After giving it a good deal of thought yesterday, I am certain that we need to do the right thing for today’s scrimmage. Salice should not start in this scrimmage. I think that she needs to know exactly why. I’d like to say something like this to her:

We have received a flurry of comments since the Wednesday evening scrimmages concerning your behavior toward your own EHS teammates on the field. We have been told that you were making demeaning and disparaging comments to EHS teammates during the scrimmages. This behavior was not only noticed by multiple teammates, but by more than one spectator who told us that they could clearly hear your unkind comments directed toward EHS teammates.

When we say there is zero tolerance for bullying teammates, we mean it.

We have spoken with you — specifically — about making mean and disparaging comments to teammates on the field for more than a year… most recently just this summer.

We are trying to help you be better… to rise above this tendency to demean. Yet it continues.

We cannot say this strongly enough: It is hugely disappointing that this behavior is continuing this season.

No teammate, no matter who they are… how long they have been playing FH… or how skilled they are… should ever be made to feel “less than.” That is not how our FH program operates.

We are not going to be the coaches who tolerate such behavior.

So, together, we have made the decision that you will sit out the first quarter of today’s scrimmage.

That should give you time to reflect on your behavior and start strategizing on how you are going to fix this situation going forward. Your coaches and teammates will be supportive of your efforts to do better. We expect to see observable improvements in how you treat your teammates during scrimmages, games and parctices.

On this team, being a person who treats all of your teammates with respect and encouragement and support is not optional. It is the simplest, most basic and mandatory element. A team cannot be successful unless ALL players feel valued and respected all of the time.

BOTTOM LINE: This is your senior year. You have worked so hard to grow and improve your individual FH abilities and skills. You are poised to have a breakthrough season this year as well as to be a significant contributor to a breakthrough season for this team. None of that can happen without first improving how you interact with teammates. If — going forward — you focus as much on being a supportive and encouraging teammate and leader as you do on being a skilled FH player, the individual and team successes you hope for this season are much more likely to be realized. (And we very much want that for you.)