SportsLetter

Preventing sexual abuse in youth sports

MomsTeam.com has some excellent information on preventing sexual abuse in youth sports.

From the page: Background Checks A Good First Step:

Coach And Player: Never Alone

There a variety of steps a parent can take to protect their child from sexual predators. By far the most important step is to make sure your child is never alone with the coach by instituting a two-adult rule. Such a rule is good because it:

•Protects the child: A child is vulnerable to sexual abuse by a coach because he or she inherently trusts the coach and may be unable and unwilling to accept an abuse of that trust. If the coach is never alone with a child, the child is protected from being a victim of sexual molestation; and

•Protects the coach: Prohibiting a coach and player from being alone also protects the coach from accusation or innuendo that something could have gone wrong. A coach's career can be destroyed if the accusation of inappropriate behavior is made because the coach has no way of defending himself if he was alone with a child. This is a simple but powerful protection for all people involved. If an opportunity for inappropriate behavior never exists then inappropriate behavior cannot be alleged. Neither is inappropriate behavior likely.

Teaching safe versus unsafe touching

Parents should also be proactive in establishing a safe environment for their kids as well making sure adults act appropriately. Children should be taught how to determine what is safe touch and what is bad touch. In youth sports, touching does occur. But it is imperative that the child feels comfortable with the type of touch that is appropriate in sports and can determine if a coach or player has stepped over that line into inappropriate touching.

Free Speech vs Common Sense

A girls high school basketball coach in Matteson, Illinois, resigned as coach after the contents of his "graphic" self-published, self-help book on sex, women and empowerment resulted in him being placed on paid administrative leave from his job as a school guidance counselor pending an investigation.

Some of the "racier" details of Rich Central High School girls varsity basketball coach Bryan Craig's book, "It's Her Fault," were published online Friday by The SouthtownStar.  According to the article, the point of the book "was to give women a 'road map to having the upper hand in a relationship with a man.'"

The SouthtownStar quoted from Craig's book:

“I coach girls basketball, work in an office where I am the only male counselor, and am responsible for roughly 425 high school students a year, about half of whom are females,” Craig wrote. “Suffice it to say, I have spent a considerable amount of time around, and with, the fairer sex.”

and

“The easiest kill for a man is through the young lady with low self-esteem,” Craig wrote in the book. “Of course some will feel this is taking advantage, and yes it is. The ultimate goal for a man is to do all he can to eventually be able to commit and submit to a woman’s power.”

And from the Chicago Sun-Times:

“In some cases, strippers and dancers show the overall dominance a woman can have over a man,” Craig wrote. “Not to say that stripping is what has to be done to truly establish dominance, but these women’s mind set is in the right place in order to meet the true potential of the point of this book.”

According to SouthtownStar Rich Township High School District 227 Supt. Donna Simpson had known about the book and its contents for nearly a week but had said that Craig “has his constitutional right to free speech.”

From the Sun-Times:

“Please don’t tell me anymore,” said Rich Township High School District 227 School Board President Betty Owens when told of the book’s racy details by the SouthtownStar ...

“It’s distasteful, it’s inappropriate, and it wouldn’t be on my list of things to read,” Owens said.

The district now is "investigating" the 44-page book, available on Amazon.  We wonder if the district will buy each board member a copy.

Independent report on Penn State, Sandusky and child abuse

The report from the independent investigation "into the facts and circumstances of the actions of The Pennsylvania State University surrounding the child abuse committed by a former employee, Gerald A. Sandusky" will be released on the Freeh Report on PSU website at 9 a.m. Eastern on Thursday, July 12, 2012.

The investigation was done by former FBI chief Louis Freeh and his law firm Freeh Sporkin & Sullivan, LLP.

SL Interview: Chris Gavagan's documentary on sexual abuse in youth sports

In November of 2011, a grand jury in Pennsylvania indicted former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky on charges that he had sexually abused young boys from his Second Mile foundation for at-risk youth.  The lurid accusations made front-page headlines and shocked the entire nation.  All except for one group: past victims of such abuse.

As a teen, Chris Gavagan was an aspiring hockey player who was looking forward to trying out for his high school team in New York City.  But from the moment his youth coach targeted him at age 14, Gavagan said, his life was changed forever.  He told nobody what had happened and, instead, became an angry "time-bomb" unleashed into the world.

