Dear parents of the Boys 5/6 Fall Cup soccer team and members of the greater Hornell community,

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Melanie Collins, and I’m Quinn Collins’ mom. I’ve created this petition to ask for your support for my 10 year old son Quinn.

I'd like to tell you a story about retaliation, intimidation, and a complete set up from the start that has resulted in the Hornell Youth Soccer board informing me that my son will be removed from this years Fall Cup 5/6  team as a result of a personal conflict with Kerrigan Lisi a Hornell Youth Soccer board member and one of the Fall Cup coaches.

This all goes back to Hornell Little League spring 2026, when my husband was coaching the Cider Creek team as an assistant coach to Kerrigan Lisi.  My husband and I were receiving complaints from families on the team regarding Kerrigan's coaching and the impact it was having on their children. As a member of the board, my husband had an obligation to share those concerns with his fellow board members.  This packet of board letters will give you the entire background if you're interested in reading. Every letter is from my husband to the Hornell Little League Board.  (all names in the document have been redacted except mine, my husbands,  and Kerrigans.)

At the conclusion of this Little League nightmare,  Kerrigan informed me over text that “It has been decided that Quinn will never be coached by me again because I will never put myself in that position again with your family.”  She also informed me that she wouldn't be a part of board decisions about my son regarding soccer. 

Fast forward to last week Thursday, September 24th. I received this text from Sandy Hillman of the Youth Soccer board.

I met with the board and they asked me if I had concerns. I expressed my concern for two reasons 1. Kerrigan stated she'd never coach Quinn again and 2. During baseball season she informed soccer families that she'll be coaching boys 5/6 indoor season. My concern, as per the text messages above are simply - then where does that put Quinn. Does that mean he doesn't get to play soccer in Hornell until he's in 7th grade? The board assured me that Quinn would never be treated differently because of a personal issue involving adults and that decisions about him would be based on soccer. They also  assured me that they would never prevent any child from having an opportunity to play and that all kids who were on the team, earned their spot due to merit.  Satisfied with this, I thanked the board for their time and the meeting ended.  At that time, I had not been informed of the date of the tournament or when practice was being held. 

What happens next is the set up that lead to his removal. What you'll read next is a series of text messages where I'm trying to figure out practice times and the date of the tournament.

The next day, Friday September 25th Quinn came home from school and told me that all of the kids at school said there was fall cup practice that evening. Confused because I wasn't informed, I messaged a board member who was at the meeting the night before and asked if there was practice. This is the response I received. 

Then I messaged Kerrigan and asked to be added to the team group message where I assumed families were being communicated with:

The next day, Saturday September 26th, after the first practice took place the night before -  the team group message was created.  This is the first message Kerrigan sent to the team:

Did you catch that??  "with a roster we can feel comfortable coaching with and parents we can feel comfortable coaching for. This is an optional team and not mandatory for any child to be on." 

Who do you think that was targeted at? 

After this, I messaged the group text to seek answers about practice and the date of the tournament.

Kerrigan's response put the conflict with our family on display. I believe it's aggressive and disrespectful. I asked her to tone it down privately.

 

From there I can only imagine that Kerrigan petitioned the board (remember when she said she wouldn't be involved in decisions regarding Quinn in the text above???) to have Quinn removed from the team. Because yesterday, the Hornell Youth Soccer Board called me down to the field at 5:15p before a 5:30p practice.  The entire Youth Soccer Board, including Kerrigan, was present for the meeting. They informed me that a decision had been made to remove Quinn from the Fall Cup 5/6  team. The reason given to me was the ongoing difficulty in communication between coach Kerrigan Lisi and me.

Let's be honest with ourselves, is that really the reason?

While I was meeting with the board last night (because it lasted more than 15 minutes) Quinn was literally on the field practicing with his teammates, completely unaware that the adults  were discussing removing him from the team.

The board encouraged me to take him off the field and tell him what had been decided. I refused. I told them that if they are going to remove a 10-year-old child from a team he earned a place on for reasons unrelated to his behavior or soccer performance, then I believe the adults making that decision should be responsible for explaining it to him. Kerrigan looked at me and told me that it wasn't her responsibility.

Not knowing that we were going to be told Quinn was removed from the team, my husband arrived to the fields as the board was disbursing from the meeting. We both stayed behind to talk to a board member further about what had just transpired since my husband wasn't a part of the conversation. We expressed that this is all due to bias and retaliation from little league, and that the decision is being made without the soccer board's full history or context on the situation. The board member asked if we could come to a personal resolution with Kerrigan because it could help. We shared with the board member that in regards to practices and the tournament we will be respectful, we will be cordial and we won’t cause any issues on the field. We're there to support our kid and his teammates who have worked so very hard. far.  The only thing we’ve asked for is respectful communication and no bias against our son. Nothing more or nothing less. 

We let that board member know that we do not accept this decision and they need to re-evaluate the series of events.  We were asked to provide documentation from Little League so that they could more objectively review the situation - and we were told we'd hear from the board on Friday.

Last night though, Sandy Hillman send me this text.

As you can see I told Sandy that my husband, Kevin would be in touch. This was the response he sent this morning.

 

I want to be very clear about something - this decision was not based on Quinn’s soccer ability, his behavior, his effort, or anything he did. But now Quinn is the person facing the consequence. 

Parents and coaches will not always see things the same way. We all take our children's personal well being very seriously, and my husband and I take the well being of all of the children in the community very seriously. With most people that shouldn't cause such heated disagreements, but in this case it has. Regardless of the circumstances...children should not lose opportunities because adults cannot resolve their differences. What happened to doing what’s best for the kids? This has turned into what’s best for adults. We'd like to know,  what precedent is this decision based on? 

Quinn made this team. Quinn loves soccer. Quinn loves his teammates. He has practiced incredibly hard, and soccer has become one of the most important and positive things in his life. Removing him from this team for something he had absolutely no involvement in will devastate him. The psychological impacts of this will be very long lasting.

Let's be honest about what this is. This is retaliation from Little League.  This is one person in our community, Kerrigan Lisi, using intimidation to prevent our son from having opportunities. This was a complete and total set up. I am not asking for special treatment for Quinn. I am simply asking that Quinn be allowed to remain on the team he already made  and been practicing with and that decisions involving him be based on his ability, effort, behavior and performance — rather than disagreements between adults.

My hope is not to create more conflict. My hope is that enough people will sign our petition and speak up that the board will reconsider this decision before Quinn is hurt by something that was never his doing. This is not only to stand up for Quinn but all future kids who come through this program, because your kid could be next.

If you believe that children should not be removed from youth sports teams because of conflicts between adults, I am asking you to please support us. You may also contact the Hornell Youth Soccer Board directly at: hornellyouthsoccer@gmail.com. If you do send an email, I would appreciate it if you copied me on it (my email is melanie@cidercreekhardcider.com) so I can thank you for your support and know that the message was received.

By signing this petition you are voicing your support for Quinn to remain a member of this team (which he earned) and be afforded the same treatment and opportunities as his teammates and their families. Thank you for taking the time to read this and for supporting a kid who simply wants to play soccer with his teammates.