Concerned Parent

Heather Cochrane
123 Main Street
Penticton, British Columbia,
V2A 3W1

March 8^th, 2012

Mr. Kleats
Central High School
123 Main Street,
Sportstown, British Columbia
V2A 1W3

Dear Mr. Kleats:

I am the mother of Paige Cochrane, who plays for your grade nine girls’ basketball team. I have attended a number of my daughter’s practices and games, and have been very impressed to see the girls practice so hard and work together so well as a team to come together and be very successful during games. I am very glad to have you coaching my daughter and many of her friends, even though it takes time out of your busy schedule. But there are just a few concerns some of the other parents and I have that I would like to bring to your attention.

I am aware of how difficult coaching a girls’ basketball team is, as I used to coach for many years back when my two eldest children were in high school, but I feel some aspects of your running of practices and games could be changed. I feel that there is too much emphasis placed on winning, for these girls are only in grade nine, and sports should still be about having fun, rather than primarily focused just on winning. On that note, some of the other parents have mentioned that they find you have a very stern voice whilst coaching our daughters, which we feel is unnecessary, and I ask if you would consider lowering your voice when coaching Paige.

I have heard you commend Paige on her outstanding skills and work ethic, and on multiple occasions she has been awarded the MVP after tournaments for her performance, and yet she does not receive a lot of playing time.  I would like to recommend equal playing time for these girls seeing as how they are still in grade nine and their league is not a very competitive one.

Paige has told me quite a number of times that you arrive after the girls have already started to warm-up and begin practicing, and then that for quite a while after, practices are often disorganized.  I, along with some of the other parents, have mulled this situation over, and we are willing to take turns to volunteer to help run the practices.  We would not take over all coaching duties, but we understand that you are very busy with other aspects of your life and that coaching is a big time commitment, and would like to make your job just slightly easier.  We are offering to arrive with our daughters slightly before practice is supposed to start, and help them warm-up, and get started with a few drills, to allow you a bit of extra time to get organized and plan drills for Paige and her teammates.

Thank you for your time in this matter, Mr. Kleats.  I await your response and look forward to possibly helping with your basketball team.

Sincerely,

            Heather Cochrane