After high school, Gavagan studied film while attending New York University.  In November of 2009, or about two years before the charges involving Jerry Sandusky were revealed publicly, Gavagan began shooting a documentary film about sexual abuse involving male coaches and male youth athletes.

The film, titled "Coached into Silence," includes interviews with anonymous athletes, with professional hockey player Sheldon Kennedy, and with his former coach.  It is a work-in-progress that Gavagan hopes to have completed by the end of this summer.

SportsLetter spoke to Gavagan by phone from his home in Brooklyn, where he and his wife recently celebrated the birth of their first child.

--David Davis

Editor's Note: This interview contains language of a graphic nature. 

Old school post-youth-baseball-game family brawl

The end of a youth baseball game saw an 84-year-old great-grandmother shoved to the ground and one grandfather hit another in the head with a baseball bat. 

The incident occurred at the end of a baseball game at the Peaster, Texas, Little League field.

Donna and Bryan Willmott, along with Donna's 84-year-old mother, approached the Willmott's grandson after the game only to be thwarted by the boy's mother.  The boy's parents are separated.

From the Star-Telegram:

Donna Willmott said as they approached the dugout, they told the boy's mother they only wanted to hug him.

However, the mother became alarmed as the trio got closer and screamed "don't touch my son!" said Donna Willmott, 53.

"She pushed my 84-year-old mother and made her fall to the ground," Donna Willmott said.

The situation worsened, according to Donna Willmott, when the boy's other grandfather picked up an aluminum bat and pounded Bryan Willmott on the back of his head, hitting him three times.

She said her husband had to get five staples to close the wound and that he suffered a concussion.

Bystanders and other, presumably, more peaceable relatives pulled the feuding family members apart as an ambulance and sheriff's deputies were called.

No arrests were made.

From the Star-Telegram:

Sheriff's spokeswoman Danie Huffman explained that, because the deputies did not witness the assault and nobody was in danger when they arrived, they could not make an arrest.

"It isn't that the deputies refused to arrest anyone," Huffman said. "The parties were separated so the threat was resolved."

At least until the next family picnic.

I got your role model right here!

A youth rugby team has been suspended after its president and a coach were accused of offering team players money for "big hits" on players from opposing teams.

According Dan Noyes from ABC's KGO-TV in San Francisco, Wesley Van Tonder and his son, Wes Jr., allegedly offered cash payments to members of their Bay area youth rugby club, the Martinez Raptors, for hard hits on opposing players. 

The Van Tonder's have denied offering the bounties but a player from the Raptors under-14 team confirmed that "that the Van Tonders offered that boy and his teammates money for hits that would knock Lamorinda [Rugby] players out of the game."

From KGO-TV:

"And the father was particularly upset that once the investigation began that apparently there had been a meeting of some sort telling the kids, 'Don't say anything about it or else,' and 'or else' was kind of left open," said [Northern California Youth Rugby Association (NCYRA) disciplinary chairman Matt] Eason.

Also from KGO-TV:

The league announced its decision in an email to coaches and parents:

•All of the Raptor teams are suspended until Jan. 1; they'll miss the summer season
•They forfeit all of last season's matches
•Wesley Van Tonder and his son are suspended from rugby for three years

There has been some speculation that the idea of bounties came from the recent NFL scandal involving the suspension of New Orleans Saints players and coaches for cash payments made to Saints for injuring opposing players, including members of the San Francisco 49ers.

Said one parent from another rugby club:

"There's no room for that at this level of youth sports or in any level. There's no room for bounties."

It's the parents, stupid

Youth sports news out of Longview, Texas, this weekend was good as some 100 youth basketball and baseball teams visited the area for tournaments, reports KYTX News:

City leaders say it's one of the biggest sports weekends of the year, with more than 1,200 players competing.

"There's actually between 3 different tournaments, 112 teams here in Longview this weekend so that's a lot of players, [and] a lot of family," [City of Longview spokesperson Shawn] Hara said.

The city's parks and rec department expects this tournament weekend alone to bring in more than $1 million. City leaders say sports tourism as a whole is a growing part of Longview's local economy.

Meanwhile, a few hours down U.S. Route 79 in Bryan, parents were being removed from the stands at a boys middle school basketball tournament.

From TheEagle.com:

Bryan police were called twice to Rudder High School on Sunday after parents attending a boys middle school basketball tournament caused disturbances in the bleachers.

