The wrong recipient won Coach of the Year

Any high school coach will tell you that disgruntled parents are his biggest headache. Some parents are critical of their child's role on the team, while others complain about their child's lack of playing time or not even making the team.

Parents often claim that politics or favoritism are involved in the decision-making process, which, of course, every coach denies.

But the baseball coaches in the Marmonte League cannot deny that politics, favoritism or some other hidden agenda was behind the snubbing of one their own while selecting their Coach of the Year.

The Marmonte League has an excellent reputation as a tough, highly competitive league for baseball, and it has produced California Interscholastic Federation champions and many players who have gone on to play both college and professional baseball.

Unfortunately, the integrity of the league's coaches is apparently not equal to the high level of play.

Scott Deck of Agoura was voted Coach of the Year by the eight baseball coaches in the Marmonte League, and in truth, he deserved to be at least considered for the award. After all, his Agoura Chargers team was the preseason favorite to win the league championship, and for a time was ranked No. 1 in the entire USA. Coach Deck had several players win college scholarships, one of his players was ranked as the top national prospect in his age group, and he had five players named first team all league and two more make the second team.

His Agoura team even made it to the finals of the CIF championship before losing a heart-breaker in the bottom of the last inning.

But Coach Deck should have insisted that his fellow coaches not make a mockery of the league's Coach of the Year award, and he should have refused to accept it.

Deck should have demanded that the award be bestowed upon the coach who was most deserving of the honor: Scott Drootin of Newbury Park.

Without question, Coach Drootin should have been a unanimous choice for the Marmonte League's Coach of the Year. Any coach who did note vote for Drootin either thought the award was strictly a popularity contest, or was carrying on a personal vendetta, "playing politics" or showing blatant favoritism.

How can parents teach their children the values of fair play, honesty, honor and integrity when their children's coaches, at least in this case, set such a poor example?

And should not the athletic directors of the respective schools hold their coaches accountable for their actions?

It was a travesty that Coach Scott Drootin of Newbury Park was not honored as the Marmonte League Coach of the Year. Ran Birkins Douglassville, Pa.

Birkins coached the Newbury Park junior varsity team in 1994 after Drootin be- came the head varsity baseball coach at NPHS.