Coaches!    (I sent this out to the coaches on my staff this morning, Feb 1, 2013)

I hope you are each doing well, and have a fun Super Bowl weekend planned.  It’s always a sad weekend for me, as it means the end of football for a few months!

Please take 4 minutes out of your day for this very important email.

Wanted to touch base with a sad story, and one that hits very close to home for me personally.

My absolute biggest nightmare as an Athletic Director, which I shared with you at our preseason coaches meeting, is having one of my coaches have an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student-athlete.

On Monday, one of my former football players was arrested for this very thing.  He played for me at Linfield in Temecula.  I saw him kicking a soccer ball around and asked him to try out for football.  He ended up playing for two years and earned a scholarship to kick at the University of Hawaii, where he had an outstanding career, was on their 2007 team that playerd in the Sugar Bowl

After graduation, he started his career as a coach at both the club level and at a local high school in Murrieta.

Details of this story are below in two different articles about his arrest.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/20877684/former-uh-kicker-arrested-for-soliciting-a-minor-for-sex

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/inland_empire&id=8974454

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened with a former athlete.  Another former football player of mine had a sexual relationship with the drama teacher during his senior year. That resulted in a pregnancy.  18 year old male with a drama teacher in her late 20s. That all started innocent enough on campus with her compliments of his acting skills.  Then it carried over to flirting in front of the class.  Then one on one meetings in her office at lunch time to study his lines.  Then voice lessons at her house.  You can see how this stuff ends up happening, and it all starts very innocent.

Coaches, a very SIMPLE way to ensure this never happens to you is by making sure that you are never alone with a student one on one!

This can be a hard policy to adhere to, but it is a powerful one to implement.  

It will keep you out of potential trouble and accusations.  This is especially important for male coaches with female players, although male coach-male player, female coach-male player and female coach-female player situations can happen; it is usually the male coach-female player situation that we see happen.

I just wanted to bring this matter to your attention as a simple reminder coaches, be diligent.  As Spring sports kicks off, and winter sports wind down, be diligent in this matter.

Don’t stay after practice with a student-athlete on one one; make sure another coach waits with you.

Don’t drive a student home by yourself.

Coaches should not have players to their house unless it is a team function with the entire team and other coaches in attendance.

You should not be going to a players house by yourself.

Texting players, social media with players should be avoided unless it is all about business. Don’t allow for “non athletic business” to be discussed via social media or texting with student-athletes; keep it to practice times, game changes, etc.

Please let me know if you have any questions coaches!  Have a great weekend!

Please let me know if you have any questions coaches!  Have a great weekend!