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USA Swimming banned coaches list
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http://www.usaswimming.org/...0011&ItemId=5107

This is a list of all individuals who have ever been banned by USA Swimming...FOR LIFE. There's another page that lists those who have been suspended for an indefinite amount of time. This one though is the worst of the worst, as it lists their offense. The overwhelming violation seems to be 303.3.4, or conviction of a crime involving sexual misconduct. These are people you do not want around your kids, essentially predators.

While the offending coaches are not allowed to coach swimming through USA Swimming ever again, it does not mean they can't start non-sanctioned swim clubs, non-sanctioned tri clubs, non-sanctioned polo clubs and I suppose if the parents are unaware enough they will register their children. Further, sex offenders are not registered for life and depending on the length of the prison sentence may only be registered for 5-10 years. So even though you may search the coach on something like the Megans law website, they may not be there.

One tri club in particular in San Diego was started by one of those listed on USA Swimmings banned list. This club has a decent website, "corporate partners" (ROKA being one, I'm guessing they just didn't do their homework, or someone snagged a logo off another site) and is sanctioned w/ Masters Swimming. Really USMS (isn't Masters affiliated w/ USA Swimming to some degree)? However, nowhere is USAT listed on their website. On the website there are pictures of kids. Kids at practice, kids at meets w/ ribbons, kids at triathlons. All photographed w/ the listed offending coach. The guy is clearly coaching kids swimming again. And while it may be legal in the eyes of the law (or maybe not, I don't know), do you want your kid swimming w/ a coach who was banned for life by USA Swimming for sexual misconduct. F&*K NO!

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I believe that usms is not affiliated with USA swimming, it is independently organized and affiliated directly with fina. Unlike masters swimming Canada, which is chartered through Swimming Canada.

However, anyone who has been banned by USA swimming should not be coaching anyone. Especially not kids.

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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I'd certainly stop being a member of said club. And make my reasons heard.

Not sure this forum is the right place for it, though.



Dispholidus wrote:
http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewMiscArticle.aspx?TabId=1963&mid=10011&ItemId=5107

This is a list of all individuals who have ever been banned by USA Swimming...FOR LIFE. There's another page that lists those who have been suspended for an indefinite amount of time. This one though is the worst of the worst, as it lists their offense. The overwhelming violation seems to be 303.3.4, or conviction of a crime involving sexual misconduct. These are people you do not want around your kids, essentially predators.

While the offending coaches are not allowed to coach swimming through USA Swimming ever again, it does not mean they can't start non-sanctioned swim clubs, non-sanctioned tri clubs, non-sanctioned polo clubs and I suppose if the parents are unaware enough they will register their children. Further, sex offenders are not registered for life and depending on the length of the prison sentence may only be registered for 5-10 years. So even though you may search the coach on something like the Megans law website, they may not be there.

One tri club in particular in San Diego was started by one of those listed on USA Swimmings banned list. This club has a decent website, "corporate partners" (ROKA being one, I'm guessing they just didn't do their homework, or someone snagged a logo off another site) and is sanctioned w/ Masters Swimming. Really USMS (isn't Masters affiliated w/ USA Swimming to some degree)? However, nowhere is USAT listed on their website. On the website there are pictures of kids. Kids at practice, kids at meets w/ ribbons, kids at triathlons. All photographed w/ the listed offending coach. The guy is clearly coaching kids swimming again. And while it may be legal in the eyes of the law (or maybe not, I don't know), do you want your kid swimming w/ a coach who was banned for life by USA Swimming for sexual misconduct. F&*K NO!
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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OP, so you want to out a coach; please do. No fear of libel or anything if you just state a fact that he is banned by US Swimming.

The number of coaches on that list is totally amazing.

One of my coaches as a kid is on that list. The amazing thing is that he was only banned in 2013. Mitch Ivey moved from club to club and school to school for years. Everyone "knew" he was involved with underage girls and he kept moving on. I think he married one girl just after she turned 18, and they had been together for a while. He was a big subject of 60 Minutes in like 1995? for his actions at Florida, I think. I was at my girlfriend's house with her parents. They were so shocked. I was like, "He was my coach and everyone in swimming know that"

US Swimming has a horrible history, almost Catholic Church like.

I don't see the name of someone that I thought was banned. I used to coach his wife in Masters. I'll have to see if I can find what happened to him.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Rumpled] [ In reply to ]
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There's a great article on outside about this
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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So what's the phenomenon here? Why are there so many swim coaces who are pervs? Are pervs drawn to the sport? Self-selecting somehow? Too much chlorine? WTF?
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I'm surprised that these guys are still alive and in one piece. That happens to my daughter and things are not going to go well for the coach. I'm no tough guy, but that's just how it is.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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That list is disturbingly long.

