First as the Head Coach of this team I take full responsiblity of my staff, players, and parents. I want to make it clear that we do not coach or condone the action in this video. Both coaches missed the play as we were watching the base runner, and when the oposing coach addressed the umpire, the assistant coach on third asked the batter what happened and told her that is not what we do and is not acceptable. We coach our girls on the fake bunt / steal to square around and pull back as the ball is delivered, that is clearly not what took place in the video and this has been addressed with the player and will be addressed with the entire team this week in practice. The saftey of each and every girl (on both teams) is the priority of my staff and in no way would we EVER ask or condone a player to perform what happened in the video (Sometimes 10 year olds get wrapped up in the heat of the moment and do things that are not a true reflection of their character), but I take full responsiblity ( after watching the video I should have addressed it with the umpire and I agree that the call was missed, that is on ME) of my players and this will NEVER happen again. I personally apologized to the head coach already and on behalf of my staff, players, parents, and the Stingrays organization I want to publicly apologize to the catcher (I know her personally and she is a great kid and player), the Westler Family, Coach Mike, and the parents of the opposing team. Anyone that knows me, my staff, players and parents know that we don't teach this type of action and we try to teach our players life lessons along with the game. I feel horrible that this happened and assure the softball community that this is not a true reflection of our team, or my staff but an unfortunate event in a very emotional game for 10 year olds.
Marc George
Head Coach