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Abbey Hymas

Ms. Teuscher

English 2010

18 February 2019

Open Letter to Mr. Quarenberg Regarding Soccer Coaches

Mr. Quarenberg,

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention a change that must be made

to the Herriman girls soccer program. I am speaking for the team as a whole when I say we need

new soccer coaches. There have been many problems related to the coaching throughout the

years and I feel a coaching staff changeout is needed. I have talked to friends and parents of

former Herriman soccer players and they all have or had feelings and negative experiences

similar to mine. Hiring new soccer coaches is long overdue. The fact that Herriman has kept the

same coaching staff with all of the recurring problems shows how little the school values the

girls soccer program and how much more it values other sports programs. For example, last year,

both girls and boys basketball teams received a new coaching staff in response to complaints that

were shared by players and parents. Both parents and players of the girls soccer team wanted the

same response so we really pushed for the same change by contacting the administration and

asking them to seriously consider hiring new soccer coaches because of the problems the team

and parents have been dealing with. However, nothing happened. All sports programs–girls and

boys–need to be treated equally. I ask for just a moment of your time to explain the reasoning

behind a request for new coaches and the problems I experienced.

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When I first met the coaches it was at my first high school summer soccer camp,

freshman year, held at Snow College. I noticed the coaches had a tendency of picking favorites

and geared the majority of their attention to those particular players. I being one of the lucky

ones was a favorite that first year. Big red flag. I was young, naive, and liked the attention so I

was blind to how “picking favorites” could ever be a problem. It wasn’t until my sophomore year

when I realized how problematic their unfair treatment was to the team as a whole.

During my sophomore year I played and practiced with the varsity team and I worked

hard to earn playing time. However, there was a senior who started over me who shouldn’t have

even made the team. Her skills were mediocre and she lacked speed and aggression. From my

understanding, she was only on the team because she was good friends with the coaches from

being on the team in previous years (“favorite”) and it certainly helped that she was best friends

with the “star” player. As the season continued on, I gradually earned more playing time and

eventually earned that desired starting position. I proved to them that I had the skills that were

necessary and that I could perform better than the senior who was playing that position at the

time. Regardless, their coaching decisions were unfair to that specific senior. The coaches knew

from the beginning she wasn’t the type of player the team needed, yet they kept her on the team

and as a result they gave her false hope and degraded her confidence by slowly cutting her

playing time more and more. Even though it would have been tough, it would have been much

better had they cut her at tryouts so she could quickly move on and spend her time somewhere

better rather than spending it on the bench. The coaches seemed to be more concerned about

being the players’ friends than being their coaches. This particular example is reminiscent of

many other stories of girls who have dealt with similar issues throughout the years. We need
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adults who can be smart and make tough decisions when necessary and do what is best for the

team and not just an individual.

In addition to girls competing for spots on the field, lack of playing time also comes from

the coaches keeping too many players; thirty six girls is more than enough players for two soccer

teams. In the past many girls who made the team didn’t get the amount of playing time they

tirelessly worked for. There were other girls who were forgotten and left behind on the bench. As

a result, these girls were left without an explanation so they immediately question themselves

and their abilities, when in reality there are just too many girls on the team. We need coaches

who will be more realistic as to how many players they really need and to use them wisely and

efficiently. We have so much talent and half of it is left on the bench due to favoritism and

neglect.

There were other issues sophomore year, such as the coaches allowing players to be lazy.

There were players who would either miss or not participate in practice due to minor or fake

pain. For example, there were countless times when players would sit out the entirety of practice

icing or talking to trainers. Even though the coaches and players agreed on specific team rules

such as, “missing practice disqualifies teammate from starting in the following game” they

weren't enforced. The coaches would still start those girls in the game even though they skipped

the previous practice because of their “severe” injuries. This demonstrates the lack of discipline

and responsibility the coaches have because they constantly fail to enforce their own rules and

they put their players at risk of making an “injury” worse. Simply put, the coaches do not

practice what they preach.

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The coaches don't know how to properly coach and manage a team. Both my friends and

I experienced this first hand as we were ignored and cast aside junior year. The coaches were

more interested in the younger players even though we had just as much talent and skill, if not

more, as the younger girls plus we had more experience playing in a high school league. To

solve this issue, I asked questions about my position and how they wanted it to be played, but the

coaches’ answers were generic and not helpful. Their ideas about formations didn’t make sense

nor were they logical, so I continued to ask questions and give suggestions with hopes in

bettering our strategy. The varsity coach specifically did not like my soccer intelligence and

questions so instead of telling me to my face that he didn’t appreciate my suggestions, he

decided it would be best to silently subtract my playing time. Games would go on and I would sit

on the bench until second half whereas before I would get a fair amount of playing time

throughout the whole match. This destroyed my confidence and affected my playing ability

because I didn’t believe I was good enough. It is also important to note that this same Varsity

coach played his own senior daughter the majority of the games when in the previous year she

had hardly played any varsity games due to her skill level. We need coaches who are

encouraging and fair, who will do what’s best for the team, and who strengthens the confidence

of each girl through their words and actions.

The girls high school soccer staff here at Herriman High School have had their fair share

of coaching. It is time for a new set of brains to reorganize and rebuild our soccer program and

more importantly our team. We need coaches who will be fair towards every girl and not give

special treatment to their “favorites”, we need coaches who will be good examples to the girls by

staying disciplined and making sure the team rules are enforced, and most importantly, we need
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coaches who will encourage and uplift their players and unite the team together. We need

coaches who lead by example. Please seriously consider replacing the girls soccer coaching staff.

Change is good, and in this case, it is necessary. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Abbey Hymas