This is an article that appeared in the Rockford, IL news, rrstar.com, about a Rochelle High School sophomore baseball player that was penalized severely for refusing to play on the varsity team. It’s a rather long article but very interesting and thought-provoking reading. The baseball player, Brett Russell, is an acquaintence of ours and his mother, Bonnie, works with me at the City.
The article sort of hits home with us because our son, Ben, was asked to play varsity soccer last fall as a freshman which he did. But he was allowed to play for both the JV and the varsity team. I’m not sure what we would’ve done if we were thrust into this situation.
There are a couple good questions at the end of the article. I’m interested in your input and reactions. There are also issues with some of the athletic head swirling around town but I’ll reserve those comments for later.
Rochelle moved Brett Russell from the sophomore team to the varsity. Russell turned down the invitation. And then found out it wasn’t an invitation, it was an order.
Russell still said no. The result: Brett Russell no longer had a place at any level of Rochelle’s baseball program.
“You can’t say no to certain people here,” his dad, Bubba Russell, said.
Bubba Russell meant Kevin Crandall, Rochelle’s athletic director and highly successful football coach. Crandall, who made the ultimate decision, said he could not comment on any individual situation, but only on the general school policy. That policy says you can’t say no to any Hubs’ coach.
“We have to give our coaches the freedom to develop their programs as they see fit,” Crandall said. “That means deciding what position each participant plays. What level they play. How much they play. All those things. Coaches need that.”
The Russells say that’s true on the team a player originally joins. But they say players, and their parents, should have veto power when a coach wants to move a player to a higher level.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Brett, a lefthanded pitcher who had a 3-0 record with one save, a 0.53 ERA and 13 strikeouts in 22 innings for Rochelle’s sophomore team. “Parents and players should have at least some input into it. And we didn’t have any say.”
One of Brett’s friends agrees so strongly that he, too, no longer plays for Rochelle. Brian Argetsinger, the sophomore shortstop and No. 3 hitter, wrote Russell’s No. 33 on his game hat. When the coach told him he couldn’t play unless he got a new hat, Argetsinger quit.
“I wasn’t going to buy a new hat just to play,” he said. “The hat I have now is fine.”
Besides, he wanted to protest in support of his friend.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” Argetsinger said. “A kid shouldn’t be forced to do anything he doesn’t want to do. We’re not major leaguers. We didn’t sign contracts saying we’ll do whatever they want to do. We just signed up to play baseball. It’s not like a job or anything.”
The Russell situation is unusual. Coaches frequently promote sophomores and sometimes freshmen to the varsity in all sports, but calls to a half dozen coaches couldn’t find one who ever had a player fight against a promotion.
“If you ask him to come up, the kid should be delighted,” Rockford Guilford baseball coach Cory Schrank said. “I’ve got four sophomores on this team. If I told them they had to go back down, they’d kill me.”
One of those sophomores, starting third baseman/pitcher Cody Scarpetta, said parents and the player should have a say in moving up.
“It’s about himself,” Scarpetta said. “If he wants to stay down, it should be his choice.”
But sophomore second baseman DaQuan Lockhart said: “It’s the coach’s decision. If he says you are ready to play at this level, that’s it. That’s what’s good for the team.”
Winnebago volleyball coach Kelley De Wulf calls parents and speaks to her players before moving any girl up.
“But I inform them more than I ask,” she said.
Machesney Park Harlem wrestling coach Tom Draheim said parents should only have a choice if they think the coach is putting their child “in harm’s way” because he is desperately trying to fill an open spot. In all other circumstances, he says you go where the coach tells you to go.
“The choice is to play or not to play,” Draheim said. “Once you say ‘I’m on the team,’ it’s the coach’s prerogative. Plain and simple, I’m the coach. You have to assume I know what’s right and what’s wrong and that I’m not trying to hurt the kid. It’s a team thing, not an individual thing.”
The Russells say that applies only to the specific team and level the player originally signs up for. They don’t like Crandall’s definition that all programs are part of the varsity level.
