Parents voice complaints against coach in Stratford

Parents of Stratford varsity girls basketball players are again complaining to the Stratford Board of Education about how head coach Tammie Christopherson treats her players, three years after parents first began raising concerns about her style of coaching.

Paul Schueller and Troy Wiesman raised their concerns about Christopherson with school board members during the public participation forum at the beginning of Monday’s meeting.

Schueller said his senior daughter, Kamryn, was the Stratford varsity girls basketball team’s third-leading scorer before she recently quit the team. He said her reason for quitting the team wasn’t because she wasn’t receiving enough playing time, but rather because there are other issues in the girls basketball program.

“As a parent of an athlete, it was very hard for my wife and I to accept our daughter’s decision to quit the team and I just want to make the school board aware there is truly a concern from parents in the school district about the high school girls basketball program,” Schueller said.

Wiesman told the school board he’s contacted Stratford School District administration about inappropriate behavior and language Christopherson used with her players at the Jan. 16 girls basketball game against Edgar.

“I would like the school board to take a closer look at this incident and give clarity to the public on how this is going to be handled now and into the future,” Wiesman said. “I would like to request a record of any discipline given to the head coach be left open to the public so we all know what happened.”

Scott Winch, Stratford schools superintendent, said the school board didn’t take any action in closed session at the end of Monday’s meeting.

The Record-Review contacted Christopherson to get her response to the girls basketball players’ complaints about her, but she didn’t answer back before the newspaper’s deadline.