Mom takes a stand for 11-year-old daughter after softball coaches say she is too old to compete
A child often needs their parents to take a stand for them or to support them through a difficult incident. An 11-year-old girl faced something similar when softball coaches from the opposing team accused her of being too old to compete in the games just because she was tall and skilled for her age. The incident was quite hard on the girl, but her mom stood by her through the entire ordeal, per Good Morning America.
Two softball coaches from the opposing team confronted the 11-year-old girl about her age and height on the field in the middle of the game. The entire situation, which left he girl in tears, was caught on camera and got a strong response from her mom, who was determined to protect her daughter. What happened on the field was even more difficult for the girl because it happened in front of an audience. "I want to see birth certificates or this game's done!" one of them said. The mom, Tracy Burchfield, shared that her daughter, Brinley Stephens, was used to comments about her height, but such a confrontation was hard on her. The girl is 5 ft 10 inches and taller than most of her peers. Burchfield expressed that the situation on the field was hard to watch for her.
"I was holding back my tears because I was like, 'Oh my gosh, she's out there by herself. There are these two adults confronting her.' Thank God that our coach was there to step in between," Burchfield recounted. The confrontation came at a weird time for the fifth-grader because she had to prove her age along with her fellow players, even before they entered the league. During one of the games, the girl had hit a line drive for her team, the Astoria Future Fish, when the coaches from the other team barged onto the field to confront her and tried to stop the game. "It was like, scary, like, him coming at me. And I was just looking at him like, 'What the heck was going on?'" Brinley recounted.
The coach from Astoria Future Fish controlled the situation and the confrontation ended but the coaches continued making obscene gestures towards the parents even after the game had come to an end, according to Burchfield "We were upset, but we took it to the association and were hoping that they would do better and reprimand and hold him accountable for his actions," the mom commented. After the incident, one coach was suspended for the year while the other one was suspended for 10 days with a probation for the year. The tournament organizers revealed that they were looking into the incident.
"We are still investigating the incident. The player did nothing wrong as she is just tall…and skilled for her age," Benjie Hedgecock, the executive director of North American Fastpitch, expressed. Many parents reached out to the mom and shared that their kid had been in a similar situation and they were thankful that she spoke up for her kid. "It doesn't take much to hurt a kid that much and make them just stop believing in themselves. These kids deserve better. We as adults need to do better," Burchfield remarked.