Montreal midget baseball team claim unfair treatment

“Our team is sad, like we were going to play playoffs, which is like the most exciting part of the year. We just want to play, we want to have fun, play baseball,” said West Island baseball player Lucas Lanni.

A West Island midget A baseball team says it has been treated unfairly by the regional baseball organization Lac-St-Louis after the authority decided to barre the teens and their coaches from participating in the end-of-season playoffs.

The reason – the volunteer coaches forgot to complete a certification – designed as a course to develop their coaching skills.

“By the middle of July, as we’re approaching a tournament, we got an email from our league saying ‘you’re not certified as a coaching staff because you’re missing that one last element. None of you did training on time this year, and therefore you can’t participate in this tournament and you won’t be eligible to participate in the regional playoffs’,” said West Island Royals midget A baseball head coach Alain Cloutier.

The West Island royals scored second place in the regular season – ending with 13 wins and two losses. Despite their success the team is losing out.

“We made a mistake, there were some communication issues that go beyond think our responsibility as coaches that happened, and in the end, wherever you want to put the blame, it’s the kids that end up paying,” said Cloutier.

“I’m not blaming my coaches, but at the end of the day we were unaware of the situation we should have been aware of. And yeah, maybe suspend the coaches. I’m sure the coaches wouldn’t mind that and they would take punishment,” said Lanni.

18-year-old Lucas Lanni says he was suspended of all baseball activity within baseball Quebec for a post he made on social media expressing his frustration towards what the team feels is unfair treatment.

Baseball Quebec later reversed the regional authority, Lac-St-Louis’ decision saying his post did not warrant the punishment.

“Lac-St-Louis that year also allowed other teams to play that didn’t have that before past the due date. So it’s like why is in our team allowed to play when the other teams are allowed to play?” questioned Lanni.

The player expressed fears of further punishment for speaking out, but said he just wants to play.

The volunteer coaching staff says the miscommunication and reminder of deadlines is not an isolated issue

“There are 178 teams out of 2000 that’s eight per cent of the teams across Quebec that are not eligible to participate in their local playoffs because of issues like this one.  Eight per cent, 178 teams, times 11 players between that’s 2000 kids who have in the last few weeks experienced this. We thought we were the exception rather than the rule,” said Cloutier.

CityNews reached out to Baseball Quebec for comment but did not hear back.

Lac-St-Louis wrote in an email that this situation is a nuisance to everyone at the organization and that it would provide a statement on the matter but did not respond back on time for air.