For the Good of the Team

Nicole Kiss
478 Main Street
Penticton, British Columbia,
V2A 3G1
March 20th, 2012
Mr. Kleats
Central High School
123 Main Street,
Sportstown, British Columbia
V2A 1W3

Dear Mr.Kleats:

My name is Nicole Kiss, my son Troy plays on your co-ed baseball team The Wildcats. Starting off, I would like to congratulate you on coaching the team to their first provincial win in years. The reason for this letter on my behalf is that I have a few slight concerns that were brought to my attention by my son and other parents. I’ve heard that you often arrive late, the practices are disorganized, more often than not most players receive no playing time at all, you use yelling to get points across and the main goal for the team is winning. I know that you are a busy man and I do appreciate all you are doing for my son to get him somewhere baseball wise but these issues need to be figured out in a mature manner.

I understand that you are a family man with many responsibilities to your wife and kid’s aswell but as the coach you have an obligation to your team to show up on time like the players do. An easy fix would be to bring on a parent or friend to assist you in your coaching so there is a parent present to watch over the minors. Troy has also explained to me that the disorganized structure of most practices makes learning new concepts a difficult task. I see where you are coming from in letting the kids do their own drills, but structure is indeed a good way for not only the team to better themselves but to learn life lessons aswell

As a coach I realize that you have to project your voice to address all the players on the team, but it seems that you scare the kids more than you try and encourage them. A good alternative to the yelling would be pulling the kids aside to tell them what they need to improve on instead of constantly yelling at them. Again, I would like to congratulate you on the provincial win, but winning is not the most important goal for a high-school sports team. As much as I would like for my son to win as many games as possible, I want him to experience being on a team and working with people to achieve something great.

I know this letter is unexpected but it was of serious concern to me and I felt like I needed to say something. Perhaps we could meet to talk over the points in this letter or even talk on the phone to work something out to not only benefit yourself, but to benefit the kids aswell; we’re really only doing this for kids. Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Nicole Kiss