NWLL baseball scandal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The letter explains all the waiver issues at great length for anyone who cares to read. There are criteria for granting a waiver and a process that needs to be followed if a player is eligible under the criteria. According to the letter there were a number of cases where players did not meet the criteria, the process was not followed, or both. And when other board members asked for documentation or explanations they were not provided. These are all allegations at this point but this is what the letter says.

Have President Ricky Davenport, Pete Robinson and/or Vice President Paul Donnellan responded to the letter yet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did anyone else get the 46 page long document from some of the board outlining allegations of cheating, financial malfeasance, and other crazy stuff from others on the board? I have never read anything so nutty emailed to all participants in a rec league. Wondering if anyone can verify any of the allegations.

Is it literally 46 pages?

[Anonymous]

Is it weird that this is only coming out AFTER the team was eliminated?

[Anonymous]

It was literally 46 pages. Written kind of like a legal affidavit. And no response from rest of board yet, but I have heard they are planning to respond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was literally 46 pages. Written kind of like a legal affidavit. And no response from rest of board yet, but I have heard they are planning to respond.

Feel bad for the long-term NWLL kids who lost their roster spots and the other DC teams who might have made it to regionals. They were robbed of some amazing memories and experiences. Adults behaving badly…

[Anonymous]

Here is the response from the rest of the board that was sent out today: We write in response to an unauthorized and inappropriate letter sent earlier this week to the NWLL community. We represent the undersigned current Board members.

At a time when we should be celebrating the historic success of the league’s summer teams and the continued development of players across the league, we are instead faced with unfounded allegations, misleading statements, and personal attacks on league volunteers. The characterizations in the letter are inaccurate. Worse still, the letter identifies and includes information about individual players (12-year-olds) and their families, an egregious violation of their privacy and trust in our league.

The league has processes in place to address and resolve issues as they arise. In fact, the issues presented in the nearly 50 page document were raised months ago, some last year, and have been discussed at length with the Board, Little League International (LLI), members of the NWLL community and voted on by the Board when necessary.

The Board has taken the allegations seriously. When legitimate issues have been raised, they have been addressed. Rather than accept these outcomes (including eligibility determinations made by LLI), the same claims continue to be rehashed.

Ultimately, we are a Board of volunteers and strive first and foremost to provide a welcoming, inclusive, nurturing environment for our kids that fosters teamwork, friendship, sportsmanship, citizenship, and fun. Many of us have donated decades of service to NWLL, and all of us put the well-being of the children we serve over wins or losses in games.

We will continue to routinely take a fresh look at our internal policies to see if anything can be improved upon and we will address them in a positive and productive way to improve our league and its operations. We will continue to serve our kids, celebrate our achievements, and work together to become even stronger in the years to come.

If you have additional questions or would like additional information, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].


Signed,

Rick Bielke

Ricky Davenport

Paul Donnellan

Joe Dyson

Nicole Francis

Ted Koopersmith

Neha Misra

Molly Quigley

Pete Robinson

Katherine Rossi

John Sage

Redmond Walsh

Emily Wander

[Anonymous]

This is why no one plays baseball anymore. Too many corrupt loser dads trying to be the king of something out there. Go play soccer or some other sport. Baseball has been in the decline for decades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the response from the rest of the board that was sent out today: We write in response to an unauthorized and inappropriate letter sent earlier this week to the NWLL community. We represent the undersigned current Board members.

At a time when we should be celebrating the historic success of the league’s summer teams and the continued development of players across the league, we are instead faced with unfounded allegations, misleading statements, and personal attacks on league volunteers. The characterizations in the letter are inaccurate. Worse still, the letter identifies and includes information about individual players (12-year-olds) and their families, an egregious violation of their privacy and trust in our league.

The league has processes in place to address and resolve issues as they arise. In fact, the issues presented in the nearly 50 page document were raised months ago, some last year, and have been discussed at length with the Board, Little League International (LLI), members of the NWLL community and voted on by the Board when necessary.

The Board has taken the allegations seriously. When legitimate issues have been raised, they have been addressed. Rather than accept these outcomes (including eligibility determinations made by LLI), the same claims continue to be rehashed.

Ultimately, we are a Board of volunteers and strive first and foremost to provide a welcoming, inclusive, nurturing environment for our kids that fosters teamwork, friendship, sportsmanship, citizenship, and fun. Many of us have donated decades of service to NWLL, and all of us put the well-being of the children we serve over wins or losses in games.

