunity. I would never say that a child needs to play perfectly in the outfield at every opportunity to "earn" playing time in the infield when my infield has been nowhere near perfection. These are just ethical things from my coaching mind that are missing from coach Reese's character.
“We had identified Kassidy early as possible infielder.”
-Admission that she does in fact have the skillset and ability to play infield. Also inconsistent with his overall message that she doesn't possess these skills. He handed out “position assignments” paper to each player at the last practice before Game 1. Kassidy’s assignment paper- Starting Pitcher, 1st Base-Backup, Outfield listed in that order. Again, I coached 6u the last 2 years at NAO and you don’t assign a player to starting pitcher and 1st base unless you are comfortable with them handling the ball. Which made sense to me because last 2 years at NAO, Kassidy was a major contributor to her mostly boys team playing pitcher, second, and 1st base. So what happened?
“She needs to listen. She has not been coachable”
-You flat out don’t tell a parent that their kid is not coachable as a youth sports coach. Outside of the fact that i’ve been to most practices and every game. I know that all the girls have this problem and often the coach makes all of them run when they’re not listening. His responses were obviously defensive, demeaning, inconsistent and blatantly false.
"If you notice we have 6 girls who this is their first season of coach pitch and that’s basically 6 outs every at bat. It’s hard to win when that happens."
-What??? What youth coach truly believes that much less says that to a parent? Thats wildly off from my experience last year when most of our team was 1st year coach pitch. Do any of you believe that?
Considering that coaches are selected and voted on by the board, they are a representation of GYGSA. I would think that the board would expect these coaches to also be a positive reflection of the league itself. This coach was suspended after the 1st weekend of play due to a sportsmanship complaint and his response to such criticism. He notified parents of suspension via TeamSnap chat. He admits to poor sportsmanship, deflects accountability by saying he was instigated and followed that up by calling the GYGSA board a joke.
At the end of the day I have to ask myslef fundamental questions.
Is my daughter having fun and does she enjoy being on this team? -No, This last game I've started to notice a disengagement.
Is this a positive experience for her? Mixed, she feels the mistreatment but doesn't understand why.
Is she getting opportunities to build her development? Very little. bench->outfield every other inning, no ball touches on defense and gets 1 at bat in multiple games.
Is this something that I would reccomend to like minded parents with talented children?Definitely not.
Is coach Reese someone that I want coaching my daughter? No. Too many indicators revealing his negative character traits. Coaches belief system and ethics do not meet standards of someone who I want coaching my child.
Is coach Reese someone that you would want coaching your daughter?
Does this board support this coaches behaivor and is he an accurate reflection of this league?
We plan to move on from this situation but what about the other 6 girls on this team and next familiy that explores this league who also won't get fair opportunities?
I 100% fully appreciate what you all do for this community.
I hope for thoughtful consideration into a corrective action plan with the intention of improving the overall experience for these girls.
Attached is supporting documentation
Thank you again
Just an update here. I did speak with the president of GYGSA after her last double header Saturday and he reminded me that the Board votes on coaches every season. They will review any complaints before they vote on coaches for the next round. He also said they will continue to monitor how he handles the team for rest of the season. So a big thank you to Tim and the board for taking the time to come and watch one of their games and for directly addressing the complaint with me afterwards.
ReplyDeleteAs they should and great to see that!
DeleteIt was also pretty cool that Kassidy tagged base runners for outs not once but twice while playing left field.. yeah from LEFT FIELD she got the ball and ran down runners at second and third when the president of the league came out to watch the game. Talk about clutch.
ReplyDeleteClutch Cargill!
Hell yeah that's clutch $$$$
ReplyDelete