DURHAM, NEW HAMPSHIRE — According to a report from Fosters.com, two New Hampshire youth baseball coaches are under suspicion of conspiring to injure an 11-year-old girl with the aim of making her quit the league.
The allegations come from Dan Klein, whose daughter was the alleged target of the coaches. He claims that the coaches instructed a player to strike his daughter in the head with a baseball during practice in order to scare her off the team. Klein’s daughter is the only girl in her division. He made the allegation in an email fired off to the Oyster River Youth Association (ORYA) board of directors on April 7.
The planned was allegedly hatched during a meeting held by coaches at a restaurant on March 21. When two other coaches heard the plan, they immediately felt uncomfortable and informed Klein about what they heard.
From Fosters.com:
Klein said his daughter has played baseball and T-ball with ORYA since 2012 and has enjoyed it, mostly without incident. When she began playing, Klein said, she had several teammates who were girls, but that number dwindled over the years as many girls her age switched to softball.
Klein said he has served ORYA in various capacities over the years, including as a coach. He said he is not now involved in ORYA in any capacity other than being the parent of a participant. In his email, he referenced a 2015 quarrel he said he had with an ORYA board member that may have led to lingering animosity, and as a result, motivated the alleged threats against his daughter last month.
Although police have been made aware of the incident, they haven’t yet decided to conduct an investigation. Fosters.com says Klein has not reached out to police yet.
“I’m not on the board — it’s not my place to say what’s right for them,” Klein told the Seacoast Media Group on Tuesday. “I hope that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again, and that kids will be protected from this sort of language and be safe.”
ORYA Director Matthew Glode is conducting an investigation into the plot. According to ORYA board member Ben Genes, the ORYA board has already “taken specific action” regarding Klein’s complaint, but it’s not clear what that action was.
″[Such] that all sports activities for his daughter are safe and welcoming,” Genes wrote in an email to Seacoast Media Group . “We are now beginning a formal investigation into the incident as per our policies and procedures and will provide a summary followup to all our stakeholders.”
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