I have two daughters that are beginning to become serious about athletics and these things absolutely terrify me.

Formerly DrD
Last edited by: Broken Leg Guy: Aug 24, 16 6:07
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks for the heads up, Dispholidus.

Was not aware of this situation with a tri club coach who may have been banned by USA Swimming.

We are investigating, as there is no way we would knowingly work with or sponsor (directly or indirectly) a banned coach.

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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I started reading through the subsections that talk of the violations & then google searching on the names. I'm not sure why I expected most of the people on that list to be banned for PEDs or some kind of doping, but not one name I searched on came back for drug violations. Every one is sexually related. As a father, that's actually pretty terrifying.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I stumbled across that looking up an old coach a few years ago. He wasn't an offender listed on there. His name came up attached to it as a representative of USA swimming board or something like that. There's some articles about how it all came about if you google it.

ETA - just to be clear I was looking up my old coaches name to find an article. Not looking to see if he was on the banned list and nor would I expect him to be.

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Last edited by: Leddy: Aug 24, 16 7:41
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I read an article recently that it is dangerous to assume that a swim program is safe just because you child's coach is not on the list. The article gave examples of coaches that were not put on the list for many years after allegations surfaced, and even after convictions. The list also deals only with coaches and not the staff at the swim venue. Caution is and oversight are essential -- and of course that extends to all child sports programs, not just swimming.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Leddy] [ In reply to ]
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I'm not trying to be a poor mans Chris Hansen or anything, but I find it particularly disgusting when someone has committed a crime such as this and returns to the scene via circumventing the proper channels (in this case USA Swimming). From looking at the many pictures on the teams website (http://www.spartacustrainingandracing.com) it's a kids swim team with a masters team and tri team thrown in for good measure. It's particularly egregious that there are so many, and I mean so many, photos of the offending coach with young children. Again, as I stated in my OP, I have no clue what real world legal implications are in coaching kids again after some 20 years, maybe nothing at all. I would just likely chose a sanctioned club which keeps records such as this.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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Dispholidus wrote:
but I find it particularly disgusting when someone has committed a crime such as this and returns to the scene via circumventing the proper channels


Ironically probably the most well-known and arguably most successful coach in triathlon did exactly this.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Jason80134] [ In reply to ]
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So what's the phenomenon here? Why are there so many swim coaces who are pervs? Are pervs drawn to the sport? Self-selecting somehow? Too much chlorine? WTF?

Perverted swim coaches are not unique in youth sports, all sports have this issue. But USA Swimming has been better, at least of late, of policing their ranks and prominently publishing a ban list than other sports have been. They have a long list, but at least they have a list!

One thing swimming has going for it is that from a governing body standpoint it is much less fragmented than other youth sports (e.g . soccer, hockey) so it is a bit easier for swimming to actually stop bad coaches from just moving from club to club. While not all coaches need to be affiliated with USA Swimming, virtually all decent clubs will have that affiliation and thus be required to do a back ground check. Non affiliated clubs (e.g. YMCA teams) do look at the USA Swimming list if they are competent.

That being said, there are two things that make swimming a bit different from most other sports. One is a very high participation rate of girls (at least 50%) so it is a bit of a more fertile ground for perverted men, And, swimmers tends to have long term relationships with coaches extending over many years, unlike hockey or soccer where kids tend to move on to a new coach every year or two. That can give more of an opportunity for long term grooming of victims.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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I think, unfortunately, that one can make some sad comparisons between usa swimming and the catholic church ... Both look the other way as they throw the kids under the bus ...

It is not good.
Read and weep:
http://www.outsideonline.com/...ng-USA-Swimming.html

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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Rumpled] [ In reply to ]
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Mitch had a stint with Etobicoke (Toronto) after Papa Paul Bergen left.

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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [STP] [ In reply to ]
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STP wrote:
Quote:
So what's the phenomenon here? Why are there so many swim coaces who are pervs? Are pervs drawn to the sport? Self-selecting somehow? Too much chlorine? WTF?


Perverted swim coaches are not unique in youth sports, all sports have this issue. But USA Swimming has been better, at least of late, of policing their ranks and prominently publishing a ban list than other sports have been. They have a long list, but at least they have a list!

One thing swimming has going for it is that from a governing body standpoint it is much less fragmented than other youth sports (e.g . soccer, hockey) so it is a bit easier for swimming to actually stop bad coaches from just moving from club to club. While not all coaches need to be affiliated with USA Swimming, virtually all decent clubs will have that affiliation and thus be required to do a back ground check. Non affiliated clubs (e.g. YMCA teams) do look at the USA Swimming list if they are competent.

