Get involved in youth ball

Dear editor:

I'd like to say "congratulations" to Mia Felton! Her letter to the editor has the potential to keep hardworking, capable parent volunteers from signing up as coaches. The very biased letter to the editor could potentially wipe out the many sports programs that are so vitally dependent upon these volunteers.

As a parent who regularly volunteers I know what kind of dedication it takes to be a volunteer.

I know that everyone has a right to his or her own opinion and that there are two sides to every story. But... a simple twist and a few turns of the facts can bias a story one way or the other. I have a son on the same team and it is evident that this "baseball mom" did some fact twisting to convince readers that her opinion was the way we should all look at the issue. Reading Mia's article made me mad for several reasons:

* Her accusation of the coach's' lack of academic concern was absurd and false, at best. I feel that I can correctly state that Mia's lack of presence at practices doesn't quite qualify her to critique the coach's baseball practices or techniques.

* And she doesn't seem to realize (or tends to ignore) that the "key players" she mentions in her article are kids who were new to the program at one time and had to prove themselves to get to where they are now. The less time actually batting and more fielding practice for "key-players" is a cute statement but far from factual.

None of the players were less important than any other player and I felt that the newer kids actually received more of the coach's time than the more experienced ones, which seems appropriate to me. The coach is a very skills oriented coach so I'm not sure why she comments on the coach not working on the skills of the newer players.

I strongly feel that Mia has a responsibility to teach her child to accept the baseball challenge and she herself should step up and work with her child in their backyard to help develop the skills he needs to compete, I'm not very athletic and I did it with my son. A summer volunteer coach can't do it all.

Quite simply she needs to accept and adapt, not attack the volunteers who work so hard to improve our youth's sports programs.

I haven't always agreed with all of my sons' coaches but never have I chosen to write a letter to the editor to launch a complaint and bash on a volunteer coach.

And while I agree with Angie Moreno's editorial that stated all kids pay the same amount to play baseball and should have the same opportunities, I feel that Robert Woodruff's letter to the editor kind of says it all. Not all kids give 110 percent or show up for every practice. Each case has its own set of circumstances.

And, I agree it is frustrating to see kids who love a sport so much wind up riding the bench, but, 16 or 17 kids on a team doesn't leave much playing time for the newer, lesser experienced or lesser skilled players.

And what about the "core" players. Every team has them. They've dedicated whole summers to the sport for years. Why should they have to sit out more just because a disgruntled parent or two say they should? Is there a happy medium somewhere in all of this? Should the board have formed smaller teams so that all the players would have gotten a chance at more playing time? Maybe so, who can say for sure, but keep in mind that those individuals who sit on the baseball board and the coaches who spend many of their free hours coaching our kids baseball are humans first and volunteers second. Wouldn't you agree that everyone makes his or her share of mistakes?

I say get over it, get more involved, and then you will probably see the bigger view. Kudos to Mr. Woodruff for his letter to the editor, at least I enjoyed reading it!