Grievance Procedure

Competitive team athletics, by its very nature, creates situations where everyone may not be happy all the time. Knowing when to communicate and how to communicate with your athlete's coach may a concern for parents at some time during the season. Most often the concern is how to inquire about issues surrounding playing time.

At Kaepa Borderline, we encourage the athlete to take responsibility for their participation. For this reason we expect the athlete to talk to the coach first when they have a problem concerning their playing time, or if they are unclear about what the coach expects from them either in practice or in a competition. The appropriate way to do this is for the athlete to ask the coach what they need to do to get more opportunities to play in matches. Most of the time, the athlete knows why they may not be playing as much as a teammate when the parent may not.

Parents can best help their athlete by helping them set some goals to achieve more opportunities.

When a parent has a problem that is specific to their own athlete, we also expect them to first talk to their athlete's coach. Coaches have been instructed not to discuss coaching decisions with a parent. These coaching decisions include, but are not limited to specific match decisions, substitution patterns, etc.

The coach will not be required to defend his/her thought process or conclusions in the determination of playing time, and it is improper for a parent to request that. Parents are never to confront a coach at a tournament.

Specifically, the procedures to follow if you as a parent, or your athlete as a member of a Kaepa Borderline team, have concerns about Borderline policies or a coach's actions are, in this order:

The athlete will speak or meet with the coach to discuss the matter. If the matter remains unresolved, or if the athlete has reasonable concern that speaking to the coach will not resolve the matter,

The parent should speak to or meet with the head coach. Parents should call the head coach on the phone to set a meeting. Meetings are to be at times and locations other than tournaments. If a coach is approached by a parent during a tournament, we have instructed the coach to refuse to discuss any controversial matter, to refer the parent to the Club Director and to walk away from the situation. The recommended time for a parent and/or athlete to talk to a coach about a problem is a previously arranged meeting time either before or immediately after a scheduled practice.

If the matter remains unresolved, or if the parent has reasonable concern that speaking to the coach will not resolve the matter,

The parent may speak to the head coach and the club director. In certain situations, Borderline may ask the athlete to attend the meeting also. Meetings should be previously arranged. Meetings will not be scheduled during a tournament. The Head Coach or the Club Director will not engage in discussions about coaching decisions.

If the problem remains unresolved, the final resolution will be a committee of 3 members of the program consisting of members of the board of directors, coaches and/or parents that have been in the program a minimum of 4 seasons. Members of the committee must have no personal interests in the outcome of the grievance.