The Fall of El Monte National League Leadership (Full Length Story

As a concerned father who is speaking out not only for his son, but for all of his fellow players who played alongside him on the El Monte National Little League (EMNLL) for the past three seasons and is devastated with the lack of leadership that the Governing body of our little league has shown. My wife and I have been parent volunteers, photographer and team parents for these past three seasons and are now seriously cautioning our return to the league and advocating to other families to do the same. The lack of leadership and safety is alarming to say the least.

June 10, 2016; EMNLL Closing Ceremonies, a frightening incident occurred and was witnessed by little league players and families, with no regard to safety, well-being, and the memory of the 2016 closing ceremonies for EMNLL will forever be tarnish by this disgrace and lack of protection by the EMNLL board members. The next indicated step by the board members should have been to contact the local authorities, which they failed in doing.

An eye witness account: “On Friday, June 10th was our closing ceremonies at our park. As, the teams and players gather in the outfield to prepare for the hand out of trophies, a disgruntled coach from another team exchanged words with another coach and punched him knocking him to the ground. The coach that was hit; landed on players sitting on the grass and the disgruntled coach began to kick him. Please keep in mind that this happened in the outfield while players from t-ball to Juniors were waiting to receive their end of the season trophies. Coaches that were nearby attempted to get the “disgruntled coach” off of whom he was attacking and the board members walked the “disgruntled coach” to the street curb. The “disgruntled coach” did not leave the premises, though he waited for closing ceremonies to end to continue harassing the winning team coach.”

Another eye witness account states, “The incident that took place at Lambert Park involving one of our coaches, We have known our coach for the past 8 years, various times he has coached my son and he has been a tremendous help on my child’s baseball development. The unfortunate event that took place this past Friday which took us all by surprise since we know that coach did NOT start the brawl that escalated to physical contact from another coaches’ frustration since his child did not make it to an All-Star team. The frustrated coach showed his mean persona by attacking our coach and punching him to the floor in front of nothing but little league baseball players ages 4 to 17 years old including my own boys. Our coach did not attack the frustrated coach back! As a parent I do not understand why our coach has been banned from coaching my sons team for the upcoming TOC (Tournament of Champions) event, when this kids have been working hand on hand with their coach. I feel personally that the board members from our El Monte National Little League did not handle this situation accordingly since my son's coach was the one attacked! I’m kindly asking to please reinstate our coach to our Major League team for the upcoming events.”

The state of EMNLL is in disarray, neglect; and without qualified leadership in place. For the past three seasons the board members have been nothing but an utter disappointment and disgrace with total lack of regard for the well-being of the children playing for the league. I have been a witness to foul language, F-Bombs being dropped in front of the players, arguments between board members while children are in front of them. As an example I was taking pictures at the season end ceremonies while current President Eddie Martinez and Vice President Jason Peterson were in a cursing exchange discussing other coaches all the while players were near them.

This is not the first time this has happened. During the 2015 season my wife had the unfortunate incident where Board members were blatantly using profanity in front of an autistic little girl and cursing with other coaches. This behavior is unacceptable and should not be tolerated, period. The current Board is so secretive and closed off, they are not transparent. This Board has the attitude that this is "Their league" and others are not allowed to play in it. This is in direct conflict with the intent of what little league is all about. The position on the Board does not come with "special privileges" but rather additional responsibilities. If they would consider the league as a whole instead of stroking their own egos, we would have a VERY competitive season and All Star team; as there is a lot of talent that is not getting the recognition they deserve. The current Board of El Monte National Little League needs to be removed from their positions, if for none other reason that they have lost sight of the true purpose of Little League, THE KIDS. A Minors coach is quoted stating “I don’t like the way he (the President) favored people. If he knew you than you were treated better than the people he didn’t know” and a AAA & Minors coach is quoted “In my opinion things here at Lambert aren’t fun anymore, there are too many different groups of parents against each other and that being some of the board members having their own click. We need to make things fun again and remember that we are all here for the kids and not ourselves. These years of the player’s life should be learning how to be competitive in the right ways and learning how to win or lose along with making great memories.” This will not happen under current leadership.

The 2016 ending ceremonies were a disaster, disorganized and unpatriotic. The board did not have the patriotic decency to raise the flag and have it ready for the Pledge of Allegiance. Coming from the military and Boy Scouts I was ashamed of this disregard for our national past time.

Awareness needs to be brought forth, because coaches, parents, team parents and volunteers are tired of the politics within our current board and want change now. A vote of no confidence in our current leadership and a new open election for the President and Vice President to be replaced. This among other issues our field is a disgrace and with the monies taken in from sign-ups from the past three years, there have been no repairs, no field work, no new score boards, and bull pens are in shambles. Conversations have taken place with many of the old “timers” from this park and they are as well ashamed with how it has been run and not taken care of.