We will continue to routinely take a fresh look at our internal policies to see if anything can be improved upon and we will address them in a positive and productive way to improve our league and its operations. We will continue to serve our kids, celebrate our achievements, and work together to become even stronger in the years to come.

If you have additional questions or would like additional information, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].


Signed,

Rick Bielke

Ricky Davenport

Paul Donnellan

Joe Dyson

Nicole Francis

Ted Koopersmith

Neha Misra

Molly Quigley

Pete Robinson

Katherine Rossi

John Sage

Redmond Walsh

Emily Wander

WOW !! How passive aggressive. Such a non-response. You should have just written - we can do what we want because we are volunteers. I pity the players and truly hope they can find a better organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the response from the rest of the board that was sent out today: We write in response to an unauthorized and inappropriate letter sent earlier this week to the NWLL community. We represent the undersigned current Board members.

At a time when we should be celebrating the historic success of the league’s summer teams and the continued development of players across the league, we are instead faced with unfounded allegations, misleading statements, and personal attacks on league volunteers. The characterizations in the letter are inaccurate. Worse still, the letter identifies and includes information about individual players (12-year-olds) and their families, an egregious violation of their privacy and trust in our league.

The league has processes in place to address and resolve issues as they arise. In fact, the issues presented in the nearly 50 page document were raised months ago, some last year, and have been discussed at length with the Board, Little League International (LLI), members of the NWLL community and voted on by the Board when necessary.

The Board has taken the allegations seriously. When legitimate issues have been raised, they have been addressed. Rather than accept these outcomes (including eligibility determinations made by LLI), the same claims continue to be rehashed.

Ultimately, we are a Board of volunteers and strive first and foremost to provide a welcoming, inclusive, nurturing environment for our kids that fosters teamwork, friendship, sportsmanship, citizenship, and fun. Many of us have donated decades of service to NWLL, and all of us put the well-being of the children we serve over wins or losses in games.

We will continue to routinely take a fresh look at our internal policies to see if anything can be improved upon and we will address them in a positive and productive way to improve our league and its operations. We will continue to serve our kids, celebrate our achievements, and work together to become even stronger in the years to come.

If you have additional questions or would like additional information, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].


Signed,

Rick Bielke

Ricky Davenport

Paul Donnellan

Joe Dyson

Nicole Francis

Ted Koopersmith

Neha Misra

Molly Quigley

Pete Robinson

Katherine Rossi

John Sage

Redmond Walsh

Emily Wander

It's telling that the other 6 or 7 Board members declined to participate in this farce.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is willing to say anything - everyone knows.
And it is a fantastic message to teach our kids.
Yeah - everyone knows _________ does not live here or go to school here - but we want to win.

I’m pretty sure the seven other little leagues in DC would have quickly said something if this were remotely true. If a talented player magically appears on a 12U tournament roster after not playing at the 10U or 11U levels there will be questions.

Not sure of NWLL, but a lot of Maryland teams have players magically appear for 12U because they only played travel ball 9U+, then go back to LL to try to make the tournament, LLWS. In NoVa, the travel ball teams don't get field permits unless the kids also play local LL in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is willing to say anything - everyone knows.
And it is a fantastic message to teach our kids.
Yeah - everyone knows _________ does not live here or go to school here - but we want to win.

I’m pretty sure the seven other little leagues in DC would have quickly said something if this were remotely true. If a talented player magically appears on a 12U tournament roster after not playing at the 10U or 11U levels there will be questions.

Not sure of NWLL, but a lot of Maryland teams have players magically appear for 12U because they only played travel ball 9U+, then go back to LL to try to make the tournament, LLWS. In NoVa, the travel ball teams don't get field permits unless the kids also play local LL in the spring.

This isn’t true for all NOVA teams. I know multiple travel teams where kids don’t need to also play LL.

Having said that, I agree that LL is ruthless and totally political. Glad my son is done with it.

[Anonymous]

Could someone post the original 46 page letter? Former NWLL family, surprised at this (…but not surprised).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live out of the area but our area LL team is going to the WS and the amount of drama involved in the lead up to it, including initial team selection, all-star team selection, etc. was ridiculous. There are always shady boundary allegations and I am 100% certain kids on the roster whose actual residences are outside the boundaries are using grandparents’ addresses. That seems to have replaced birth date/certificate drama as the ever-brewing scandal around us. The “looking the other way because they want their kids to be chosen” phenomenon is real.

