Coach Sued For Yelling At Players

[Markel]

And, Yes, the player's father is the lawyer that sued. Link

Calif. Coach Sued for Belittling Players

Apr 3, 7:10 AM (ET)

ARCADIA, Calif. (AP) - When Michael Oddenino's teenage daughter complained that her softball coach was insulting her teammates, he took the dispute off the diamond and into a court.

Oddenino, an attorney, filed a lawsuit in Superior Court claiming coach Don Riggio inflicted emotional distress on a player when he called her "a 2-year-old" and frequently called other players idiots.

The suit sought $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation, and sex discrimination.

But Superior Court Judge Jan Pluim dismissed the case, writing in her March 14 decision that there is nothing wrong with "a coach pushing an athlete to excel, and in so doing, using words that in another context would be considered rude, demeaning and even intimidating."

The suit had alleged that Riggio "took advantage of his position of authority to engage in an abusive pattern of excessive intimidation and humiliation of the female players, frequently calling them 'idiots,' and belittling them for minor errors."

Said Riggio: "I'm just glad it's over. Now we can move forward and do what we're there for, and that's to coach."

Well, at least this time the sue-happy lawyer got shown to the door of the courtroom.

[welfareloser]

then again, maybe the coach is an ass, and this is the only way to stop him. who knows? i wonder how old the kids are...

is it so hard to believe that the coach is an abusive ass? maybe there have been lots of complaints from parents, but the guy just keeps doing it, and it had to come to this...

[Markel]

Well, it was a "teenage daughter". I guess she must have been forced to stay on the team.

[welfareloser]

of course she could quit... but wouldn't it be nice if she could stay on the team, and not have to quit because the coach was an ass? sorry... i can't just dismiss this one as obvious sue-happy-ness.

[Markel]

Any time I see "The suit sought $3 million for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, a civil rights violation, and sex discrimination", I am 99% certain that it's a trivial lawsuit. Case dismissed.

[nickel]

then again, maybe the coach is an ass, and this is the only way to stop him. who knows? i wonder how old the kids are...

is it so hard to believe that the coach is an abusive ass? maybe there have been lots of complaints from parents, but the guy just keeps doing it, and it had to come to this...

i would hope the school district would get rid of this coach if he were an abusive ass.

if he really is just guilty of calling the plantiff a 2 year old and other players idiots this lawsuit was plainly ridiculous.

[johnnymk]

Well, everyone knows that a teenager's self esteem is a fragile thing to mess with.

[Maarchk]

of course she could quit... but wouldn't it be nice if she could stay on the team, and not have to quit because the coach was an ass? sorry... i can't just dismiss this one as obvious sue-happy-ness.

Perhaps quitting is a bit much, but if a group of players goes to the principal or whoever is the coach's boss, wouldn't that work out? Sueing seems a bit rediculous for a sports team that you volunteer to work on. It is not a matter of survival that you are on a team as opposed to working a job. But maybe quitting is better. When you get in a crappy job and you never quit, cause you were taught to never quit even when you are being abused.. that can lead to issues.

[ArkiStan]

Maybe the student happened to be naked in the coach's office when the coach was yelling at her?

[MJordanash]

Maybe the student happened to be naked in the coach's office when the coach was yelling at her?

Thats exactly what I was thinking

[bachviet]

We need to stop these frivilous lawsuits.

[VTGreg]

then again, maybe the coach is an ass, and this is the only way to stop him. who knows? i wonder how old the kids are...

is it so hard to believe that the coach is an abusive ass? maybe there have been lots of complaints from parents, but the guy just keeps doing it, and it had to come to this...

It doesn't matter if the coach is an ass or not. The coaches job is to motivate his players to become better and win games. If he truly were abusive then the players and parents should have gone to the school AD and attempted to get him fired. Persuing a law suit looking for money is not the correct way of getting anything resolved. This was a lawyer looking for an easy pay day and mucking up our legal system with another frivalous lawsuit.

God forbid a coach call's one of his players a 2 year old or an idiot. When I played high school sports we got a lot worse than that if we weren't putting forth 100% effort or playing smart.

[Yossarian]

yeah, being called an idiot or 2 year old is rather mild, at least by the coaches i had

[Markel]

yeah, being called an idiot or 2 year old is rather mild, at least by the coaches i had

I guess the difference is, your dad wasn't a lawyer who couldn't stand the idea of his "princess" being criticizied.

[molecularfire]

of course she could quit... but wouldn't it be nice if she could stay on the team, and not have to quit because the coach was an ass? sorry... i can't just dismiss this one as obvious sue-happy-ness.

Of course she shouldn't quit from some idiot yelling at her. Life lesson here, there are always going to be idiots yelling at you for pretty much anything. You don't go around suing them all, it takes too much of your time and too much of society's money. You either ignore them, yell back, drop-kick them or say something really witty and stinging and leave them emotionally scarred for life.

Anyways, I'm no lawyer but IMO if you're suing to try to get someone fired, you don't sue for 3 million dollars. You sue in order to get someone fired.