Courier Covers CHS Sports News

The Claremont Courier had two articles this past Saturday on Claremont High School sports. The first was an article by Tony Krickl about baseball coach Mike Lee. Krickl's articles gave some details on the decision to not renew Lee's coaching contract (Lee will continue on as a PE teacher).

The other article, by Landus Rigsby, was about CHS hurdler Kori Carter, who as a sophomore won a state championship in the 300-meter hurdles. The article reported that Carter will be off to Poland to represent the US in the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) World Junior Championships, which will be held from July 8 to July 13:

Last Saturday’s USA Track & Field Junior Nationals was held at Ohio State University. At the event held in Columbus, Kori took 2nd overall in the 400-meter hurdles and placed 7th in the 100-meter hurdles (14.24).

The efforts of the CHS track and field standout earned her a place in the IAAF championships as a hurdler and also as part of a pool of US athletes that are eligible to run in the 4x400-meter relay. Now, instead of representing Claremont and representing the state of California, Kori now will represent the nation against competitors from other countries.

“I’m really excited,” Kori said. “I didn’t think I would make it there and didn’t think that I would even make the finals. It’s crazy because I was competing against girls who are in college. But after the prelims, I saw I could run with them.”

We should also note that the IAAF Junior category is for runners ages 18 and 19 but is open to athletes as young as 16 years old, so Carter, who will be a high school junior is really competing against hurdlers older and more experienced than herself.

Here is an interview with Carter after her 2nd place finish in Ohio:

CHS Baseball Update

We came across a relatively new blog by Claremont High School baseball parent Sid Robinson. Robinson blog is called Sid's Side, and its seems oriented primarily towards sports news, local and otherwise.

Robinson had a couple posts about some news we'd heard but haven't been able to confirm. According to Robinson's posts, CHS officials did not renew the coaching contract of CHS baseball coach Mike Lee.

Robinson wrote on June 12th:

Claremont High administrators will have some tough decisions to make regarding a new varsity baseball coach, since Mike Lee's contract was not renewed. Mike did a lot of good for the program, but it was a losing proposition for him from the start. In the long run, it probably wasn't a good fit for either side. He's a good guy and a decent coach, but probably better suited for a different situation where the expectations -- and personalities -- are different...

And on Friday, Robinson had a pretty candid and thoughtful take on the situation:

Let's hope it stays somewhat calm until the new coach arrives. The impression I get is that CHS and CUSD administrators are already looking for a replacement, but that they will publicly post the position and go through the search process. No word on when they hope to have a new coach on board, and it's unclear if they are looking for a baseball coach who will also be a teacher or coach in the school district. Lee coached PE and is reportedly returning to that role for one more year. I hope the new coach will continue the concept of assembling a real baseball program from top to bottom, and will bring together players and coaches from the varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams not only for practice, but to teach fundamentals and team goals. The thing that was missing -- and apparently has been missing for several years -- is a program that focuses on developing players through the ranks. For example, players at the freshman and junior varsity levels should get the kind of instruction that prepares them for what the coaches want to see at the varsity level. Practices need to be instructional and productive. That was certainly lacking at the freshman level this year. The team was successful, and won the Baseline League title, and the coach was a nice guy and a decent game manager, but the team's practices were not productive and the players didn't learn and develop the way they should. Aside from a handful of players who play for good coaches in the offseason, the freshman team was lacking in fundamental instruction. The overall program should be paying attention to players all the way down the line, so those kids will be ready to play at a higher level. All of the coaches throughout the program need to be on the same page with the same goals. My observation is that, while the players worked out together at the start of the year, that's where the common teaching techniques ended. There is a great coach in place at the JV level, and I hope Bob Smith stays on in that role.

Ho Hum

There is a reason that the Courier is a real newspaper, and the Insider is a bottom-feeding blog. The Courier actually checks out things before going to press; we don't.

This came over the transom this evening:

Hi there,

Generally love the site and am an avid follower......however, you are getting some bad information on the baseball issue. The meeting this evening was the normal Booster Club meeting and dealt with the routine issues. It was a small meeting and did not deal with issues related to the coach in any regard.

I am sure that some parents are probably not happy with the progress, or lack thereof, of the overall program....however, no uprising exists and no one is demanding Lee's head on the chopping block.

Anyway, thought you might want the straight scoop.

Can we at least keep using the "Step forward and man up" phrase? We really like that one.

The Empire Strikes Back

Escalation at Claremont High School


It's looking more and more as if the best show in town tonight will be the Claremont High School Baseball Booster Club meeting, at the high school library, this evening, April 28, at 6:00 p.m. As a matter of fact, the temperature of this meeting seems to be going up with each passing hour. It threatens to go thermonuclear.

We would go, but as a 97-pound weakling hiding behind a veil of anonymity, we know we would not be welcome and would be easily identified. Heck, as in most domestic disputes, both sides might gang up on us.

How does this sound for the start of an email from what appears to be a CHS staff member to a parent (again, we stress, we can't confirm with certainty that the email is from a CHS staff member, but it seems authentic; in any case, we will omit the name except to say it is not attributed to Coach Lee):

Dear Coward...you know who I am. Step forward and man up.

...It is a good thing you were not here when we made our run deep in the playoffs a few years ago...you would have been laughed out of the program for your comments and actions, not to mention that your son...would have a hard time adjusting, if he would have made the team at all.

...The difference, I guess, is the lack of backbone in how you raise your kids. That in itself is not wrong, don't mishear me...