The exact details were unclear and police didn't write an official report. But tournament organizers eventually kicked all of the parents out of the gym and the kids then finished the tournament in front of empty stands, police said.

Well, maybe the parents spent some money at the local DQ while they waited for the games to end.

BAD DADS OF YOUTH SPORTS month continues

Last week a Michigan City, Ind., father was arrested for attacking his daughter's middle school assistant basketball coach because the coach had made the man's daughter run laps after practice.

As reported by WSBT:

During practice two players got into an argument and were punished by being made to run laps inside the gym.

When 37-year-old Shelly S. Miller, the father of one of those players, arrived at the school police say he was angered by his daughter's punishment so he approached assistant coach Jeffrey Yackus and punched him. Yackus was knocked to the ground and police say Miller climbed on top of him and continued punching him in the face and head, rendering him unconscious.

Allegedly Miller only stopped punching Yackus after St. Stanislaus School head basketball coach Robert Johnson pulled Miller off of his unconscious assistant.  Miller and his daughter immediately left the school and the injured Yackus was taken to the hospital.

According to WSBT the Miller "family is no longer affiliated with the parish or the school."

Miller was later arrested and charged with battery for the March 7th attack .  This past Monday he posted a $15,000 bond.

According to Yahoo Sports' Prep Rally and WSBT there are some in the community who justified Miller's attack.

From WSBT:

"Yeah, he hit a coach. [So what?]" said Wynter Goodwin. Her remarks were followed by several expletives and charges of racism.

Goodwin believes Miller has been disenfranchised. She compared his situation to other incidents in Michigan City. When WSBT'S John Paul asked how Miller's case was a racial issue when he was charged for punching the coach, Goodwin replied,"So what are you saying, he wasn't supposed to?"

and

"If the coach is ******* with your kid, what are you to do?" said Goodwin. "You can't talk to him."  Goodwin said Miller went to the school "five times" to talk to the coach.

If there is a story behind Miller's attack on Yackus, Miller will have an opportunity to tell it when he appears in court on May 3.

Insert your own Mike Tyson joke here

A Springfield, Mass., parent has been charged with multiple offenses after being accused of punching the face of a Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) basketball coach and biting off part of the coach's ear.

From Masslive.com:

Timothy L. Forbes, a 34-year-old Springfield resident, is accused of biting off part of a winning CYO coach's ear after the team Forbes was rooting for lost a championship children's basketball game on Friday at Holy Name School on Alderman Street in the city's Forest Park neighborhood.

and

As young players ranging in age from about 10 to 12 went onto the court to shake hands at the conclusion of Friday's game, Forbes struck the winning coach in the face and body with his fist, then bit off a piece of the man's left ear, Hampden Assistant District Attorney Marie Angers said.

Children were crying and knocked to the ground during the incident, according to Angers, who urged Springfield District Court Judge William J. Boyle to hold Forbes without bail.

Forbes has pleaded not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and mayhem, and will remain in jail until a hearing Friday determines whether he is "too dangerous to be released from custody."

The injured sixth-grade boys basketball coach underwent surgery to reattach his severed ear. 

All Mr. Forbes' son lost was a game.

Hockey dad shines laser pointer at opponent

The father of a hockey player shined a laser pointer at the opponents of his daughter's team during a high school playoff game, reports the Boston Globe.

From the Globe:

In a head-shaking display of parental misconduct, the father of a Winthrop High School hockey player shined a laser pointer on the ice at a girls playoff game Wednesday night, in a bizarre attempt to distract players on the opposing team, state hockey officials and fans say.

Fans, coaches, and players noticed the green light bouncing around Larsen Rink in Winthrop, and officials halted play. The unidentified man, who had caused disruptions at previous Winthrop games and was sitting alone in the stands, was promptly kicked out of the rink and has been banned from all school events.

One Medway-Ashland parent said "the quarter-sized beam of light bounced quickly around the goal area and often came to rest right on the goalie’s mask:"

"You could see the green flickering off the metal of her mask," she said. "After we scored that first goal it really intensified. It was moving all over."

Officials allowed the game to continue after removing the “smirking” parent.  Winthrop High School eventually defeated Medway-Ashland 3-1 and, despite protests from Medway-Ashland, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) upheld the final score.

Medway-Ashland coach Kurt Carter was upset that his team's season ended in such a bizarre fashion and was baffled by the behavior the father:

"I guess I’m disappointed in human nature," he said.