Softball Officials Sanctioned, But Can Participate In House League

Jeff Green | Mar 13, 2024

The Frontenac County Minor Softball Association (FCMSA) will be one of the many sports groups and associations at the South Frontenac Recreation and Services Fair at the Lion's Hall in Verona this Saturday, ready to talk about enrolling children into house league play this year.

Fortunately for the FCMSA, the roster of convenors for league play in Verona, Harrowsmith, Sydenham, Inverary and Battersea is in place to bring softball to youngsters in the ball diamonds in those villages.

It almost was not the case, however, as some members of the association have run afoul with officials from Softball Ontario, and are not eligible to be involved in Softball Ontario rep league play in 2024. These associations members include, Hugh and Tammy Vankoughnett and Nicholas Brunet from Sydenham, Brittany Smith from Battersea, as well as Kyra Funk from the Greater Kingston Softball Association.

The circumstances around the suspensions go all the way back to the summer of 2022.

At that time, a softball coach from South Frontenac, Sandra Sinclair, was recruiting players for a Rep League team she was putting together for 2023. According to the rules governing play in both Kingston and Frontenac Softball Associations around these kinds of advanced leagues, recruiting for the following season while the current season is underway is not allowed.

Sinclair was subsequently banned from participating in 2023 by league officials in both Kingston and Frontenac, with the Vankoughnett’s, Brunet, Smith and Funk imposing the ban in their respective roles with their associations.

Sinclair disputed the ban, and she appealed to Softball Ontario in the fall of 2023, and at the same time charging that the imposing a ban on her without proper cause or leave to appeal was itself an offence against Softball Ontario rules.

In November of 2023, a Softball Ontario panel upheld her appeal. By that time it was too late to reinstate Sinclair for 2023, and the appeals panel decided that the people who had been involved in banning Sinclair, would themselves be banned for 2024.

This put Tabitha Lawson from Verona, the President of the FCMSA for 2024, into a difficult because it left the Sydenham and Battersea house league teams without the longtime convenors and coaches who had been central the house league for years.

The association, along with the banned officials, launched an appeal of the November ruling, and the ruling came back in late February

The ban was upheld by the appeal, but the scope of the ban was altered. It remains a one-year ban for the above-named people from Softball Ontario activities, but the appeal panel ruled that the ban will not apply to the FCMSA or the GKCA House Leagues, because Softball Ontario does not have jurisdiction over FCMSA House League activities.

“This is huge for our season,” said Lawson, “the Vankoughnett's, Nik Brunet and Brit Smith are dedicated to helping kids enjoy and develop softball skills in their own communities, and we were not sure how we were going to run our season without their help. Now we can go ahead and plan our season, and get kids out to enjoy softball in South Frontenac this summer. It is quite a relief.”

The Frontenac County Minor Softball Assocation, and the Greater Kingston Softball Association, have issued a joint statement in response to the ruling of the appeals panel.

“A number of FCMSA (Frontenac County Minor Softball Association) and GKSA (Greater Kingston Softball Association) volunteers have been suspended from Softball Ontario rep activities for the 2024 season. This is the result of our organizations’ inexperience in having to handle an ethics matter with a coach through the PWSA (Provincial Women’s Softball Association). The procedural error and resulting suspensions in no way prevents them from their regular volunteer positions and work for our local house leagues.

“We are working hard as a volunteer organization to implement changes that will prevent some of the errors in procedure that were the basis for the complaint to Softball Ontario. Our goal remains to provide a safe space for kids to play softball in our community. This is at the centre of everything we do and why we put in the hours to make it happen. We care about our community and want to see it continue to be a vibrant place with many sports options. We hope our community supports us as we work to make the changes required to prevent this from happening again.”

(Editors note – The Frontenac News was approached via multiple email messages with information pertaining to this story back in September of 2023. The emails also contained allegations of criminal behaviour. At the time, we could not verify the identity of the person who sent us the emails, which came under the name of Melonee Baker, and we eventually sent an email to the source asking them to let us know who they really were. We did not receive any more emails from the Melonee Baker email account

We did not publish a story when the ruling came down from Softball Ontario in November, because given that there was someone who was not willing to identify themselves to us regarding the story, we were not certain that the information Softball Ontario was working with was not compromised as well. We were planning to cover the story only as it pertained to the running of the local league this year, and that is why we are covering it now.)