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Little League season ends; comments offered

To the editor:

The 2013 season of Little League Baseball has come to an end. As a grandparent attending my grandson’s first year playing in this league, I would like to take a moment to share some of my observations.

First and foremost, the improvement in the level of skill demonstrated by the kids from the beginning of the season until the last game ended was amazing and is truly a tribute to the overall time and commitment of coaches, assistants and parents.

I believe lessons learned at this level of sports such as honesty, sportsmanship, commitment, competitiveness and respect help to shape the character of our future athletes. Fortunately, most of the adults who had the opportunity to instill these values did a great job of “leading by example.”

Although the intent of this letter is to give kudos to all who volunteer their valuable time, I would be remiss in not calling out the few “adults” who consistently demonstrated behavior that was loud, rude, disrespectful and disruptive to other coaches, officials and fans. This display would be confusing and upsetting to any child who participated in the opening ceremonies or has ever had the opportunity to lead. I trust in God, I love my country, and respect its laws. I will play fair, and strive to win, but win or lose, I will always do my best.

Over the past 59 years I’ve been a player, official, a coach and a volunteer in some capacity and I know how well everyone in our community pulls together to provide wonderful experiences to all age groups. It is my hope that some of the things I witnessed this year were addressed and will not be tolerated in the future.

Last but not least: I would like to commend a member of our community who has dedicated countless hours planning, scheduling and coordinating games and events, maintaining the fields and graciously serving as a point of contact for both teams and parents. He has been tireless in his commitment to the youth in our community and deserves to know how much this means to the families who benefited from this gift. Joe Ughetto – thank you for a job well done.

John Sipe

Lewistown

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