Baseball: Berrington criticizes Taft decision

Sorry to add to the controversy over the Taft baseball program, but former Coach Chuck Berrington said Thursday he was "totally disappointed" in the decision of the school to pass up on two veteran coaches in favor of a Pony youth coach with no prior high school coaching experience.

Berrington, who resigned to become coach at Newbury Park for family reasons,  said three times he offered to help Principal Sharon Thomas in the process of finding a replacement.

"I wanted what was  best for the program," he said.

A committee made up of parents, players and teachers joined with Thomas in deciding that Scott Osder from West Hills Pony baseball should be the coach.

The decision is final, so it's time to move on, but come the spring, it will be appropriate to evaluate everyone involved in the decision.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Comments

[insider rider]

attn: all pony league coaches. You are now qualified to apply to all schools in the la unified school district in need of baseball coaches.

Forget about going to college, and earning a teaching credential.

all it takes is a couple of years of pony ball and you are in.

what a joke! pathetic!

[Anonymous]

Enough. Shame on all of you. What a bunch of uncaring individuals who write all these blogs. You are discraceful. Give the man a chance and keep your thoughts to yourself. You are only hurting the players, Scott could probably care less what you have to say. Winning is the best revenge so LOOK OUT.

[TaftAlum]

Taft is not a baseball school - never has been, so the move shouldn't surprise anyone.

1. Basketball
2. Football
3. Track
4. ......

Baseball is somewhere down the list near wrestling...oh wait...they don't have a wrestling team!

[friend of taft families]

TAFT BASEBALL NEEDS AN IMMEDIATE COACHING CHANGE. The experiment should be over. This Little League baseball coach was way in over his head on the field, managing of players, teaching discipline, in communication and failed miserably in managing the money. He took a competitive team from a year ago and turned them into a patsy of the league again. The committee was conned, the players were conned and the families were conned. The lack of experience from him and his coaching staff showed and unfortunately the kids had to pay for it on and off the field. This coach was recommended by the soccer coach at the school, so in my opinion, even though a committee was involved, it was a slam dunk. What translates on a little league field, doesn’t translate to the High School field. He may be able to run a little league practice, but you need to get things done on the high school field. Nobody got better. There was no discipline instilled in the boys and it showed. I know this coach from West Hills and I was planning on sending my sons to Taft, but after hearing these stories from friends I have at the school, I have since changed my mind. Summer ball is coming and where most teams pay maybe $100 a kid, Taft is charging $250. My incoming Freshman will be playing elsewhere for $80 this summer and will continue at that school.
I am an accountant and one of the most concerning things was the mismanagement of the team’s money or lack of it. This man works in a money field, yet in this day and age, when many people are struggling, he overextended things. It was a great idea to renovate the field for the kids, but with no money, he has extended this to the limit and is still paying for it. Maybe this should’ve been done next year or the next with some planning, but he jumped right into and is looking for a bailout. Unfortunately, THE PARENTS KEEP PAYING FOR IT. The idea and original figure I heard from my friends was $30,000 which seemed a good one and looked attainable. From what I hear, no one saw the estimates, but this was the number thrown around. $60,000 later, the parents are still paying for this which isn’t easy for some. There were promises of large donations from players, actors and others that never came. Every fundraiser for the team has been marked up. I actually have contributed, but parents are paying 3 times the normal fees to pay back his coach and longtime friend, who is a general contractor and did the renovation. This is disgusting and just doesn’t sit right with many of the families. Problem is that everyone is afraid of the repercussions for their kids. The kids have been told, that if coaches are approached, they will be benched, plain and simple.
The coaching staff is not very experienced. I know one from the pony league and he only coached there for a short time. The coach’s brother, frosh/soph has zero experience. Do you think I want my kid playing for him? I don’t think so. These kids need to be taught and need to get better. One of the coaches was fired from a job for harassment. Did anyone check him out? What you have is lack of leadership here. I have watched a game or 2 and constantly see helmets thrown, the use of foul language and really poor game management. Has any of the administration been out and watched a game? I don’t think they would like what they see. They had opportunities to hire winners, a teacher from within, but chose this course and they have to live with it. He may be a nice man, but he is far from a High School Baseball coach.

[An Insider]

To Friend of Taft Families:

You seem to have a great deal of inside information, albeit misguided and inaccurate. Therefore, I surmise you are either a disgruntled parent of a child NOT playing, or you have received this information directly from a dissatisfied parent whose child lacks playing time and you are, indeed, the accountant’s “front person."

This is obviously not an email that an incoming freshman parent would write. Therefore, from a REAL INSIDER, let me help you out with your facts.

The Coach came into the program under the assumption he had a returning All City left-handed pitcher, an experienced #2, and a young group of players. If the All City pitcher did not have Tommy John surgery, and the #2's arm was not “toast” from overuse prior to the Coach’s start, Taft would have won more games this year than in many prior years, and you would not be writing this diatribe lest it would be laughed off.

So lets be clear what the Coach walked into upon taking over the program. Two pitchers: one that barely pitches, and one that NEVER pitched an inning. How many games would Taft have won had those two boys been healthy? 15, 18, perhaps 20? After his 3rd year, if the program had not won more games than prior to his arrival, you would have had a legitimate gripe but, until then, please, please shut up.

