Mr. Fremerman,

My son plays on a baseball team for his school he is a happy kid he is a Jr. this year. He has played on Varsity since 9th grade and has always been a starting pitcher. He also plays on a travel team in the fall and summer. He loves the game. He is always smiling we are not strict parents and just want him happy as being a kid only happens once. Anyway his baseball coach is old school and he said he wanted to wipe the smile off my sons face and I explained the way some families are and how some families are not. I told him if you try to take that smile off his face he would not perform as well, because the smile is his game and fun within the game. Well the coach hollowed a lot at him cursed him and my son would tell me how he wanted to quit and how he was unhappy and I explained how this would build him charter he stuck it out through his freshman year, through his sophomore year he wanted to quit again, and I told him the same thing this builds charter and he said he was tired of build charter and really wanted to quit so I went to have a talk with his coach about how my son wanted to quit, because he felt he was undeservingly hollowed at, well then the coach starting hollowing at me and told me he wanted to quit because of me and not because of him, then told my son he wasn’t going to hold it against him because of his mamma but did anyway and started benching him. So the question is What to do? The story seems long but it is really longer…

Dear Rebecca,

Seems to me your son got himself one heck-of-a-bad-coach. There's really not a whole lot your son can do...but you and he do have the option of going to whomever is responsible for hiring the coach and letting that person (assuming it's the principal) know what is transpiring between the coach and your son and between the coach and yourself. And if that doesn't get you anywhere I would go to the editor of the Broussard newspaper (assuming there is one) or to the sports editor of the paper (which there probably isn't one) and tell them your story. And if they want to interview me over the phone I would be happy to tell them, in my
opinion, why I believe the coach is acting the way he is (I would be willing to bet that it's a classic case of low self-esteem on his part)...More than likely the source of his obnoxious behavior goes back a long, long way...probably even to his own childhood upbringing by his parents. And by the way, the coach isn't "old school" but rather "no school"...even old school coaches...at least the most successful ones...genuinely cared about their players as human beings first, then as athletic performers. Based on what you've written in your e-mail, I would recommend that your son's coach be replaced...asap...if not sooner.

Marv Fremerman