NWLL baseball scandal

[Anonymous]

Sounds like many little leagues have their issues. That's why the board is so important. It should be constantly refreshed with parents of active players. The players are who they should serve. 10 year board terms are ridiculous! Organizing around a random good player as the key to winning ignores the hard work that needs to go into preparing players and teams for success and sends the wrong message to players of all abilities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

[Anonymous]

All this drama over 12 yr olds at the peak of their bb career. Wait till the big field parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

Get a grip. There was an issue with one kid and the parents and leadership are a problem. Admittedly an entrenched problem. However, the team was almost completely kids that have played together in NW for years and they deserved their success. Kids don’t need to hang their heads for parents acting badly. They are kids!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

Get a grip. There was an issue with one kid and the parents and leadership are a problem. Admittedly an entrenched problem. However, the team was almost completely kids that have played together in NW for years and they deserved their success. Kids don’t need to hang their heads for parents acting badly. They are kids!

Do you really this was the one and only time this was done?
The document called out at least 2 kids - I did not get through it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

Get a grip. There was an issue with one kid and the parents and leadership are a problem. Admittedly an entrenched problem. However, the team was almost completely kids that have played together in NW for years and they deserved their success. Kids don’t need to hang their heads for parents acting badly. They are kids!

No one has said the kids should hang their heads or that this reflects poorly on them.

There were 2 kids on this summers team that weren't previously on the team and another kid that presumably would have been except his waiver was bungled.

Those 2 (or 3) kids took slots that presumably would have gone to a kid who'd actually been playing in NWLL for 6 or 7 seasons and not to a kid attending a private school that was not even in boundary for NWLL.

So it isn't just the other DC Little Leagues that may have been cheated - it's long time NWLL kids whose slot was taken by someone recruited from elsewhere - not sure about the two kids who were squeezed in but the kid whose waiver wasn't approved doesn't even live in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

Get a grip. There was an issue with one kid and the parents and leadership are a problem. Admittedly an entrenched problem. However, the team was almost completely kids that have played together in NW for years and they deserved their success. Kids don’t need to hang their heads for parents acting badly. They are kids!

No one has said the kids should hang their heads or that this reflects poorly on them.

There were 2 kids on this summers team that weren't previously on the team and another kid that presumably would have been except his waiver was bungled.

Those 2 (or 3) kids took slots that presumably would have gone to a kid who'd actually been playing in NWLL for 6 or 7 seasons and not to a kid attending a private school that was not even in boundary for NWLL.

So it isn't just the other DC Little Leagues that may have been cheated - it's long time NWLL kids whose slot was taken by someone recruited from elsewhere - not sure about the two kids who were squeezed in but the kid whose waiver wasn't approved doesn't even live in DC.

This happens every year — kids coming in for 12s from other LLs who may go to school inzone. It happened our 12s year in Cap City and agree it was heartbreaking. One kid who came in switched private schools to be eligible for our team because it was clear the team was the best in DC and would be going to Bristol. It’s legal, and an awful practice, but it is common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My admittedly limited understanding of waiver players is that they’re ineligible for all-star teams for the year they move over, so that kid shouldn’t have been eligible in 2022 but could’ve been eligible in 2023 (if still of age).

+1

We had a kid like that in our league…he had to get a waiver and move to our league at 11 (playing a regular spring season with no AS eligibility) to be eligible for AS at 12.

Personally, I do not think waivers for AS should be allowed at all. They aren’t worth all the trouble (and potential for abuse) they cause….the school attendance eligibility rule is generous enough as it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Media, PA, so this thread just made me even more excited that Media beat NWLL to make it to the LLWS!

Delco vs The World!

It’s still about the kids — the NW team did great and should be proud.

The problem is that the coach is a cheat.
The rules do not apply.
So the team is always questionable.

Any of current players have "waivers"? Are they legit?

Get a grip. There was an issue with one kid and the parents and leadership are a problem. Admittedly an entrenched problem. However, the team was almost completely kids that have played together in NW for years and they deserved their success. Kids don’t need to hang their heads for parents acting badly. They are kids!

Except that if everything was done above board the one star kid in question would have played for the team that NWLL beat in a close championship game. So it was not necessarily “deserved”. It was manufactured.

[Anonymous]

I did not know that the head of NWLL worked for DC.
This makes a lot more sense now when the neighborhood voices were shut out of renovation plans for Turtle Park.

[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.

The letter says a lot more than that. Is says two coaches blatantly and repeatedly lied and provided false information and stated their players were eligible when they clearly weren’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

Yes. I couldn’t help but read it. I’m a lawyer so maybe that justifies the time i spent. All I kept thinking was “ we’ve have all lost our f’ ing minds. These are 12-year olds.” Great example of how adults manage to ruin sports for our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

One problem is in the long-serving senior staff in control of DCLL (and NWLL), which provides all of the space necessary for "confusion" over waiver requests and approvals. Once a season has ended, players and parents move on, the arguments are largely abandoned, and the un-published paperwork lost; this is an unusual case of parents being unwilling to relent, and it would be productive for the community to listen. That these were two NWLL division commissioners is staggering, as is--as noted--the absence of 6 NWLL Board Members from the response.

If the eligibility issues are pursued, there is a clear pattern of behavior with NWLL and its President.

For example, in 2022, a player who had continuously resided and attended school in a different DC LL territory since at least kindergarten, and who--most importantly--played on that league's 2021 10-12 All Stars was surprisingly granted a waiver to play for NWLL in 2022. That player was on Davenport's Majors team in Spring, 2022, and was on the NWLL team that won DC and proceeded to the LL regionals.

The player's father and the President of NWLL are long-time colleagues as employees of DC DPR, and this was the second child to have switched registration to NWLL for 12U. (the first reportedly received a school-based waiver that appeared legitimate to all, and while disappointing to some, was not controversial.)

To the LL community that was aware of the situation, this was as clear a case of poaching as it could be--there was no school change, no residence change, and no season/season registration grandfathering.

Why the LL president (or the CCLL president, whose league lost to NWLL in the championship game) did not pursue a challenge is a question one should pose to them. Maybe they did and it was denied. Maybe it was abandoned as futile. The involved communities are in the dark, because the waivers are not made available, and the entire process operates under the implied (at least) threat of retaliation--as can be seen in the present dust-up.

A little sunlight here would go a long way toward ensuring the integrity of DC Little League for benefit of the kids, rather than for a handful of adults playing fantasy baseball with 12 year-olds.

+1. And if there is collusion between the player's parent and the President of NWLL, this is made even worse by the fact they are current or former DPR employees as the above notes.

[Anonymous]

Here’s a solution that might help everything: merge CCLL and NWLL, form new board, then maybe a DC team has a chance to advance beyond Bristol!