That being said, there are two things that make swimming a bit different from most other sports. One is a very high participation rate of girls (at least 50%) so it is a bit of a more fertile ground for perverted men, And, swimmers tends to have long term relationships with coaches extending over many years, unlike hockey or soccer where kids tend to move on to a new coach every year or two. That can give more of an opportunity for long term grooming of victims.



That's the question: Is the frequency of perv coaching higher in swimming vs. other youth sports? Anecdotally it seems to me that it is. I could be totally wrong, but that's just my unscientific observation and I've been around a lot of youth sports with my kids over the years, including doing some coaching myself (soccer).

I think you probably identified a key factor in the long term relationships. You don't typically see that in most other youth sports.

Also, are we talking perving with a 17 year old girl who looks like she's 24? That is of course completely wrong for a million reasons, but perving with an eight year old is whole nuther level of f'ed up.
Last edited by: Jason80134: Aug 24, 16 8:29
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Jason80134] [ In reply to ]
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I don't think its a bigger issue in swimming than other situations where adults come in regular contact with kids. I live in a big city and it seems every month or so a mug shot of someone involved in youth sports is on TV after they have been arrested for some form of molestation or hidden locker room camera usage. Actually, I'm tuned into the swimming part of it (I even know a swim coach who went to prison for a bit) and based on that knowledge and watching the news, it seems about 5 hockey and soccer coaches are busted for every one swim coach. (And, locally there has been a rather strange run of female teachers with 9th grade boyfriends over the last few years too).

There is also the effect of increased attention. Swimming had a few high profile cases a while back and really beefed up their attention to this issue. In some ways this may be like the question of whether there more dopers in cycling than major league baseball or the NFL or is testing regime just more aggressive in cycling than the NFL or MLB?
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [trail] [ In reply to ]
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trail wrote:
Dispholidus wrote:
but I find it particularly disgusting when someone has committed a crime such as this and returns to the scene via circumventing the proper channels



Ironically probably the most well-known and arguably most successful coach in triathlon did exactly this.

And this is exactly why it is such a problem that people just look the other way with Sutton. Even if he is a better man now his mere presence is a beacon to others that may not be.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Jason80134] [ In reply to ]
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Also, are we talking perving with a 17 year old girl who looks like she's 24? That is of course completely wrong for a million reasons, but perving with an eight year old is whole nuther level of f'ed up.

I'd agree that when abuse does occur by a swim coach, the 16-17 year old "relationship" is more typical of what goes wrong with swim coaches. I've heard that story of few times and that is how one of my kids' coaches ended up in prison. And, then there is the guy who never gets accused of anything but marries the 22 year old he has been coaching since she was 12. But, having been around swimming in one form or another for 45 years, I have never heard anything like taking pictures in the locker room of 8 year old boys and putting them up on a Russian child porn site (local story involving a camp counselor) or the Penn State type of locker room abuse of young boys. I will say that knowing several swim coaches, they are extremely vigilant about avoiding even the appearance of impropriety. It is a huge issue that has very high attention with any decent coach.

Anyone with kids who puts them in the care of another human needs to be aware and vigilant. There are bad people out there!
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [STP] [ In reply to ]
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Roger that. I hear you.

It's a viscous cycle. I believe a lot of molesters where actually molested themselves when they were young. It's a sad deal.

As a parent, I think you just don't want your kids to be alone with other adults one on one. I can't think of many reasons adults would ever need to be alone with one of my kids. Maybe a one off situation getting a ride home or something, but nothing that is a recurring pattern.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [STP] [ In reply to ]
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That makes a little more sense. The 17 year old girl thing and the Penn State showering with young boys thing are not the same. No excuses for the 17 year old girl thing, but, you know, it's just not the same.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [Dispholidus] [ In reply to ]
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Anyone read the footnotes at the bottom?

The scariest ones to me are the ones who registered with aliases. One of these guys has SIX aliases.
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Re: USA Swimming banned coaches list [STP] [ In reply to ]
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I think USA Swimming is trying very hard to deal with the problem.


I recently went through the process of getting certified as a USA Swimming Stroke & Turn Judge.

Besides the rules tests and on-deck apprenticeship, you also have to submit to a Level 2 Background Test, and complete their Athlete Protection Training.

A big focus of the Athlete Protection Training is recognizing types of behaviors that might indicate inappropriate relationships or activities. Very much in the vein of "if you see something, say something" .

Even though there are reciprocal relationships between USA Swimming and the state high school officials association, I still had to get fingerprinted in order to work at high school meets.
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