Let me confirm the "WORD ON THE STREET". Yes, it is true. The M.C. Madness Inc. softball organization will not field teams this season. I started this organization seven years ago with a few teams. It grew quickly and we had as many as 14 teams, but lately we have had around nine or ten teams. During those early years our teams were primarily coached by non parents and we had some success. As the years have gone on, we have lost most of our volunteer, non-parent coaches for various reasons. This year, we had nine teams. Three of those teams were coached by non-parent coaches and two of those teams were quite successful. One of those teams was mine. I had three coaches tell me they were not returning for various reasons, so that meant I would have to find more coaches, but all I had were three parents volunteer instead. That is when I started taking a closer look at what the organization had evolved into over the course of the last seven years. We no longer have the quality of teams that I am accustomed to having. I took into consideration that the M.C. Madness was built on the quality of teams not the quantity of teams we were putting on the field, and decided to shut it down. It takes many people to do what we do when running an organization. At the end of the day, two people cannot run an organization this size without a great deal of sacrifice. Our families suffer. Our own personal team suffers from spending time dealing with the other teams' problems, and our health suffers. One of the two people running this organization has decided to move out of state to enjoy warmer weather and save his marriage...too late for me that ship sailed 7 years ago. That was the final factor that lead to the decision to shut down the Madness. So my reasons for shutting it all down was: 1) Lack of non-parent coaching...too much Daddy ball. 2) lack of quality teams. 3) Lack of help and support to effectively run the organization. After reading post after post about Daddy ball and how softball is watered down, I thought I would do the right thing and put an end to it by not fielding teams this season.
Now let's deal with accusation of theft. Our by laws are set up through our 501 c3 to have checks and balances. The president has no access to any of the money in the accounts. After I contacted the coaches about our decision, the first question from the coaches was about the money in their team budget. Our coaches get an itemized monthly budget from our treasurer.....which did a fantastic job of keeping everyone informed about their balance. We are currently cleaning out each team's account to reimburse each team for the money left over in the accounts. We are waiting for receipts in order to do it properly. Every team's account will be emptied and given back to the parents of that team if they were in the black. We are trying to get this done as soon as possible because our taxes are due by August 31. The general fund will also be used to award our seniors and juniors the participation and achievement awards we give out each November. Applications for those awards were sent out to those that are eligible and are due by August 15 so checks can be written by August 31. We are rewarding several athletes for their commitment to the organization over the past seven years through the process set up in our bylaws. This will bring our operating fund down to a balance that will allow us to pay our taxes and pay out the next two years of participation and achievement awards to those athletes that are eligible to receive the awards through the application process. The organization is financially sound and that had nothing to do with shutting down. Our bills are all paid and we looking into a couple more reimbursement issues to families and we will be set to pay future taxes and awards.
The next issue you spoke about. Yes, I am now coaching one team in another organization. I will be coaching the Lasers Orange team this season. The opportunity to coach in a quality organization where I will be focused on one team and one team only is refreshing. I look forward to the challenge.
I have been doing this for many years and I think I have built a reputation as a good guy that loves softball and loves to teach and coach it. I have great pride in what I accomplished over the past seven years as the M.C. Madness leader. We have sent 47 girls on to play in college over the last 4 years, so I must have been doing something right. It pains me to read such harsh accusations about about me or my organization. I don't know who you are or what your motive is, but by posting what you did clearly shows that you are trying to stir the pot. You have 4 posts in all, so you must have created this username to hide behind. Maybe you are an unhappy parent of a Madness player, or coach, but this is not the place to do this. If you really want to know more about what I am doing, please feel free to call me at 216-344-0892, e-mail me at
saundersge@aol.com or pm me through this media.
I once heard..."If you are going to stir the %#@$ pot, you should be ready to lick the spoon!" lol
