The fall of Stanford softball

[Battle]

Sounds like the American norm of "guilty until proven innocent" that we have adopted as a system. The only thing missing in this circumstance is racism compared to most allegations.

[ferst]

Very possibly many of these sort of accusations toward the past Stanford coach could be made against other coaches to some degree. Doesn’t make it okay and it’s good that these situations come to light because it will effect understanding and change.

The reality is a D1 college athletic environment is kin to a “professional workplace”, which has a formal legal definition, and as with any “professional workplace” there is legal accountability by all involved. Unfortunately it is not unusual for college coaches, players, parents, and AD’s to lack the understanding that a D1 college team is a workplace environment.

College coaches who imply or promote a team understanding that, “we are a family” are setting themselves up for serious problems. An athletic team (especially at the collegiate level), is not a “family”. In a “family” there is the presumption of “unconditional” mutual support. Very unlike a “family”, a head coach by definition is constantly required to make value judgements in their players and act according to their judgements. A coach who promotes that their team is a “family” is either ignorant or lying, and is inappropriately patronizing their players. Coaches and players (like employers and employees) can care very deeply about each other, but it is not a “family”. The NCAA should do more also to promote a better understanding among college coaches, players, parents, and AD’s .

Many accused hostile workplace situations can have shared blame but ultimately the employer, has a huge legal burden and has the ultimate responsibility to manage a proper workplace environment. No “supervisor” (in this case, the head coach) ever wants to be in a situation where accused of creating a “hostile work environment”. The “employer” (in this case, the university), to mitigate liability, typically takes a “guilty until proven innocent approach” toward the accused supervisor. Not to say that this is right or wrong, but rather it is the reality.

Coaches that feel they don’t need to maintain a professional type of environment (they are not remotely surrogate parents or managing a family) are misguiding their players and run a tremendous risk and are likely to incur problems with players. If they want to keep parents in their proper place, have the parents properly keep the "family" designation. The head coach leads the team of players and is responsible for managing the objectives of the "team". To reiterate, coaches and players can care very deeply about each other and may establish bonds that last a lifetime, but it is not a “family”, it is a "team" with team objectives.

Again, like it or not, but this is the reality and players heading to play D1 college athletics are best served to have an advance understanding of the reality.

[Hurricane]

Wow! that's an eye-opener. thanks for sharing and posting, ferst!

I had never thought of it like that.

[fastpitchdad05]

Wow! that's an eye-opener. thanks for sharing and posting, ferst!

I had never thought of it like that.

The points would have been even better if they had been made using paragraphs.

I disagree a bit. It's likely a "family" with the majority of these teams until a situation like this when it can no longer be one.

Then the lawyers get involved and suck any remaining life and fun out of it.

[fasterpitch92701]

While I agree with Ferst assessment, overall, it's a sad situation as soon as lawyers get involved. Frankly, my perspective on "lawyers" is that they an excellent protein base for cat food.

Regardless, two things dangle out there.... first, why were the parents involved? In ANY HR "situation", extraneous individuals should be excluded. That includes parents who, at the best, only have second hand information at best. If you want first person info then the players need to stand up.

Secondly, this smacks of 10U player whining taken to an extreme. My original post... noting the Salem witch trials...do a little history check and learn what happens when young girls do stupid things and feel empowered to act like 10 year olds. Really. The Salem witch trials were created based on adolescent girls doing stupid things and a whole lot of people died because of it.

There is always drama on teams. The question is "magnitude". The AD at Stanford is a chump, didn't know how to handle it and hosed the program for the next 4 years. They can recruit saying "it's crap, you work your butt off at softball as an exercise but we may... may give you a break on tuition". Oh yippee. Doesn't mean the AD is competent. He gets paid no matter what. Pathetic.

[jonriv]

The only thing that stands out is the conditions coach and harassment. If the head coach was made aware and took no action the admin would have no choice but to change coaches. Most hostile work environment claims happen only after inaction by the chain of command. Proper actions , communication and documentation are key to prevention. It would seem odd that they would remove a coach after 18 years unless there was something real damaging

[Battle]

The only thing that stands out is the conditions coach and harassment. If the head coach was made aware and took no action the admin would have no choice but to change coaches. Most hostile work environment claims happen only after inaction by the chain of command. Proper actions , communication and documentation are key to prevention. It would seem odd that they would remove a coach after 18 years unless there was something real damaging

What freakin' world do you live in? Do you have any idea how many lives are ruined because someone cries wolf? All the chain of commands in the world has nothing to do with it...Damn you are self righteous!

[jonriv]

No self righteousness, but where there is smoke........

I have seen people "cry wolf" and it go nowhere because procedures were followed and documented. It is a managers responsibility in any workplace to acknowledge and investigate a complaint. My experience has been that most situations can be handled with early action. Too many times the situation is allowed to go to far


I had a hostile workplace complaint from a fired employee over a decade ago. I had proper documentation to support the dismissal ( lateness, absences, missing $$) and did everything by the book. Her complaint was quickly dismissed

Again- they fired(pushed out) an 18 year veteran coach- they must have had enough in "cause" that he was persuaded to resign

[fasterpitch92701]

Ok. nummm....argh....while I usually...agree with Jonriv I have to take another path here. "Hostile workplace". Dealt with it many times. With proper "documentation" I would ask "what were the issues"? Apparently no one wants to say. 18 years as a coach....means a track record and the AD apparently.... apparently in my opinion...took the word of some athletes and their parents (which is patently stupid, parents have NO BUSINESS in the discussion) and decided.to flush the coach. IMHO, my opinion was that the coach left because he was disgusted with the AD and potentially half baked accusations by a few players who wanted more playing time or felt others were favored. As previously noted... if this were a 10U team and you were the chief chicken, would you be surprised that girls AND PARENTS whine (and that many other girls don't) and would you just fire the coach? If so, 10U wouldn't exist.

As noted previously... read up on the Salem witch trials. It's not a joke. Really. The Salem witch trials was CREATED by a few jackass pre-teen girls. Really. Religious zealots piled on the stories but the stories and accusations were all false. 19 people were hung on Sept 22, 1792 because a bunch of whiny 11-14 year olds wanted some attention. Judge Sewell, 8 years later, admitted that the convictions were unfounded and wrong. Didn't do the 19 people any good.

This story, as it is today at Stanford, stinks. There is root rot. Something smells. If I were to look at one incompetent person, IMHO, I would look at the AD who didn't know how to handle this situation professionally.

[Sam]

Rittman recruited these players and bears the brunt of the blame. It appears that he didn't do sufficient homework on their work ethic, character, and their potential fit for his program. Possibly their TB coaches failed to bring up any negative traits so that he/she could pad their resumes with a Stanford recruit.

He provided many of these kids with $300,000 educations and was crapped on for his trouble. They were his employees.....18 year olds making $75,000 per year to play a game. The parents, likely trained by their TB experiences, acted as they always had before. With the 14 year olds being recruited my sense is this is only the beginning and these college coaches who have created this insane system will end up losing their jobs because of their benign stupidity. I can't wait.