“He says once a player signs up, they become property of the athletic department in that school and can be moved up and down as they say,” Bubba Russell said. “That sounds like they own him. That irritated me a little bit. Well, that irritated me a lot.”
But other coaches agree with Crandall, saying a school’s various levels are interconnected.
“When you sign up with a high school team, you sign up with the entire program,” Rockford Boylan boys basketball coach Steve Goers said.
The Russells say Crandall accused them of “insubordination” when Brett refused to move up. “It’s either their way or you are gone,” said Brett’s mom, Bonnie Russell.
It would be Draheim’s way, too.
“I probably wouldn’t let him wrestle, either,” Draheim said.
Bubba and Bonnie Russell, who have both coached various youth teams, say this is nothing like a kid demanding to play a certain position.
“That’s apples to oranges,” Bonnie said. They say it’s simply a player and his parents deciding what’s best for him.
But Rochelle’s sports philosophy is the good of the team trumps the good of the individual.
“One of the real goals of team sports is to instill in kids the idea that at times you have to sacrifice your own individual goals and wants for the good of the team,” Crandall said. “There is a greater good involved than just what you get out of it. This lesson you learn in sports is a skill kids carry out into life. It’s good in your marriage. Good in your job. It makes you a better neighbor. You learn how to grow together as a group.”
Other coaches agree. Team comes first. Varsity is what matters; all other levels simply prepare players for varsity. But they make one exception: Players shouldn’t move up if their playing time will go drastically down.
Brett Russell’s parents said he wanted to stay with his friends.
“He’s played ball with these guys since he was 9 years old and they were second in the state,” Bonnie Russell said.
But Brett said he “didn’t want to play varsity at all” because he thought varsity coach Jim Ressler would use him strictly as a pitcher. He was told he would be the starting pitcher in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader on his first day on the varsity.
“If I went up there, I would probably sit out the second game,” said Russell, who also played first base on the sophomore team and was batting .460 with one home run. “He (Ressler) said I might play first, but I didn’t believe him at all.”
Russell said pitching one game a week “wouldn’t have been enough at all. I’m more of an everyday player.”
Guilford’s Schrank said: “I can see the kid’s standpoint from that angle. If you are going to bring him up, you have to play him on a regular basis.”
Winnebago’s De Wulf said: “I would never pull up a kid unless they are going to play a ton of time for me.” But that doesn’t always mean the same amount of time. She promoted a freshman this year who played three rotations a game at varsity rather than six at the freshman level.
“She thought it was the best thing that could ever happen,” De Wulf said. “But part of me sees this kid’s point. They want to get better as an overall player. But you’ve got to do what the team needs. Hopefully, you can find a happy middle ground. If not, I would grudgingly see it their way.”
Colleen Finn-Henze, Lanark Eastland’s girls basketball coach, calls refusing to move up to varsity “an ironic, interesting situation.” She also finds it illogical for people to assume a coach would call them up, then not play them much.
“You want them to play,” she said. “I would never move up a kid unless she is going to be a starter or the sixth or seventh man. It doesn’t seem logical to me. If I were the kid’s parents, I wouldn’t think that would be logical, either. … It almost does seem a little bit insubordinate to not at least give it a shot.”
It doesn’t feel insubordinate to Brett Russell. Just frustrating. And lonely.
Baseball is “a major part” of his life. “The only sport I’ve been very good at.” And now he’s off the Rochelle team. This summer, too. Rochelle High School coaches also run the town’s Mickey Mantle summer team and have told Brett he’s not welcome there this year. Brett said he might have to transfer to play baseball next year.
In the meantime, he sits.
“Coming home after school every day, having nothing to do, just sitting on my butt,” he said. “I like to play baseball. Now, I’m not even practicing. I’d love just to practice baseball now. Just take some swings. I have lots of time to do it. But I don’t have someone to pitch to me. Or even catch me so I can practice pitching.”
Contact: 815-987-1383; mtrowbridge@rrstar.com
What do you think
Does a player have the right to refuse to move up to varsity, or is he/she obligated to do what the coaches say for the good of the program?
Are there circumstances where this is OK?
And if a player refuses to move up, what is the proper punishment, if any?
