Friday 10/30/26 

Hello EHS V and JV FH Players and Families,

I wanted to take time today to address an unfortunate situation that occurred on Tuesday evening within a JV FH player group chat. There were some very unkind and hurtful words written by one JV player directed to a teammate.

I was greatly disappointed upon seeing the messages and felt very badly for the player to whom the messages were directed (as well as her family). The player did not deserve to be talked to in that manner. NO ONE ever deserves to be talked to in that manner. The incident went against everything our coaching staff works hard to build within our EHS FH program. We strive to maintain a respectful and stable team environment by asking three simple things of our players and coaches:

1) Do the MOST Good

2) Show the GREATEST Kindness

3) Be the BEST Teammate (or Coach)

EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

Our focus on building cooperative relationships between teammates and among coaches has helped EHS FH earn a reputation for being a team that accepts EVERYONE who wants to give our sport a try, regardless of experience. One of the greatest rewards in coaching is helping a young person for whom sports is a brand-new endeavor. They learn and grow in confidence over four years. Then — the very best part — is seeing those individuals exit our program in their senior year firmly identifying as an athlete and FH player. We want that experience for all of our student athletes.

Yesterday, our Athletic Director Jarett Rhoads met with FH coaches and with both JV players involved in the JV FH Group Chat incident. He facilitated discussions with each player individually and then asked them to speak together yesterday afternoon. It was important for the player who wrote the unkind messages to understand how hurtful they were to her teammate. It was also important for the player who wrote the messages to have the opportunity to accept responsibility for the harm she caused and to apologize in person to her teammate.

This morning, JV Coach Posella established a new Coach-monitored JV FH player group chat and sent this message to all JV players:

“Hi Everyone! This is the new JV FH Group Chat. Based on recent events JV FH is no longer allowed to have a group chat without coaches. The group chat with just the players has been deleted. Let this be an important lesson to you all that you have to treat everyone with respect. The behavior that has been seen in the past few days will not be tolerated. You guys should not be saying anything to each other that you cannot say in front of coaches or your parents. If anyone uses that type of language to another teammate, coaches should be alerted immediately by any bystanders. Thank you!“

If you have any further questions or concerns relating to this JV FH group chat incident, or any other FH-related matter, please reach out to me directly.

Thx,

Coach Fischer

Text/voice 585-233-2105

TFischer@eastiron.org