Editor, My daughter tried out for Bryan County High School’s basketball team. After the tryouts, she learned she had made the team, although she had never played before. It was extremely nice for the coach to keep her on the team, even with her lack of experience making her one of the worst players on the team. She gave a lot of effort and worked really hard. I had to pay about $100-plus for her shoes and socks after she made the team.
After a few weeks, I noticed my daughter losing her enthusiasm about the game. I asked her several times what was wrong, but she wouldn’t tell me.
One night, I picked her up from practice, and she was crying.
Some of the girls on the team had been making fun of her game. I met with the coach before a game, but all the coach wanted to talk about was how badly she played, how she missed practices during Christmas vacation, and how she never tried to contact him. But he made contact with his other players and, no, she didn’t go to all the practices during Christmas. But a lot of the other players didn’t go to the practices all the time either, even during Christmas break.
About three weeks later, my daughter’s friend asked Casey in front of me if she had told me what the coach said. She still would not tell me because she is not about the chaos or drama. So her friend did. Her friend heard this from a couple of the girls on the team that were present when he spoke to my daughter after I left. She said the coach looked at Casey and said, in front of the entire team, that God must have been with your mom today, she better be glad I was sitting down and not standing up. Well, that’s a threat and bullying by the coach.
I met with the principal and coach about this. The coach was more focused on bashing my daughter some more. This time, I was not so nice. I came unglued.
Now they had their banquet, and he didn’t even acknowledge her as a team member. Some of the other parents at the banquet didn’t like that. I didn’t like it.
My daughter played in more than half of the games and wasn’t even acknowledged for her participation.
I played sports in high school, too. And you only had to attend one game after making the team, and you were acknowledged as a member of the team.
 
Kassie Williams