ECC girls’ basketball players were let down ... by league coaches

It is the result of pettiness or laziness. Period. The collateral damage: the kids. Always the kids. And so I certainly hope the girls' basketball coaches of the Eastern Connecticut Conference are proud of themselves today. Their decision to 1) not vote our kids all-state; or 2) purposely leave them off their ballots left the ECC with tepid representation on the Connecticut High School Coaches Association All-State teams.

Congrats to Kate Hall (Stonington, Class M) and Hailey Tompkins (Lyman Memorial, Class S). They're the only ones who made it. Nice job, people. The ECC: Empty Conscience Conference. Some of you coaches need a lecture from your administrators today.

If you are petty and purposely left ECC kids off the all-state ballot for whatever slights you perceived during the season: get over yourself. It's not about you. It's about what's right and best for the kids you purport to educate.

If you are lazy and didn't send in a ballot: Nobody is that busy. It takes about 22 seconds. And based on the quality of coaching I see in certain outposts, I'm guessing you weren't otherwise occupied watching film.

I'm trying to digest, for instance, how New London High could have been undefeated and No. 1 in the state most of the season without one all-stater. Holly Misto must be one hell of a coach. I mean, Rosi Nicholson, Tai Pagan, Xaryia Melendez or Cora Sawyer couldn't merit enough votes from the dopes around here?

How about Sarah Serbascewicz at Ledyard who eclipsed 1,000 career points this season? Did she pop a few wheelies on a few coaches' front lawns?

Megan Bauman at East Lyme, who helped the Vikings get to the Class L quarterfinals?

I'm sure there are others here unintentionally omitted.

I'm also trying to think of ways to ensure this never happens again.

Perhaps this is a talking point at the next meeting of the league's athletic directors. This just in: If ECC coaches don't advocate for our kids, who else is going to, exactly? Bad enough the rest of Connecticut

dismisses us as a Rhode Island annex on a good day. Think the coaches in other areas of the state give a continental damn about our kids when it's less ballot competition for kids closer to their hometowns?

Maybe the state coaches association could start making ballots public. Seems no need for secrecy. This is basketball, not international espionage. Perhaps if a coach knows his or her ballot will be read publicly, he or she will be more likely to 1) vote; and 2) do the right thing.

I'm not suggesting that coaches here need to be homers. But when we have kids who are deserving, coaches bear the responsibility of being a good neighbor. I'm sure Nicholson, Sawyer, Melendez, Pagan, Bauman and Serbascewicz will forge on and won't be scarred for life. I'm also sure that things like being named all-state stick with you for the rest of your life.

Know why they won't have that memory? Because some coaches around here need a remedial course in etiquette.

I try very hard to be one of the ECC's unofficial cheerleaders within the state media. I know colleagues Vickie Fulkerson and Ned Griffen do their part, too. But what does it say about a “league” when the people in the newspaper care about its image more than the participants?

Note to spring sports coaches: Don't let this happen again. Pay attention. Send in a ballot. Vote for our kids who deserve it. Show the rest of the state that we're better than the girls' basketball coaches “representing” us.

And if you are a girls' basketball coach who did the right thing: You might want to have a discussion with your colleagues. They don't get it. This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro