People ask me all the time why I am not coaching high school baseball. Honestly I just couldn't do it. Pour my baseball heart and soul into a group of 14-18 year old baseball players for very little compensation for countless hours only to be terminated because of not being fair with playing time. No Thank you. Central Kentucky lost a great baseball coach last week when the administration lent their ears to some disgruntled family or families about playing time. The actual reason for the dismissal was not written about in the paper. The article said that neither the coach or the administration would comment on the decision. However, there has been a social media storm pointing the finger at the administration for allowing unhappy parents to complain about the Coaches decision on who to play and so forth.
Of course I am writing about Coach Matt Ginter and George Rogers Clark High School. I hope that Matt finds another coaching job pretty quick...I am sure that if he wants to he will. I have seen Matt at work. His passion for the game and to help his players get better is so obvious. We are truly living in some precarious times when the voices of a few can drown out the voices of the many. Of course that is the world we live. When being fair is the norm. What is fair about letting inferior players play ahead of a superior teammates. If you want to play more get better. Be a realist. Look at your son's team, study it. If you are really a baseball person you can find the weakest link and go after that position. Trust me all high school coaches want to win baseball games. I don't know any coach that creates his lineup based on being fair. If they do they probably don't win much. The coaching staff of every program will sit for hours reflecting on each player and how they can help the team win. Some of those players roles are not very active but if that is your role either take it or quit. If you don't like your role then change your ability...get better!
The same thing happened to Coach Kevin Clary at Lexington Catholic back in 2010. Catholic won the state title in 2009 and then followed that up with 30+ wins in 2010. Some parents weren't happy with their sons playing time so they complained to the administration and instead of defending their coach they fired him. How sad! I mean if Catholic had lost 30 games and not won the state title the season before I could understand not defending your coach and looking for a reason to fire him. Now Coach Ginter has made GRC a winning program with great coaches and very good players and just went to the KHSAA State Baseball tournament. I just don't understand. I heard a story about a parent whose son was playing in low A pro ball, complain to the coach about his son's playing time on a pro team. Are you kidding me. Haha! The story ended with the player being released the next day. Now that's how you handle disgruntled parents. It's better to cut out the cancer than try to treat it.
I will get off my soap box. Sorry for the rant but this kind of administration decision is heart breaking. Coach Clary is now the head coach at Sayre High School and has taken that team to a couple of regional tournaments over the past couple of years. I am sure that Matt will turn up somewhere and rebuild another program into a winner. Sorry for all the great players at GRC that will feel the repercussions of this decision for the next two or three years.
