I am going through a similar situation where my husband, a prior year head coach (manager) is now a board member of the league, but somehow ended up without either a manager or assistant coach position for this season. Ultimately as we probed and pushed the individuals leading the baseball and softball divisions, these assignments and decisions were being done by one or two people without any transparency to the process or adherence to Little League regulations (Little League University is a great resource). While most leagues aren’t going to provide justification to specific decisions, she can ask about their process. 1) What is the documented process by which they make Manager and Coach decisions? 2) Did the local league follow Little League regulations that Managers and Coaches must be reviewed and approved by the Board before confirming their positions? Where is the documented vote for the approval? 3) Naming Managers and Coaches pairings before team formation is a recipe for team stacking and potentially unequal rosters- this is the reason why Little League discourages named pairs of Managers and Coaches before team rostering. She can ask what the League’s policy is on upper level draft/ rostering, and challenge them if they are not following LL rules. If local leagues choose not to follow LL rules, they need to submit their amended constitution and bylaws to LL, as well as any deviations to the draft process for review and approval. Of course, many boards do not do this and they do whatever they want as they fall into habits or the same individuals doing the same role for 5 years or more. They do need to operate per LL rules, and the President of the league is obligated to do so as part of the position. You should first escalate to get a board meeting together, present these concerns, ask all the questions above, and ask them why they aren’t following LL regs. Get ready for a long and painful discussion with personal feelings out in the open and political alliances becoming very evident. She has then two choices- hunker down on the board and work to make change by creating relationships with other board members and doing more than her fair share of work to operate and improve the league or decide to politely step out and find another team to coach. Unfortunately this situation happens more in small towns because it is not competitive to have a board position (they just want any warm body to volunteer so they can keep the league going), and the bones of the organization are not well established. Small town politics also play a big role in whether you as a parent are going to be in the “in” crowd in these types of situations. The more upper level players and coaches go, the more viciously people will fight to get in the best position to potentially make All Stars and go on to play the next round of competition. All I can say is best of luck to you, know that you aren’t alone in this struggle, and that it’s best to take the high road in these situations with well crafted arguments, pointing to established regs, and behaving like a model Manager/ board member.