Background Checks for Volunteer Coaches

While thinking about this week’s blog post I was thinking about writing a follow up to my last week’s article about being flappable vs unflappable; especially after Scotty Scheffler was arrested before the 2nd round of the PGA Championship.  I was hoping that Scotty would walk away with a win a validate my thoughts that Scheffler is truly unflappable, but alas, Scheffler’s 3rd round was less than spectacular and while he rallied in the 4th round to finish in a tie for 8th place…not bad considering what he went through, it left me with nothing to write.  So, while I was cleaning out my emails and I came across an email from the National Alliance for Youth Sports (NAYS) and two articles caught my eye.  Both dealt with coaches and sexual impropriety.  The 1st dealt with a coach in North Carolina accused of Sex Trafficking and the 2nd dealt with a coach from New Jersey that is accused of sexual improprieties with children between the ages of 11 to 17.  Now this may be a tough subject to talk about and write about its one that needs to be out in the open, so parents know who is coaching their children.

            A September 13, 1999, Sports Illustrated article entitled “Who’s Coaching your Children” discussed how child predators found a home in youth sports and how they gained the trust and loyalty of kids and then preyed on them. The article goes on to explain how a coach who turns out to be a sexual predator is every parent’s nightmare.  Fast forward to 2024 and things have not changed and, in my opinion, has gotten worse due to the advent of the internet and all the social media that is available to both adults and children. The case of the New Jersey coach deals with “a youth soccer coach who is facing multiple charges after officials say that he distributed sexually explicit images to at least eight student athletes under his supervision and inappropriately touched two of them.” 

The 1999 SI article explains how coaches would go about “grooming” children and then how they preyed on them and finally sexually assaulted them. At that time, the coaches would have to do all grooming of the children personally and face to face due to the lack of the internet and social media as the internet was in its infancy and social media did not exist.  Today, due to the advent of social media, texting and the diverse types of “chats” that are available, and with some parents not monitoring their children’s social media, everyone is within a few keystrokes of each other and most of it is unregulated.  The New Jersey coach was caught when one of players told officials that the coach solicited her on a social media app. My question is why does an adult have a child’s cellphone number on their phone?  When I was coaching, at first I resisted texting parents and would call them whenever I needed to talk to them regarding the team; however, as time went on I realized that texting was a much easier way to get out mass communication quickly and efficiently, but I NEVER had a child who was on my team phone number in my phone, in fact, the only children’s phone numbers that were in my cell phone were my two children and my two nephews and that was it.  I would have no reason to need to text one of the children on any of my teams and any communication would go through their parents.

A quick google search shows that there seem to be few, if any standards when it comes to background checking volunteers.  Some organizations do checks and others do not and even those organizations that do the checks do not seem to have standards that they use so things can be missed. NAYS believes, and recreation professionals agree, it is the responsibility of the public entity to have proper control and oversight of all youth sports programs in their community. The Recommendations for Communities is a document that provides the tools and support to help community leaders establish a strong and positive youth sports culture.  They go on to further state that while there is no way to be 100 percent certain about any person working in youth sports, be sure to take preventative measures that will lead to a safer experience for all.

•       Screening is a pro-active approach to ensure the organization has the right type of volunteers in all positions.

•       A comprehensive background check should be conducted on every potential volunteer that has direct involvement with athletes.

•       Volunteer screening must be consistent. Abide by your organization’s written policies.

•       Organizations must never rely on any one factor when determining the competency and safety of a prospective volunteer. There are several criteria a volunteer must meet to be considered suitable to work with children.

•       The more steps an organization takes, the thicker its protective shield. In addition to background checks, an organization should provide training, continuous supervision, and accountability.

As stated earlier this is a touchy subject because the majority of individuals who are volunteering to coach do so with good intentions and may feel put out by going through a background check; however, it is the responsibility of league officials to ensure that our children are being protected and leagues must do whatever is necessary to ensure that they are protected to the fullest extent possible.