Sports Safety IQ

More Sex Abuse in Sports

It's hard to believe, but the stories of players abused by coaches  in youth sports continue to flood the news lately. Sadly enough, these are very real stories happening to kids who are passionate about sports, living in communities like ours. These sexual predators could be living in our neighborhood, coaching our kids. Yes, the threat is real ~ but no one wants to think about it because it's just too scary.

Here are some of the latest offenders:

• A Gulf Breeze, Florida basketball and softball coach was arrested upon his arrival in Michigan,  where he believed he was going to have sex with a 5 year old girl. The coach, 53 year old Roy Atchison, had been chatting on line for two weeks with a detective posing as the girl's mother. After one failed suicide attempt in prison, the coach succeeded in killing himself two weeks later. More here...

Coach as Predator

What if these were your children?

• 13 & 14-year old boys on an elite travel team went to Amsterdam for a tournament. The coaches were accused of inappropriately touching the boys and taking them to have sex with prostitutes in the red light district. Not long after allegations surfaced from this incident and charges were filed against the coaches, the head coach was found dead of an apparent suicide.
• A 15-year old girl went to an out-of-state tournament with her soccer team. Her 42-year old coach was convicted of getting her intoxicated and sexually assaulting her in his hotel room. He served 3 and 1/2 years in prison and is now a registered sex offender.