Former Los Altos baseball player sues coach after being benched...

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WARRIORMIKE

Pro-Staff Everything
Oct 5, 2009
2,815
48
At the Jewel in San Diego
Former Los Altos baseball player sues coach after being benched, claims that’s tantamount to bullying


A former Los Altos High School student and baseball player is suing the school district and his former coach for hundreds of thousands of dollars because the coach repeatedly benched him.

According to the suit, the school’s head varsity baseball coach, Gabriel Lopez, repeatedly refused to let 17-year-old Robbie Lopez, no relation, play throughout his senior year. The suit claims this constituted a pattern of “harassment and bullying.”

The teenager and his parents are seeking $150,000 or more, according to the suit.

Hacienda La Puente Unified athletic director Andrew Formano and assistant superintendent of human resources Jill Rojas both said they could not comment on the matter. Gabriel Lopez did not respond to a request for comment.

Among the incidents the suit singles out is the annual alumni game, in which the varsity team plays against former Los Altos players. It states that “the game is supposed to be a fun day; especially for seniors on the team” and that “every senior on the team played except for” Robbie Lopez.

The boy’s father, Robert Lopez II, believed the coach’s decision to bench his son throughout the season was because he complained to the district’s athletic director after a disagreement over a fundraising game.

Lopez spoke to the school after the coach did not allow players to practice who had not participated in a fundraising event. It is illegal in California to require students to fundraise to participate in public school activities.

The lawsuit also claimed the teenager had been a starter for three years prior to coach Lopez being hired.

“For over four (4) months and 14 games, (Robbie Lopez) has been benched and not the opportunity to show his offensive or defensive capabilities,” the suit states.

Michael Ponce, the lawyer representing Robbie Lopez and his parents, said the prolonged period of relegating him to the bench is “an abuse of the coach’s discretion.”

“It’s more of a targeted situation” than a standard case of a coach using his own judgement, Ponce said. “These are repeated actions by the coach, which we feel, my client and I, as well as his father, feel are intentional. They’re targeted against (my client) specifically.”

Ponce referred to a recent case in South Carolina in which a cheerleader claimed she was bullied by her coach, who made “derogatory comments about (the student’s) private body parts, causing other students to laugh at” her. The student and her father won a $100,000 judgment.

Ponce claimed what happened to his client was “more egregious” than the South Carolina example. But in a phone interview, Ponce did not give any examples of derogatory comments the coach made to the teenager. And no examples of insulting comments by the coach were presented in the lawsuit.
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
Hard to say without knowing more facts but not playing in the alumni game seems shady.

I never understand why coaches put kids on varsity and don't play them.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
I'm just not sure how this is different than the crap that happens every day all over the country you get on the coaches or ADs bad side and you are just SOL...that's the way HS athletics works maybe if you are the absolute stud starting HS state champion QB or All-State POY on the basketball team but if you are not someone with a REALLY high profile coach can pretty much just make you sit all year and if the AD is on board you have ZERO recourse. The example of a coach making outright bullying statements to a student is completely separate and would not fly from any teacher to any student regardless of athletics.
 
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
I don't know much about this particular case. There may be something legitimate involved... What I have noticed is that it is becoming more difficult for schools to find coaches in my area. DD's school currently has several paid coaching positions open for various sports and levels. Another local school recently announced that they were eliminating their junior high softball program. A friend that has children in that school stated that part of the reason was the school's inability to find a coach for the team. Seems to me that the compensation is not worth the aggravation in some cases.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
Hard to say without knowing more facts but not playing in the alumni game seems shady.

I never understand why coaches put kids on varsity and don't play them.

The school may have a no cut policy.

There is something going on in the background that hasn't surfaced. My guess. The kid was one of the weakest players on the team. There was something going on with the old coach and the parents. The parents are wearing custom made parent colored goggles with the triple layered coating. When the player wasn't playing much I bet "That Dad!" showed up. I would also guess there were numerous complaints to the AD with the AD's response not to the dad's liking.
 
Jun 20, 2012
438
18
SoCal
Seems to me that the compensation is not worth the aggravation in some cases.

Exactly this. DD1's HS football team is on their 3rd different head coach in 3 years. The other 2 coaches are still teaching there, one coach had been the head coach for at least 5 or 10 years, the other one lasted only one season. Both quit coaching (but kept those teaching positions) because the grief they got from the parents wasn't worth the stipend. Varsity baseball coach was fired this past Spring, right after bringing home the league championship for the first time in over 20 years. Varsity softball coach (a former D-1 college softball player) quit coaching the softball team after DD1's freshman year, the first year the team had qualified for the post-season in over 10 years, but she continues to coach another sport at the school. Women's tennis, basketball, and wrestling have or have had vacancies in the last year. Nobody wants to take the coaching positions without an accompanying full-time teaching position, and the school doesn't have open positions, and when they do, they have been giving it to a football coach (or assistant coach) who then quits on the team after a year but keeps the teaching job (since the teaching job and the coaching job are independent of each other). It's a vicious cycle.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
High school sports is the only place where you are forced to play for a coach. In every other situation you get to pick your team for the most part.
 
Nov 29, 2009
2,975
83
High school sports is the only place where you are forced to play for a coach. In every other situation you get to pick your team for the most part.

And conversely, the coach can not go out and recruit the best players they can find either. They are both stuck with each other for better or for worse.
 

JAD

Feb 20, 2012
8,231
38
Georgia
This is a Pandora's Box that no one wants to open. A couple of these lawsuits could turn HS sports into a glorified REC league with equal playing time, and "every kid gets a trophy".
 

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