05/09/2026
Integrity means adhering to strong moral principles, being honest, and consistently doing the right thing, even when no one is watching no matter the consequences
Me, my wife, my brother and few more great people started back McLain Baseball & Softball based off this, and we will always stand for what is right no matter who or what it is! No matter if we already know that we are fixing to be bashed for making the RIGHT decision.
The incident that happened at McLain Thursday night has been nothing but chaos and confusion made mostly by people who have no clue what is really even going on. I can tell based off people’s reactions that they have no clue what was said in that pre game meeting on the mound.
It was brought to our attention a day before that a coach in our league Intentionally had (2 )players who both were too old to be on his team. (Mind you, these are all -Star caliber players). All 4 head coaches met before the game. We asked him to be truthful, and he straight lied to our face multiple times and lied about the change of rules multiple times. We told him don’t play us for a fool, and after he realized he was caught, he owned up to it.
He admitted that he lied, covered it up and apologized to us for doing so all year long. This coach was our friend and still is in my opinion. We shook hands agreed on everything and that was the end of pre game meeting. If he would have asked at the beginning of the season for anyone to be able to come down an age group to play on his team. We would have agreed. However, that is not the case. Only (one) head coach knew about this while the other 3 head coaches have been left in the dark all year long. We offered the coach to refund everyone’s gate fee and instead he asked to play the game. At this time, the decision had already been made that they could play but win or lose, they were disqualified.
All 3 teams would have to agree to play for the tournament to continue without impact. One coach did not want to play after being lied to all year and that was his rightful decision to make.
So my brother let him play against his team and even agreed to let one of the older girls that showed up to continue to play so they would have enough. Could it have been handled differently, maybe. But no matter how it was handled because it didn’t go in their favor, it would still be an uproar. It was never our intention to kick anybody out of our tournament. We just wanted to play fairly from that point on. We will take the blame for one coaches decision and be the bad guy if need be, and for making everyone drive to McLain to play .
It killed us as coaches and parents to have a meeting like this that would impact any team. I don’t care who they are. They are still kids. We even had some on that team that played for us before. It is not fair to the other 4 teams that’s have played all year long legally and by the book.
Also, everyone wants to bring up the older girls in 12/15U…Every team agreed at the beginning of the year to let them play and were even encouraged to let them play. (The 15u never won a game all year. It was just so the kids would have something to do and someone to play)
This was never the case with 10U at all. Every coach but (1) was under the assumption everyone was in their right age group. We had no reason to ever question ages because we never thought something like this would be hidden. Like I said previously, it was brought to our attention late Tuesday night.
The whole situation is a problem ONLY because it was hidden.
McLain gets a bad rep sometimes for making the best decision for EVERYONE involved. Some dont like it, some dont understand it, and that is okay.
There is a reason McLain has the largest number of girls playing Rec Softball in Greene & Perry county (Leaf River), and we don’t take that blessing for granted. It is because we do what’s right, and we are in it for ALL the kids. Anyone who knows us knows that we will always stand for what’s right no matter the consequences. We have nothing but love for all kids and have families who drive from all over the county just to play ball at McLain. Are we competitive when on the ballfield? You better believe it, but we will shake hands and be friends after any game. So go ahead and bash little ole McLain and their coaches/leaders, but please know we will always have integrity and honesty in EVERYTHING we do!!!
You will not be allowed to argue on this post if you have any questions directly message me and we can talk…. Thanks
