President of GYBA(baseball) Tommy makes special exception for girl to join Boys baseball team late in season.

We submitted an online inquiry into wanting to late register Kassidy onto boys baseball team due to poor experience at GYGSA with shitty coach. 

VP/commissioner responds that they are not allowing teams to add any players this far into the season. So I made a personal written plea to the President of GYBA-Tommy Lockhart explaining our situation.

INITIAL RESPONSE

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: George Morin<geopm80@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 3, 2023 at 8:44 PM
Subject: Late registration request
To: <jeremiahcargill@gmail.com>
Cc: Andy Ray Terrel <andy.terrel@gmail.com>

Hi, sorry for the late reply. While I am sorry y'all had problems in GYGSA. We are not allow any player additions to teams.

George Morin

GYBA VP 3U-8U 

MY PERSONAL PLEA TO GYBA PRESIDENT

On Mon, Apr 3, 2023 at 10:59 PM, Jeremiah Cargill

<jeremiahcargill@gmail.com> wrote:

Tommy,

I am reaching out to make a personal plea for your assistance. 

I have an 8yr old daughter who has had a very poor experience with gygsa coach over there across the street. 

I've already been assured by 2 of the gygsa board members that this coach will not be coaching next year over there. 

I'm simply trying to close out the year here at gyba with her on her step brothers team. 8-u Arsenal. 

They had 1 player on the initial roster that never showed, leaving them with only 10 with no room for anyone missing a game.

Coach Romo already has the spare jersey (from a kid who never showed) and of course we are willing to pay full late reg price. I would hope that you and GYBA could make an exception here to impact a young kid's life. We just want the opportunity to play out this season in a more fundamentally sound environment allowing her to continue to develop. We have had a great experience here so far this year and we'd like her to benefit and be a part of this community if you would allow.

If you could please put thought and consideration into making an exception for an exceptional kid who simply wants the opportunity to play ball. 

We would be forever grateful.

I can forward you the communication we have had with the gygsa board if you'd like. 

I appreciate your time concerning this matter. 

Jeremiah Cargill

512-676-0060

GOOD PEOPLE DOING THE RIGHT THING

On Tue, Apr 4, 2023 at 7:13 AM TommyLockhart <tmmylockhart@yahoo.com> wrote:

Good morning,

1st off I want to say sorry for your bad experience at GYGSA my daughter has played there for 8 years and it's definitely a little different.  Your experience reaffirms why we have rotation rules in our lower divisions.  Typically we don't add players once season starts especially 3 weeks in season.  That said I have decided to make an exception to allow her to play.  However we will be requiring full registration cost minus the jersey since Coach already has an extra one yall can use.  If yall decide yall want your own you will need to go to centex and order on your own, just be cautious that it takes 2 weeks or so to get jersey in.  I am not at fields tonight, i will be there Wednesday and Thursday so come find me or George and we will have you pay registration at concession stand.  

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks

Tommy Lockhart

GYBA PRESIDENT  

Kassidy Softball Clips

Kassidy's Softball Clips 

Kassidy's resignation note to Macaws team

Our time has finally arrived. Today we notified the league and team that we can no longer continue.
You would think that when your record is 0-9 for the season and game 10 starts a coach may be thinking maybe we should move some people around and at the very least get some girls experience in this position or that position. That did not really happen. Okay, yes the last game he rotated 2 of the other girls who were also not given fair opportunities. I know that one of the dads talked to Coach Reese before game 8 asking about Kassidy and his daughter not getting chances in infield. So game 10 Two of these outcast/outfielder girls both got 2 innings each at shortstop. So he basically rotated his least preferred infielder to work these other two girls in to appease their parents who probably were a lot nicer with their interactions with him. It is a step in right direction but yet a very small step deep in a winless 9-lost season. 

However,  Kassidy started the game as the only player on the bench and batted last.
He did warn us this would happen if we "skipped his practices" even though she's literally getting more work in by playing in both leagues. It was a power/ego move for sure. This was right after he approached me to praise her two great plays in game 8. Then we had this communication thread. https://gygsa.blogspot.com/2023/04/i-wrote-complaint-to-gygsa-board-after.html

Dear MACAWS team,
We regret to inform you all that Kassidy will not be returning for anymore team activities this year. We wanted Kassidy to enjoy her 1st year at GYGSA and improve her skills but we now feel that it’s time to part ways due team leadership that falls short of the standards that we expect from a youth sports coach.

We initially believed that Coach Reese was treating Kassidy and others unfairly based on his skills development perception and ill fated rotation strategy to win games. I shared candid assessments during our exchanges with goal to improve the team's experience but I think his pride may have resulted in very poor responses. A fragile ego tends to be defensive and demeaning in response to protect said ego. Thats the only conclusion I can come up with from the pattern of events including his suspension for "responding too harshly to poor sportsmanship criticism." Our personality differences appear to make us incompatible to continue any coach/player/parent relationship and the value add is not there for either party. Impact on the team should be minimal due to low utilization and it’s one less girl who has to rotate from bench to outfield every other inning.

I know these girls have so much more potential than what we got to witness this year and I recognize their value. I’ve rooted for each and everyone at every turn.

Last game was 1st time that I saw a sadness in Kassidy but at the same time she’s also confused. When we were leaving the fields she told her mom that she just wanted to play baseball and for me to hear that come from her mouth knowing her competitive nature and spirit made it a sad day.

We do feel that every child still deserves to be treated with respect and dignity regardless if there is distaste due to parents comments/concerns. I know that each game that directly followed one of these "candid exchanges" Kassidy would start game on bench.  

We are deeply disappointed that key ethical standards were not upheld. I hope Coach Reese can set the pride aside to considers this feedback and I encourage him to work towards cultivating a more equitable environment with future coaching endeavors. The overall culture and experience for the team should be enjoyable and healthy. 

We look forward to seeing you all around should we come back to GYGSA in the future and wish you all the best of luck. We have communicated with GYGSA board and they encourage all parents to share both positive and negative coach reviews with them so they can consider feedback when they vote on coaches next season. 

Link to complaint I sent to board- http://gygsa.blogspot.com/Link to complaint I sent to board- http://gygsa.blogspot.com/