EdCC cancels softball season

Published 6:57 am Tuesday, March 4, 2008

A shortage of players resulted in Edmonds Community College canceling its softball season in mid-March, two-plus months after the dismissal of its previous head coach.

Recruiting for next year is the name of the game for new head coach Courtney Lum.

Lum was hired to replace Janessa Karstens who was terminated in January after four years as head coach.

Lum previously served as an assistant coach at the University of West Georgia and played her college softball in Whittier College in California.

“Courtney is spending a lot of time building relationships, meeting with high school coaches and athletic directors, spending time going to different games,” Edmonds athletic director Faimous Harrison said. “I think she’s off to a great start. She’s given me updates on the contacts that she’s making.

“Her goal right now is recruiting, bringing in enough players to fill two squads.”

Lum did not immediately return calls for comment.

Harrison said he was aware of only nine or 10 players, non-eligible and eligible, accounted for in the program prior to Karstens’ dismissal.

“I would honestly say even if Janessa (was) here, looking at where we’d been, we’d been in a recruiting crunch,” Harrison said.

Karstens had always fielded a team in her years as coach and said she had 11 or 12 players on board for the season. Karstens is now head softball coach at Shorecrest High School She said she is helping her former players, some of whom dropped out of school, find a new school where they can play.

Karstens was a two-time Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges North Division Coach of the Year, but on Jan. 2, Nicola Smith, senior associate dean for student life and development, e-mailed Karstens and told her a contract would not be offered back to her, citing a failure to follow college policy.

In the e-mail, Smith wrote, “It concerns me greatly that staff in my area choose not to follow our policies and procedures and put the college in liable situations … The business office, Faimous and myself went to great effort to provide coaches with meetings, handbooks, one on one trainings, and an open door policy in order to support and provide guidance for our staff. There is not anyone on college staff who has the freedom or permission (and on the coaching staff, the excuse) to not follow policy.”

In one incident, Karstens did not get pre-approval from her superiors at the college to do a raffle as a fundraiser to help the players buy cleats, bags, travel suits, sweats and other items, according to school officials.

The concern regarding the raffle was because of limits put on the college by the state gambling commission regarding raffles. Karstens did not have the approval required to run the raffle and told her players to stop selling the tickets. Only a couple tickets had been sold, she said.

Harrison e-mailed Karstens, writing, “when you and I talked about keeping an open channel of communication last year and that you would keep me informed ahead of time BEFORE you initiated anything on behalf of Edmonds Community College, I accepted that you were sincere. You are currently in violation of the College and State policies which is the last thing we need to be dealing with when we are starting our follow-up state audit.”

Karstens said she sent e-mails regarding fundraising but didn’t get the feedback she needed.

In December 2004, Harrison e-mailed Karstens to discuss “my concerns with your failure to respond to prior correspondence in a timely manner,” and listed eight items of concern.

Karstens said she and Harrison had “a difficult time communicating,” and added that she thought her questions to Harrison often went unanswered.

“I think it was on both ends,” Karstens said. “I made the attempt with him but it didn’t quite work.”

In another incident, Karstens gave organizers of a camp sponsored by Western Washington access to EdCC equipment including a tractor and bases. Karstens, according to a memo written by Smith, the dean, had been told before not to allow outsiders access to college-owned equipment because of liability concerns.

“I don’t hold any ill will toward Edmonds,” Karstens said. “I hope they have a team and it is successful.”