To the editor,

Welcome to a generation of entitled kids and the parents who made them that way: an era in which a school board and an athletic director can fire a reputable coach with great character based on an anonymous letter. This is a letter complaining that their child had to go to extra practices before the state games and did not get enough “justified” playing time. Unfortunately, we are in the “me” culture in which high school athletes can have egos bigger than the collective effort of a team and the coach who turned the program around and got them there. We are in a school district in which a school board and an athletic director are so worried about upsetting and offending the “right” parents, that they are willing to crucify a good coach while overlooking some other serious bad behavior and complaints of other coaches in the prior three years.

River Falls is known for having some heavy politics within our athletic organization. Wealthy families run the show, sending their kids to outside training that costs thousands upon thousands of dollars for their kid to play. We have sports teams made up of students whose parents have open-enrolled them here for sports. You heard it right: sports. These are kids who cut out local kids and these are the families who you will often see favored by our athletic director and the coaches.

Our sports culture needs to change. Our coaches and their affiliations to the outside training and teams they promote to their selective “favorite” families, need to be inspected by someone higher up on the food chain.

Sadly, the anonymous letter that came in will greatly affect the chance of our team going to state next year to the detriment of the athletes who take in the practices without complaint. It will affect attendance to the games and the reputation of the team. I will be shocked if anyone will want to apply to coach here, knowing they are under the scrutiny of certain families to appease. Sports is the new stage for politics and it is a growing business. Shame on the parents who wrote such a ridiculous letter (which is why it’s not openly disclosed), to the athletes telling other students they support it because they should’ve won state and already have a new coach chosen and most of all, shame on our school board and athletic director.

Laura Anders

River Falls