Softball players for the Searsport High School team are speaking out against the school district’s decision not to rehire their longtime coach this season.
“The team is devastated,” Elise Colby, a senior who plays on the varsity team, wrote to the Bangor Daily News.
Christin Obrey has coached the team for nine years, and has led the team to two Class D state championships during that time.
When contacted by the Bangor Daily News for comment, Obrey directed a reporter to a public statement she made to the RSU 20 school board earlier this week.
“I am feeling a great deal of shock, heartbreak, and confusion following the decision not to reappoint me to the position,” Obrey wrote in a letter she read to the board.
Laura Miller, RSU 20’s superintendent, confirmed that Obrey was not rehired.
She would not explain the decision, saying only that the athletic director and a committee interviewed applicants and then made a recommendation on who should be hired.
“We follow our current policies and procedures and the recommendation was for a different person to be hired this year,” Miller said.
Colby said in a Facebook post that she and other players are considering leaving the team. She said she considers Obrey “a mentor and teacher” and said it unfair that the team has not been told why Obrey wasn’t rehired.
“Christin Obrey is a phenomenal coach,” she wrote. “She has done nothing but support our team, through the worst of the worst and the best of the best.
In her letter to the board, Obrey wrote that she had devoted “countless hours” over nearly a decade to organizing practices, communicating with families and “working to ensure our athletes feel valued and supported.”
“I am struggling to understand how my coaching, dedication, and continued willingness to serve our program is not considered what is best for the district and its student-athletes,” Obrey told the board.