Our LL is run by corrupt dads. I’m still mad because we were given the option for a season refund in 2020. I asked for it. They kept it anyway and said they wouldn’t be issuing refunds after all.

Yep. My kid was on a team that made it to regionals (they lost and are out now) and there were kids on the roster that don’t meet either the residential or school attendance requirements. We were told they got a “waiver” and did not dare ask further (crossing “those dads” would come back on my kid for sure). And yep- we kept our mouths shut and looked the other way- but we don’t and never have held coaching or board positions either. That was just the tip of the iceberg- so much BS. The drama was unreal and I am so sooo glad little league is over. The board raised an absolutely enormous sum on gofundme to “pay for team and family travel” - and families didn’t see a dime of it. They did pay for some of the kids meals and transportation with it but 2/3 of it went unspent and back into the league fund. Whole thing was unreal and incredibly expensive. We don’t need the $ but many of the families were counting on it. I could go on and on, but don’t want to put myself. People knock travel ball, but LL is SO much worse. When it is bad, it is really really bad. I’m left disgusted by the entire experience.

does your kid's team rhyme with "MCLL"?

Funny, was going to say that. Wait until this poster gets to high school travel and showcasing. Expensive is an understatement! But agree LL drama is like nothing else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is willing to say anything - everyone knows.
And it is a fantastic message to teach our kids.
Yeah - everyone knows _________ does not live here or go to school here - but we want to win.

I’m pretty sure the seven other little leagues in DC would have quickly said something if this were remotely true. If a talented player magically appears on a 12U tournament roster after not playing at the 10U or 11U levels there will be questions.

Not sure of NWLL, but a lot of Maryland teams have players magically appear for 12U because they only played travel ball 9U+, then go back to LL to try to make the tournament, LLWS. In NoVa, the travel ball teams don't get field permits unless the kids also play local LL in the spring.

Yes, kids come only for 12s in NWLL. Has been this way for decades. Legal, and just the way it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the response from the rest of the board that was sent out today: We write in response to an unauthorized and inappropriate letter sent earlier this week to the NWLL community. We represent the undersigned current Board members.

At a time when we should be celebrating the historic success of the league’s summer teams and the continued development of players across the league, we are instead faced with unfounded allegations, misleading statements, and personal attacks on league volunteers. The characterizations in the letter are inaccurate. Worse still, the letter identifies and includes information about individual players (12-year-olds) and their families, an egregious violation of their privacy and trust in our league.

The league has processes in place to address and resolve issues as they arise. In fact, the issues presented in the nearly 50 page document were raised months ago, some last year, and have been discussed at length with the Board, Little League International (LLI), members of the NWLL community and voted on by the Board when necessary.

The Board has taken the allegations seriously. When legitimate issues have been raised, they have been addressed. Rather than accept these outcomes (including eligibility determinations made by LLI), the same claims continue to be rehashed.

Ultimately, we are a Board of volunteers and strive first and foremost to provide a welcoming, inclusive, nurturing environment for our kids that fosters teamwork, friendship, sportsmanship, citizenship, and fun. Many of us have donated decades of service to NWLL, and all of us put the well-being of the children we serve over wins or losses in games.

We will continue to routinely take a fresh look at our internal policies to see if anything can be improved upon and we will address them in a positive and productive way to improve our league and its operations. We will continue to serve our kids, celebrate our achievements, and work together to become even stronger in the years to come.

If you have additional questions or would like additional information, feel free to contact us at [e-mail].


Signed,

Rick Bielke

Ricky Davenport

Paul Donnellan

Joe Dyson

Nicole Francis

Ted Koopersmith

Neha Misra

Molly Quigley

Pete Robinson

Katherine Rossi

John Sage

Redmond Walsh

Emily Wander

It's telling that the other 6 or 7 Board members declined to participate in this farce.

Agree, assuming that the other 6 or 7 Board members are voting members of the Board. Additionally, Rico Bailey is noted as the Administrator of the DC Little League Organization which oversee all of the Little Leagues in DC. Has Rico responded or engaged in any way?