It goes on. We can't say it gets worse. What we excerpt from just the first paragraph is pretty strong stuff when directed from a school employee to a parent. Is it our imagination, or did this staff member make a dig at the parent by bringing up the issue of the son's playing ability? Fortunately, the writer gets quickly back his main task, questioning this parent's ability to parent.

Stay tuned.

A Disturbance in the Force

Inside Baseball?
We are sensing ripples in the force and they appear to be emanating from a meeting scheduled tonight of the Claremont High School Baseball Booster Club. Booster Club President Nicole Troli may have her hands full dealing with team parents unhappy with coach Mike Lee. Lee came to Claremont last Fall amid some controversy, detailed here, here, and here.

There are rumblings of mental, emotional, and verbal abuse of the team's players. We don't know whether this has to do with the Pack's so-so season (the team is 4-7 in league play and under .500 overall), some kind of uber-drill-sergeant attitude on the part of Coach Lee, or whether it's over-protective Claremont parents. In our experience, winning makes tolerable a lot of things that in losing are blameworthy.

We do know that if we had failed to execute that easy double play, and had all 600 pounds of Coach Lee charging us from the dugout, we might expect more in the way of mental, emotional, and verbal abuse than an invitation to discuss the fundamentals of baseball over tea on Wednesday. (Don't believe the "600 pounds" part? See the Courier photo here.)

Though we know passions are running high on this matter, we have not heard a reprise of any of the more lurid charges (by Claremont standards) that were circulated last Fall from Mike Lee's previous employment, and certainly nothing going beyond those charges.

We will be watching and listening to see what comes of tonight's Booster Club meeting, now scheduled an hour early (to accommodate lengthy discussion?) for 6 p.m. Will there be a real foodfight? Or will it be a sleepy civil Claremont meeting with behavioral norms and everything?

UPDATE: CHS Baseball

CHS baseball team parents felt comfortable backing head coach Mike Lee last week after meeting with Coach Lee and Claremont Unified School District (CUSD) representatives.

The story, though, hasn't completely faded away. Will Bigham has an article the Daily Bulletin that says that not only did Coach Lee resign his prior job at Westlake High School after complaints from parents over text messages he sent to his players, but he was also dismissed from the job he had before Westlake:

Lee worked from 2001 to 2003 as head coach at Newbury Park High School, and was fired after several parents complained about what they considered aggressive and inappropriate behavior by Lee toward players.

Lee responded to the firing by filing a defamation lawsuit against seven parents in 2004.

According to Bigham's article:

[Lee] tried unsuccessfully to find a coaching job for the 2004 season, and in court documents blamed his inability to find work on parents' "systematic campaign of publishing defamatory, slanderous and libelous comments" about him.

Two of the plaintiffs settled with Lee, the action against [parent Scott] Carpenter was dismissed, and Charles and Kathleen Fick successfully had the suit thrown out, said Paul Smigliani, their attorney in the case.

The article goes on to say that "the overwhelming majority of [Claremont team] parents left satisfied with Lee's answers, according to several parents who attended the meeting."

The matter was also a subject of a letter to the Claremont Courier by Marguerite Raybould, who didn't seem so much upset with Coach Lee as with Claremont Unified School District officials.

CUSD Coach Issue

In other, non-censorship news, both the Los Angeles Times and the Daily Bulletin reported this week that Claremont High School baseball coach Mike Lee resigned from his last job in Ventura County as the result of allegedly inappropriate text messages he sent between himself and his players.

Lee denied any impropriety in the messages.

Lee, who last year coached baseball at Westlake High School and who taught at Newbury Park High in the Conejo Valley Unified School District, resigned the Westlake job last May. According to the two newspaper articles, Lee had told Claremont administrators he had resigned at Westlake due to personal health issues.

The Times article reported that Devon Freitas, assistant superintendent for human resources for Claremont Unified School District (CUSD), said that he had received "'glowing letters of recommendation' from [Westlake Principal Ron] Lipari and from former Newbury Park High Principal Max Beaman...."

But, the Times article also stated that Lipari said no one from CUSD ever contacted him during the time Lee was interviewing for a job here.

The Times report goes on to say that Lee's official reason for resigning the Westlake post was due to health reasons. However, the health issues seemed to be the result of complaints by parents over Lee's text-messaging some of his players.

The Times obtained copies of memos from the Conejo Valley Unified School District, and they showed:

Lipari's heavily redacted memo to Newbury Park Principal Athol Wong detailed meetings between Lee and Westlake administrators.

The first came on March 19 at Lee's request. Lee said a parent had told him to resign or he would go to the district and school authorities with e-mails and text messages to his son, the memo said.

Lee said he never inappropriately touched the player,Lipari's memo said. Lee explained to Passalacqua and another administrator that he had a "father-son relationship" with the player and acknowledged saying "Love You" in text messages, Lipari wrote.

Passalacqua reminded Lee that he had been told to stop text-messaging all players. Lee said he had stopped, except for one player. Lee said he "felt he did not do anything wrong and wanted to keep his job," the memo said.

Lee had reportedly sent another text message to one student after he had agreed to stop the messages, and the Times article quoted a memo regarding a March 20, 2007, meeting where:

"Mike said he realized the seriousness of his actions, and he admitted to defying our directive to not text-message or call individual players," Lipari wrote. "Since Mike admitted to defying our administrative directive, and due to the seriousness of the text messages, I agreed that it would be in everyone's best interest if he resigned."

The Bulletin article indicated that CUSD officials will meet next week to "discuss what future role Lee will have in the district" and that Lee had voluntarily agreed to not send text messages to students here.