A Thin Line for Coaches and Parents
The relationship between coach and parent can become perilous, leading to a roller coaster of emotions and recriminations.
If something goes wrong, it’s usually left to school administrators to come up with a solution, but a judge or jury are increasingly being used as the final arbiter in sports disputes.
All it takes for a lawsuit is a parent with money to spend. One phone call to a lawyer will get the circus rolling.
Just ask John Emme of Corona del Mar High. He’s the school’s 39-year-old baseball coach who has been sued twice in the last two years by the same parent.
“When I was a kid playing, you’d go hit a Wiffle ball at the park or throw a tennis ball against a garage,” he said. “Now, people are investing thousands of dollars in private coaches and I don’t think their expectations for their kids is to be a good Little League player.
“They’re looking for scholarships or money from professional sports. If it’s not the kid’s [lack of] ability or kid’s fault or parents’ fault, who’s going to be the fall guy if junior can’t get to college? That would be us.”
In the first lawsuit filed in July of 2001, Marc Martinez alleged that Emme hurt his son’s chances for college recruitment after a disagreement over pitching counts. That lawsuit was thrown out of court in September of 2002.
Martinez’s second lawsuit alleged that his son had been subjected to public humiliation and ridicule in a December 2001 story in the Daily Pilot that quoted Emme. He accused the Daily Pilot of libel. The Los Angeles Times and the Daily Pilot share the same parent company.
Martinez has not responded to an attempt to reach him through his attorney.
The Newport Mesa Unified School District has spent $17,000 in legal fees defending Emme. A Superior Court judge threw out Martinez’s latest suit against Emme this month, but the suit against the Daily Pilot is still pending.
Emme, however, isn’t letting Martinez off the hook. He filed his own suit seeking $1 million because of damage to his reputation. He has turned the tables and gained support from fellow coaches.
“I feel very strongly about this and still do even though the other case has been thrown out,” Emme said. “I’m continuing with mine because I think a statement has to be made. This has no place in a courtroom. It seems as if people are trying to use litigation to overcome disappointment.”
It’s difficult for parents to accept that their son or daughter isn’t good enough to play for the college for which they want them to play. Once word gets out, however, trouble begins.
People start looking at each other differently. Sides are chosen, friendships become frayed, alliances torn apart.
Meetings are called, with cooler heads supposed to prevail. An agreement to disagree is the best outcome, but sometimes pride and ego are too much to overcome and a sense of unfairness won’t go away.
“Some people are tired of where all this seems to be heading,” Emme said. “It’s heading to where no one wants to coach. We’re not getting rich out here. It’s oftentimes a thankless job, and you do it for the kids.”
Melissa Hearlihy, the girls’ basketball coach at North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake, was sued by a player’s parent in 1998 when she was coaching at Mission Hills Alemany.
The parent sought $1 million in damages, alleging Hearlihy subjected the player to intentional infliction of emotional distress and accused the school of negligence in supervision.
The Los Angeles Archdiocese fired Hearlihy, then reinstated her after an outpouring of support. Then came two years of depositions and subpoenas before the suit was finally settled right before jury selection began.
“My [players] were dragged through it,” Hearlihy said. “It’s not worth it financially or emotionally. And it’s a basketball game. That’s where we lose perspective.
“These parents want to read their kids’ name in the paper, and our job is to put together the best team and teach these kids to be good young men and women.”
Coaches haven’t reached the point that they fear a lawsuit when deciding playing time, but the threat is real.
“You can’t do your job right if you’re going to worry about it,” Hearlihy said.
Emme continues to coach, but the stress and turmoil of two lawsuits has taken its toll.
“It affects everything you do,” he said. “I’m in this because I love the game, and a good chunk of that has been taken out of me.
“When I get out there and the grass is under my feet and the game is going on and I don’t have to think of lawsuits, I love coaching.”
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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at
