Few Players Equals No Softball Season

Melissa Terry

Grady girls have only one sport to play this fall.

Two days into the school year, Athletic Director Coach Douglas Slade announced that both the softball and volleyball players would not have official teams for the 1999-2000 school year, a loss that disappointed many.

"It's really not fair," Erin Medernach, junior, exclaimed.

Citing lack of participation as the reason, Slade decided that under the circumstances it would be better to cancel both teams until next year, although "it was a tough decision."

"Coach Slade has a lot on his plate and made a decision that was in the best interest of Grady athletics," science teacher and volleyball head coach, Mrs. Sharon Mercer, said.

"I had to make it and I stand by that decision," Coach Slade explained to parents and students at a recent Grady Athletics Booster Club meeting on August 26.

Several senior softball players who attended the meeting, including Erin Kirshtein and Courtney Wilkes, were strongly disappointed by the elimination of the girls' fall sports teams.

"I don't feel the administration is handling this well," Wilkes said frowning. Kirshtein and Wilkes saw this as their last chance to play varsity softball for Grady.

However, not all hope is lost for Grady softball players. Medernach and the parents of various softball players took the initiative to organize a meeting with head of athletics for Atlanta Public Schools (APS,) Dr. Eddie Henderson. The decision from the meeting was to begin an "intramural softball team until next year. We just need participation," Coach Slade said. This will give interested players a chance to practice skills with other Grady team players and prepare for fast-pitch softball which will begin next August.

As for intramural volleyball, no major decisions have been made. "We [volleyball players] were told that there weren't enough people interested to begin an intramural season, but I knew of plenty that wanted to play," Sarah Davis, junior, said.

Unfortunately, most of the interested players were this year's freshmen, who weren't aware of what was needed to be done for registration.

For Grady to have any kind of sports team registered with the state, all athletes must have their necessary paperwork, including insurance and physicals, completed and turned into Coach Slade at least two weeks prior to the practice season. When this is done, he must then submit the team rosters to Lakewood, where all APS game dates are scheduled.

Since fall teams are more difficult to organize than winter and spring sports, the athletic department encouraged fall teams to have all paperwork completed early to avoid conflicting summer schedules among coaches and players. "Before school was out last year, I contacted coaches and asked them to contact the players to get vacation schedules," Slade said.

In the cases of softball and volleyball, most of the athletes were not signed up ahead of time. That made it difficult for the teams to meet over the summer or get ready for the start of the season. Coaches noted that response to phone calls was minimal.

"We only had one [softball] practice two weeks before school started and I was only one of three [players who came]," senior Erin Kirshtein added.

As a result, it came down to forfeiting the first few games, for which the school would be fined, or cutting the seasons altogether.