The behaviors that have been exhibited are unbecoming of a league officers and to prevent any further degradation of our little league, they need to be removed from office. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing…and we the parents and coaches of El Monte National Little League will not stand and do nothing. Little League is about community. It’s about neighbors socializing with neighbors. It’s about kids playing with their friends. It’s comfortable, and for me, my son, and my wife, Little League should feel like family. This is not the feeling at El Monte National Little League.

Being a concerned parent and unsure for the safety of my child and that of those children under your leadership I now have no option but to publish my article in which the board presently has a copy of. Since the board refuses to do what is best for the children of the City of El Monte; I will be their voice. The violence that was witnessed by our children and by the board not protecting their safety so that a “friend” could be protected is an atrocity.

Another concerned parent writes: I am a parent volunteer for the El Monte National Little League. This season, I served as the team mom for my son’s t-ball team. I am writing this letter because I feel that there are several issues you need to know about regarding the way this league is ran.

Scheduling of games:

This year I had a lot of parent complaints regarding the game schedule. At registration time, we are told

that practices will be held during the week and games will be played on Saturdays. We start the season

with assigned practice days from the league. This year our practices were held on Monday/Wednesday.

There was not an issue with that; the issue arose when we were handed the game schedule. There were

weeks when we only practiced with a 2-week no game gap and other weeks were busy with a game on

Tuesday/Thursday, practice Monday/Wednesday, and no game Saturday. Many parents were upset that

we did not have many Saturday games. When this issue was brought up to the team mom coordinator

and secretary their response was, “Don’t have practice”! As a t-baller, I feel it is essential to have as

much practice as possible to be able to perform well during games. I do not feel that was an appropriate

response from board members.

Opening day and fundraisers:

There is a carnival put on by the teams of the league on Opening Day. The idea is wonderful. This is a

time of excitement when the baseball community of the city of El Monte comes together to prepare and

welcome the upcoming season. This is a way for each team to raise funds for team expenses such as

team sweaters, end of the year team parties, and/or equipment. The issue that I have is that the league

takes 20% of each team’s profit, not taking into consideration that some teams put out money and

expect to be reimbursed through the fundraiser. Many parents were concerned with this and wanted to

know what the 20% is used for since they take money from about 15 teams. As a team mom, I took

these concerns to the board and again I received a response which I felt was inappropriate and

unprofessional. When I questioned the team mom coordinator about why they take money from the

teams and explained the reimbursement idea she responded with, “You should have asked your parents

for more donations”! I gave her facts about our low-income city and she said, “You know baseball is

expensive and they know what they signed up for. Next time don’t put up a stand”! None of her

answers answered my questions about why and where the money they take goes towards. If I saw good

things being done for the kids, we as parents would not complain.

There was another incident with the President of the league. I was in the snack bar turning in pancake

money. A parent came over to turn in her money as well. She was only able to sell 2 of the mandatory 5

we were to sell. She explained her case and his response was, “Have your son stand outside of the

market to sell the rest”. If these tickets were not paid in full, the league was holding pictures and

trophies from these players. This is unfair because when the $100 for registration is paid, we are told

that the player receives a hat and jersey, a trophy at the end of the season and a $15 picture package.

They should not hold anyone’s pictures for not being able to do an extra fundraiser if registration is

paid.

Voting:

As a result of another unhappy year with the direction of this park, I was interested in becoming more

involved to be part of change for this league and my city. I am also employed with the El Monte Cit

School District and I see many of these kids. The best opportunity for this is election time. The board is

not very good at spreading the news or updating people with enough time of certain events. Voting was

one of these events. Because I was a team mom I received a text message on June 10 th at 11 am asking

me to inform parents of 2017 open board nominations. Thru that message, I was informed that board

nominations were going to be open until 4 pm (5 hours to put in a nomination via email with no prior

notice of this event). Voting was to take place from 5-7 pm, while Closing Ceremony was scheduled a

6 pm. The issue here was the lack of notice for this important event. I feel that there is a big lack of

communication between the board and the parents.

Little League is a non-profit organization for the kids whose mission is to “promote, develop,

supervise, and voluntarily assist in all lawful ways, the interest of those who will participate in Little

League Baseball”. After reviewing the Little League philosophy and how a Little League should

operate, I believe the El Monte National Little League Board does not honor and abide by these rules

and regulations. I would like these issues to be addressed and resolved.

We need change at the park and it begins with leadership. I am the voice of the concerned parents, these have been ongoing issues and the league loses players each year to near-by cities. I look out for the best interest of our children and want only the best for them.

Their close mindedness, prejudicial behavior and out right disregard for our children's safety for failing in their duties to contact the proper authorities and protect our children leaves me no choice but to question the boards abilities to govern this sacred institution of El Monte National Little League which has been the gem of El Monte for over 4 decades. We; the families of El Monte National Little League need to bring back what was once the luster of El Monte and make this park into what it used to be not just for our children but for their grandchildren for more decades to come.