Category Archives: coach background check

Sex offender, Bloomington youth coach gets 12 years for molesting girls

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A convicted sex offender and former Bloomington youth sports coach has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for molesting two girls at a hotel room where he was supposed to be baby-sitting last spring.

Randy Lee Ronning, 37, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. Hennepin County District Judge Cara Lee Neville sentenced him Wednesday.

Ronning, of Bloomington, was charged in April 2009, after a witness saw him molest a girl at the Bloomington Days Inn. One girl told police he touched her inappropriately, and the other said that Ronning, her longtime baby sitter, had molested her since she was 8.

Ronning, who was convicted in 1992 of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct, helped coach floor hockey in 2008 and softball in 2006 for the Bloomington Athletic Association. The teams were for girls ages 8 to 10.

ABBY SIMONS

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Coach Background checks

Child porn suspect fired from youth sports post

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Child Porn SuspectBy Michael R. Sisak (Staff Writer)
Published: April 27, 2010

A Back Mountain sports official arrested last week for possessing dozens of child pornography videos and photographs has been dismissed as the president of a youth basketball organization and suspended from refereeing and umpiring at the high school level.

George F. Gracely will not have “any further involvement” with the Dallas Youth Basketball Association and has been barred from working as a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association game official pending the outcome of his case, the organizations said Monday.

Gracely, 51, of Harveys Lake, was charged last Wednesday with 70 counts of sexual abuse of children for possession of pornographic videos and images that showed boys as young as 7 committing graphic sex acts.

Gracely had at least seven pornographic video tapes, one DVD and 60 printed images, according to an arrest affidavit. Gracely ordered the tapes through the mail, paying $164.85 with a personal check, the affidavit said. Investigators found some of the videos under his bed, the affidavit said.

Gracely, free on $75,000 bond, is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing Thursday before Magistrate James E. Tupper in Trucksville. A person who answered at the telephone number listed for Gracely’s Harveys Lake home quickly hung up before a reporter could ask for comment.

The Dallas Youth Basketball Association’s board of directors met Friday and voted unanimously to relieve Gracely of his duties and appoint Vice President Scott Jenkins in his place. Gracely did not attend the meeting, the statement said.

Jenkins said last week he was unaware of Gracely’s alleged penchant for child pornography until he heard of the charges last Wednesday. He said he knew of no allegations Gracely abused the children he coached or officiated.

msisak@citizensvoice.com            

570-821-2061      

Coach Background Checks

Florida Senate Passes Bill For Coach Background Checks

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The Florida Senate recently passed a bill mandating coach background checks.

Youth sports coaches would have to undergo background checks under a bill unanimously passed by the Florida Senate.

The chamber Friday sent the legislation (SB 150) to the House where a similar measure is awaiting a floor vote.

It would require sanctioning authorities to screen coaches through sexual offender and predator Web sites maintained by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the U.S. Justice Department.

As an alternative, they could use a commercial consumer reporting agency that does background screenings using those Web sites.

Anyone listed on the registries would be barred from coaching. The bill includes an appeal process.

See More On This Coach Background Check Store Here

Coach Background Check Partners

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There is an important issue regarding the safety and protection of our young athletes that I would like to address and one that NAYS takes very seriously. This critical issue involves background screening of coaches and volunteers to protect our youth.

NAYS encourages all youth organizations, especially NAYS chapters, to screen their coaches and conduct the necessary training for coaches. It has become standard practice in today’s youth sports environment to conduct background checks as a part of your overall risk management program. Our greatest concern is helping you protect the children under your care to better safeguard your organization and the volunteers from potential liability or accusations.

One false accusation can lead to bad publicity and potential lawsuits. Even worse, accusations might be true and statistically speaking, most accusations from minors are true. In either case, you need to have done background checks on your coaches and volunteers. We know that budgets are always a challenge and in some situations, the cost of backgrounds can be prohibitive. For this reason, NAYS has partnered with Protect Youth Sports, a leading background check company that specialize in heavily discounted background checks for coaches and volunteers.

Protect Youth Sports has built a solid reputation for serving non-profit volunteer based organizations and serves more than 4000 organizations nationwide. NAYS and Protect Youth Sports works with your sports organization to implement a background check program that meets industry background check guidelines. Protect Youth Sports has demonstrated a unique awareness for the needs of youth sports organizations and has developed a very thorough process for running national background checks and re-verifying the accuracy of records.

NAYS and Protect Youth Sports have also integrated our systems with the option to order background checks on coaches right from within the NAYS chapter management system. Protect Youth Sports also gives the option of using the easy online ordering system and they have even developed an online coach registration system that makes the entire background check process paperless. We encourage youth sports organizations to use the NAYS background check program through our partner, Protect Youth Sports.

We are confident that you will find this to be a valuable resource for your youth sports organization.

NAYS is offering a free video to help youth sports organizations through the complex issue of conducting background checks for coaches and sports volunteers.

Learn More About Coach Background Checks At Protect Youth Sports