I was reluctant to write this letter because, as one of the coaches, I am obviously an invested party. However, I feel the disparate coverage our Middlebury Area Little League Minors All-Star girls softball team received in relation to the boys team is very perplexing and sends a message to girls in our community that I don’t believe the Addison Independent wants to be associated with.
When our minors softball team won the District 1 championship, our head coach submitted a picture to the paper. We thought the picture would be published and the girls would be so excited to have their picture in the paper (which would have been more than adequate coverage, in my opinion). I then heard that the minors baseball team won the exact same championship as the softball team and thought, “Wow, what a great story for our community to hear! Little League baseball and softball are on the rise in Addison County!”
Monday’s paper (July 15) featured a complete nearly full-page story on the baseball team winning the championship with multiple pictures and a write up — which was undoubtedly great coverage for them. You can imagine my / our confusion when the softball team, who again won the exact same championship as baseball, received not a mention. It wasn’t until Thursday (June 18) that only our one picture was published.
Our girls worked incredibly hard and they and their parents sacrificed countless hours, just as the boys did. What message does this send to these girls about how their accomplishments are celebrated in our community?
Thank you.
Kelly Bevere
Middlebury Area Little League Board Member
Middlebury Minors Softball Assistant Coach
Editor’s note: Our apologies to the Middlebury Minors Little League softball team and their coaches, and congratulations on winning the District 1 Championship. The baseball team got into that Monday paper and the news of the softball team didn’t make it until the Thursday edition principally because the baseball news arrived at our office long before deadline and the softball arrived shortly before deadline. If they had been in the same edition we hopefully would have seen how coverage of the two equivalent titles would have appeared to favor one over the other, which was not our intention. Here is the story we published about the softball team on July 25.