Koenig Vs North Mason School District Team:

For the Plaintiff
Musadiq Bidar

Today, when a pitcher pitches more than a 100 pitches a big red alarm goes off in the heads of all coaches. This was not the case in 2001 when high school pitcher Jason Koenig threw about 425 pitches in a span of 16 days. In his last outing on April 27th, 2001 Koenig threw 140 pitches over nine innings. Anyone who watches, plays, or coaches’ baseball knows very well about the dangers of high pitch counts—especially with young athletes.
When Jason Koenig took the mound for North Mason High School’s 14 of 18 games he did so under the rules of Washington Interscholastic Activities Association. He had the mandatory two days rest in between pitching. After his last game in which he pitched 140 pitches, Koenig was injured. He would never pitch again in his life. Even with all the mandatory precautions I believe the coaches and the school district should be held liable for Koenig’s injuries.
Koenig sued the school district for negligence but the district was found not guilty because the pitching coach did not have enough information on the dangers of pitch counts to prevent his injury. I believe it is the coaches standard of care to keep his pitcher out of harms way. It is the coach’s duty and responsibility to act in a reasonable manner and provide for the safety of others. The coach failed to do this. Koenig’s mom suggested to Jay Hultberg (Koenig’s baseball coach) many times that he needed to take her son out of the game but he refused. Of course Koenig did not want to come out of the game both because he was the best player out there and felt the need to carry his team. The act to not act by the coach resulted in the injury Jason Koenig and he should be held liable because of negligence.
Koenig sued the school district because he wanted to change the rules. He wasn’t looking for much else. I believe if he had sued the coach himself, Koenig would have won the case. It is ironic that the coach was not mentioned at all in the complaint.


For the Defense

Samuel Mernick

In the case of Koenig vs. North Mason School District, it is clear that North Mason School district cannot be held accountable. This is because of an inherent lack of knowledge on the part of the head baseball coach, Jay Hultberg. While Hultberg is responsible for the safety and responsibility of his team, Hultberg, because of the standard of care, is not liable. Hultberg was never properly trained or made aware of that risks and dangers associated with high pitch counts. Since Hultberg had never been made aware of this, there was no breach of duty between Koenig and his coaches, because the standard of care was never determined beforehand in this scenario, which would have been done by Hultberg being officially informed through some accountable outlet, the risk of high pitch counts. Since Hultberg was unaware of these risks, he was at no point intentionally putting Koenig at risk or acting irresponsibility, out of the scope of his duty. He did not violate the standard of care, therefore cannot be held accountable.