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Health & Fitness

Coaching Youth Sports in a Post-Sandusky Era

After various allegations against a popular football coach game to light recently, coaches need to be hyper-aware of their surroundings in their youth sports leagues.

As a public official and owner of a nation-wide franchise, I sometimes get local press calling or emailing me asking questions about various things.

Yesterday, a reporter from The Boston Globe called me for an article she was doing about people who coach kids, and how they’ve changed their coaching after the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

I own a youth sports league, i9 Sports, which runs flag football, cheerleading and basketball in Marlborough and Framingham. I’ve been coaching kids for about five years, and now that I run the leagues, I essentially coach the coaches.

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And, for those who have been under a rock on Mars with your fingers in your ears, Jerry Sandusky was an assistant football coach at Penn State who allegedly had various “relations” with many young boys for long periods of time. Your favorite search engine can give you many of the gruesome details.

Anyways, the reporter asked me what I’ve done differently now that all the allegations are out regarding Sandusky. My response was essentially I’ve changed nothing about the way I run my programs or the way I coach. I told the reporter if coaches are drastically changing the way they act now that these allegations are at the forefront, they weren’t doing it right to begin with.

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I’ve worked with, and coached, kids from 2-15 since high school. My business runs youth sports leagues for kids ages 3-14. So I have extensive experience working with children of all ages. I’ve always been aware of everything involving the kids, to make sure no one can ever accuse me of doing something improper.

So, nothing changed in the way I’ve coached or asked my coaches to coach because I’ve always considered the kid’s safety in every youth sports league I’ve owned or coached. Kid’s safety should always be the top priority, whether it’s on the field during the game, at practice, or in the day-to-day (or week-to-week) interactions with coaches.

Making sure myself, or my coaches, could never get accused of anything improper was always priority #1, and I made it clear to everyone. At i9 Sports, we have the practices and games the same day, and parents frequently watch the kids the entire time. Anytime a coach and a child are alone together, it could lead to accusations, whether they are baseless or not.

I hope all coaches everywhere, regardless of the ages of the kids you work with, to always make sure they’re never in a situation where they can be accused of anything. At the leagues I run, it’s very rare that the children don’t have 50 eyes on them at all times. With coaches and kids all together, with all the parents closely by, it makes sure everyone stays safe, and comfortable with the environment.

Matt Elder owns and operates i9 Sports, a youth sports league in Marlborough and Framingham. Their flag football and cheerleading program is taking registrations for its spring season, and plays every Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, where they have a practice and a game all in the same day. No weekday practices. Visit www.i9sports.com today for more details.

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