Taft had no Frosh program prior to his arrival. Because of the response of kids that wanted to play baseball, 50 kids came through for baseball PE upon his arrival. The Coach took the time and instituted a frosh program so that 12-15 boys, who might not have played at all or would have certainly sat on the JV bench, could play. That was a good thing.

As far as his brother helping out with the Frosh team, he is an assistant. I don’t remember that the qualifications for being a Frosh Assistant needed to parallel that of an experienced high school coach. And your facts are in total disarray. He did play high school baseball, he gives private lessons, and coaches Pony. Oh, and let me not forget, he VOLUNTEERS HIS TIME FOR FREE. If you haven’t heard, Varsity Coach Osder has personally coached 50% of the Frosh games, as he did this past Saturday vs. Cleveland.

Rick Reeve, contrary to your facts, has coached for 25 years. He was brought into the fold to provide knowledge, passion, confidence, guidance and stability to the JV team, in addition to other things. If I have my facts straight, the JV team was basically abandoned every year and WON NOTHING because no one cared. This year, the JV team has won 6 games, including a victory over ELCO, an improvement to those who have a clue.

As far as your summer VIBL facts, not only are you dead wrong, but should be embarrassed, because I am calling you out RIGHT HERE. Look at Cleveland, ELCO, West Ranch and a host of other schools with summer VIBL. It is $175-$250; go to their websites and look at their cost. Were you aware that Taft has not offered it to incoming freshman? Therefore, it has no bearing on your kids as they were not invited. Yes, Mr. “Friend of Taft Families, go to the Cleveland and ELCO websites and look at the cost. It’s not $80.

Let’s move on. Yes, the field’s improvements cost more than anticipated but, not so fast. Have you have never remodeled, for example, a portion of your home? The same principal applies here. Let me clue you in, since you are only an accountant. When you improve, unearth, or tear up something that has not been touched in 40 years, you will most likely find things have rotted. Taft improved most of what was broken underground, i.e. the sprinkler, water and electrical systems, as they were decayed. Gifted that to LAUSD, if you will. Sorry, they couldn’t just fill back in the dirt and ignore it. They wanted to do the right thing so the field could be usable for many years to come. Now the kids have a new field! Wow, they must be horrible men, those Coaches and Friends of the Taft Program...just horrible! How could Taft have been so stupid as to permit Coach Osder to rally friends together to build the project and create something no one else had accomplished?

The other Coach is no longer at the program for reasons that have nothing to do with what you stated. My sincere hope is he finds out your identity and challenges you.

What about the opportunity to hire the teacher from within? Have you spoken to those who made the decision? He was not an option as kids don’t respect him, parents did not care for him, and he had not won anything at the JV level. Is he qualified simply because he teaches at the school? If so, hire the track coach, or the music teacher and let them coach baseball.

Mismanaging the money? Coaches don’t manage the money. And before I forget, did you know that when he arrived, as rumor has it, there was less than one-half a bucket of baseballs to be shared amongst three levels of teams and six coaches? Did you notice the batting cage and the equipment? What about the field, or even the filthy hose bib from which the players were drinking water? And did you realize that, at present, all but three kids have academic eligibility? All the Seniors, all the Varsity and JV? How could the Coach and his staff be such horrible men?

Come out from hiding and post your real name, you "typical disgruntled parent who thinks their kid probably should be playing more."

And last, but not least, if you have actually seen some of the games, the last time I checked, coaches do not field routine ground balls, hit or leave pitches up in the strike zone for players twice their size to hit 400 feet for 3-run homers, game after game.

From An Insider

[JF weighing in]

Here we go again. I want to start this off with a story I heard while traveling about an umpire. He told me that during one of his games, he was being questioned on every call throughout the game. I mean every call. Middle of an inning, the spectator was really getting on him so he called time out, went and sat in the stands next to the guy who was questioning everything. The guy asks him what he was doing and the umpire replied, “You seem to have a better view from here, so I will finish the game from the stands." Same applies here. Coach Osder and staff are out there. We are not. Do we agree with every decision? Probably not, but what I know about Scott, Rick and the rest of the guys, is that if you have something on your mind, ask about it and you will receive an answer.

Since Coach Osder came aboard, there are some of us who have tried to lend a hand wherever possible and will continue to do so. That cannot be said for most and we need it to make the program work.

The whole program is a lot better today than it was last year and it will continue to develop. The Frosh/Soph program gave a lot of kids opportunities to continue playing baseball. Some of the returning kids had better opportunities playing JV than Varsity and it helped strengthen the whole program.

The field is great and a lot of hard work went into it by a lot of people. Finances? Mismanagement of money? Financial records are available so if you want to see them, ask. There were a lot of promises made by a lot of parents about money that never came through, not from Scott.

The insider makes some great points and is right on with his/her comments. The last paragraph kind of sums it up. Coach does prepare the kids, but he doesn't make the plays, doesn't make pitches and doesn't go up to bat in key situations. Let's hope for continued growth of the program.