Mainly need to vent because I feel overwhelmed right now. I have no idea how to structure this so it might be everywhere.
I have been playing sports since I was a wee child. I am getting ready to finish my senior year and due to the fact that I picked my education over the ability to play a sport at the next level. The first year playing, I was on her 12u team that her dad coached. Yeah the Dady daughter duo, dad was charged with a crime involving children, dynamic with her father coaching was that his daughter could do no wrong, and she was the best one on the team. She is a pitcher. That was the first poor encounter with her and her father. The second time was middle school. That however did not last long. (I am a catcher). She was fast but very inaccurate. A lot of younger girls actually got injured because of her. I guess I was the only one brave enough to catch her. The first middle school game was some what hard on me. Her father would sit as close as he could and yell insults at me. He would also tell the volunteer book keeper to mark a missed ball on my part even though it was clearly over my head. After about 3 or so game he complained so much about me the the head coach (shy hates drama) snapped at him and told him to leave and he can wait until next to call pitches again. The third time was in 16u. My team had a large amount of girls move up to 18u and we needed spots to fill. So she join. Eventually her father conned his way onto the coaching staff and was calling pitches. I was constantly being harassed for making small mistakes and she did ‘no wrong’. I was visibly struggling and my performance was drastically decreasing. I wanted to quit my 12 year sport. The next tryouts I was cut from the team. It was the worse feeling ever. But it was like a release too. Because I would not have had the strength to leave my team and abandon the relationships I had with those girls. I found a new team. But her recent team has caused drama with my travel ball team and I might be teamless. That’s a different story. Trama dump there, sorry. The current issue is that I am the only senior and she is the only jr and we are the only upper class men. She does like to argue a lot with me in general (Pitcher ego) but today was a full blown hissy fit. And it was over warm ups. Me being the senior I was leading stretches over open gyms and the first day of practice. She was fine with it. However today she threw a hissy fit, yelling fight with me in front of the entire team and basically said follow me and don’t listen to (me) because she doesn’t do the right order of stretches. It was embarrassing and disrespectful. I sent her a private message saying “If it bothers you that much you can call out stretches for the rest of the year” she simply replied “yea i will”. I feel like now it was a little too far but I still can’t let it go and it is eating me up. I am so tore because I do not want to finish with a horrible memory of the sport I love.
Honestly you handled it more maturely than most people would. She embarrassed you in front of the whole team, and instead of blowing up back you messaged her privately. That’s actually the respectful way to handle it. After years of dealing with that dynamic, it makes sense you’re exhausted by it.
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NTA by a huge margin. But if you do love the sport you need to ensure you don’t let one person (and her father) destroy it for you. Fight for it more and don’t give up your spot so easily.
Stick and Stones can break your Bones but Words can’t really touch you unless you let them. So don’t let them!
Learn to tune them out. Raise a complaint against her father if you have to. You are not AH here but you deserve your place and must fight for it!