Archive for September, 2008

Little League Re-examines Background Checks

Friday, September 26th, 2008

One day before Michael Clish was to attend a hearing in the Outagamie County Circuit Court, he was found dead in his home due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Clish was heading to trial on October 27th on four felony and one misdemeanor sexual abuse charges.

He was the coach for the Appleton Rebels Youth Baseball team in Appleton, Wisconsin. The charges, however, did not involve any of the players. Clish allegedly gave a 17-year old boy rum and then assaulted him.

Once those charges were filed, other allegations appeared including a sex charge in 1983 that involved a 14-year old. Clish was never convicted. In addition, another man came forward and accused Clish of assaulting him in 1977 and 1978 when the man was 13 and 14-years old. He was a batboy for the team Clish coached.

Unfortunately, we will never know now if Clish was innocent or guilty of the crimes against him. However, this incident has prompted the Appleton Rebels Little League to examine running background checks. Prior to now, they have not background checked their coaches. One hopes that the introduction of background checks in the league will keep unfortunate incidents, like this one, from occurring.

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PIAA Being Asked to Background Check Athletic Officials

Thursday, September 18th, 2008

As a result of an investigation published by the Pittsburg Post-Gazette Saturday, the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) is asking its parent, Pennyslvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), to complete background checks on its 13,700 officials beginning in January.

The Post-Gazette’s investigation revealed dozens of past and present officials registered with the PIAA who possess criminal convictions including child molestation, possession of child pornography, gun crimes, drug offenses and more.

According to a statement released on their website in response to the investigation, the PIAA has taken other measures rather than conducting background checks to insure the safety of the children involved in their sporting events. Aside from requiring sports officials to reveal prior criminal convictions on their applications, they also rely on other people in the organization to let them know who has been charged and convicted, or pled guilty to crimes. They also have adopted policies to prevent unsupervised contact between students and sports officials.

The PIAA also cites the cost of doing background checks as a major factor to why they have not enacted the policy thus far. They fear losing officials if they must raise the price of dues. Dues average around $40.00 per official and they anticipate the background checks to cost $50.00, thus doubling the price for their officials. The PIAA claims they could not afford paying for the background checks on their own.

Additionally, the PIAA’s statement included the following:

“To summarize, this issue is one that has been debated by PIAA for several years now. While criminal background checks may be a “feel good” means of taking some action to protect student-athletes, it is not the only, and is certainly not even the best, means available to provide protection. PIAA has taken a different approach, but with (so far) very good results. Perhaps, though, after further assessment of benefits and costs ofdoing so, we will also require criminal background checks. Stay tuned for future developments.”

One hopes that they will see the benefits to conducting background checks outweigh any costs involved when it comes to the welfare of our children.

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Sacramento Little League Coach Sentenced to Prison

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Last week, a coach for a little league football team in Sacramento, California was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in state prison for intending to distribute cocaine.

Nakia “Keith” Owens was pulled over by police in October 2005 for not having license plates or visible registration on his car. When police checked the inside of the vehicle, they found a bag with marijuana, as well as a sock with crack cocaine in it. Both items were found inside an equipment bag marked as belonging to the Sacramento Raiders youth football team. In fact, Owens admitted to police that he was the little-league coach during the search of the car.

Owens was a passenger in the vehicle, but he was under what is referred to as “searchable probation.” He was also wanted for several vehicular violations.

Thankfully, the children involved with this little-league team weren’t outwardly harmed by their coach’s actions; however, a drug test and background check, including a motor vehicle records, would have been prudent.

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