Kelly Cookson has had a productive 14 years as Brewer High’s varsity softball coach.

Four times her teams played for an Eastern Maine Class A championship, winning the title in 2004. Three times she has been named her conference’s coach of the year.

It is a tenure that had stood the test of time, but may not stand up to the changing times.

And that’s one issue that surrounds the decision relayed by Brewer superintendent of schools Daniel Lee to Cookson on Jan. 18 not to rehire her for the 2006 season. It was a move made amid the backdrop of a notice of claim seeking $1 million that was filed last October by a former Brewer softball player, her mother and stepfather against Cookson and others related to activities at a team cookout last spring.

The notice of claim alleges verbal abuse and physical threatening, with the most publicized issue concerning players walking through sheep feces, something that had become somewhat of an annual team tradition. It was something nearly all of the players did willingly, but at least one ultimately was not so willing.

It’s also the kind of “bonding” activity that a generation ago generally was accepted as a statement of team camaraderie, one often worthy of subsequent needling among teammates.

Similar activities certainly were more common in the days when Cookson was a star athlete at Brewer and the University of Maine at Presque Isle. But this is a different age, something of which those in all areas of coaching and teaching must be keenly aware.

As an athlete of mediocre proportions a generation ago, no doubt I’d have gone along with walking through sheep feces at a team cookout.

But in today’s social environment educators and coaches simply can’t place themselves in the position of putting kids through something that while seemingly innocuous has a less-than-appealing side considered at the very least questionable in other circles.

Different people see the same thing in very different ways every day, a fact of life that leads to debate, argument and litigation. Children and parents today feel much more empowered to challenge what they believe to be improper, and willing to take that challenge wherever it leads – even court.

Past and present Brewer softball players and their parents have rallied on Cookson’s behalf in recent weeks, as documented by 451 petition signatures presented at a recent Brewer school board meeting.

When the incident first came to light last year, Cookson and her assistant coaches were given letters of reprimand. But a change in superintendents ensued, followed by the threat of a lawsuit, given that a notice of claim often is the first step taken before a civil suit is filed.

Now Cookson is on the outside looking in as softball season approaches. While school administrators basically are required to say nothing more than “it’s a personnel issue” in explaining such decisions, it’s pretty easy to follow the timeline of what led to what.

And that raises another issue – does the discipline fit the incident? Without doubt a new coach in the same situation would not be rehired, but does someone with Kelly Cookson’s lengthy resume of coaching contributions to her alma mater deserve the same fate?

Assuming the “personnel issue” doesn’t involve anything else, a second chance seems in order.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net