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AAU Athlete Protection

Just a reminder that protecting athletes from sexual misconduct is not important to AAU Sports or AAU Track and Field.

AAU has a handbook similar to USATF’s SafeSport Handbook… but if they ever take any action against coaches who violate it, we’ll never know because they never take public action.

AAU does not recognize SafeSport. A coach banned by SafeSport for sexual misconduct is free to coach in AAU if they can pass the background check. We have several coaches on our banned list that can pass a background check.

We know AAU hates banning coaches because we can see how hard it was for victims of Rick Butler (volleyball) to get him banned from AAU.

If AAU ever did ban a coach for noncriminal sexual misconduct, USATF would never know, because AAU doesn’t share that information, there would be nothing to stop that coach from joining USATF.

If you love AAU and care about whether or not they are enabling predators to have access to children, demand that they do better. Bans should be public and AAU should respect SafeSport bans.

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USATF Board of Directors Updates

I don’t think I ever posted in here about this, but independent board member Jill Pilgrim did not work out for some reason. Everyone is being very tight-lipped about it.

But the good news is that the nominating and governance panel chose Dolf Berle to replace her, and I am SO pumped about this!

Dolf is best known in our sport as a masters decathlete/pole vaulter. His day job is CEO of Top Golf. And he really is independent, he has no history getting involved in any of the politics of our sport. SUPER AWESOME GUY!

The other change to the Board happened back in January. It was decided somehow that since Mike Conley was occupying the position of President, High Performance needed someone else on the Board.

So allegedly the High Performance committee had some sort of meeting at some point after the Annual Meeting and voted that Sandra Farmer-Patrick should represent them on the Board.

If Vin wins his grievance (which I believe will be heard sometime in September), he will return as President and Mike Conley will return to his HP seat and Sandra will be off the Board.

Stephanie comes off the Board in October when her IAAF term completes. Presumably, Willie Banks will be elected to the IAAF Council and take a seat on our Board.

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Yes, We Need SafeSport

There are a lot of people who believe that we don’t need SafeSport. They believe that law enforcement should be the exclusive arbitrator of misconduct. If it is not criminal, then someone should not be banned from coaching.

These messages are between coach Anthony Gerhard and a 13yo athlete he coaches in AAU club Texas Prodigy Track Club.

The parents immediately reported this to law enforcement. But if this is all there is, this probably won’t rise to the level of criminal charges. IDK how the Texas laws are written, but this does not rise to criminal level in my state (WA).

This is why we need SafeSport.

Shit like this is why we now have SafeSport policies that prohibit coaches from having one on one digital communication with unrelated minor athletes.Would you want this man coaching your kids? Perhaps he has never touched a kid. Do you believe he never would?

Would you want your child receiving messages like this from a coach? We all have to shift what is normal in our sport. In all sports. Kids need to know that it is not normal for their coach to be private messaging them on any platform.

We’ve all texted/messaged our athletes in the past. It is super convenient. But so many coaches have abused the easy access that modern technology gives us.

Copy a parent or another coach on your communications with minors. Keep it professional. Have good boundaries.

Make predators like this stand out. Don’t let them hide in plain sight.

To everyone in our sport who actively supporting individuals who have been banned by the Center for SafeSport, stop being part of the problem.

And shout out to AAU Sports for being a big part of the problem by not recognizing SafeSport bans and not making public who you have taken disciplinary action against.

These messages do violate AAU policies. Will AAU take action against this coach? We’ll never know.

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USATF Ordered to Change Pan Am Roster

Arbitration was held Wednesday regarding Pan Am team selection. The arbitrator’s decision is below. 

Although rosters have already been submitted, the USOPC has been in discussion with the APA, and it is possible that the APA will allow the roster to be changed, even at this late date. This is a decision for the whole team, not simply the athletes who filed the grievance. 

I feel terrible for any athletes on the team who lose their spot. None of the athletes on either side of this issue have done anything wrong. 

The arbitrator’s decision was as follows: 

1) USATF shall select the top two (2) athletes in each individual track and field event to represent the United States for competition in the Games using the “rank[ing] order” for results achieved from January 1, 2019 to June 10, 2019. If an athlete does not accept his/her selection, then USATF shall select the next athlete in “rank[ing] order” using the criteria expressed above;

2) if any one or more of the Claimants is to be selected using the criteria set forth in Point 1 for their respective track and field events and meets all of the requirements of Section 1.1 of the Procedures, then he/she shall be selected to represent the United States for competition in the Games;

3) any athlete selected to represent the United States for competition in the Games shall meet the “Minimum Qualifying Standards” as set forth in the Qualification Standards and Attachment A to the Procedures;

4) the USOPC shall make all reasonable efforts to have the athletes selected to represent the United States for competition in the Games in accordance with thisFinal Arbitration Award determined to be eligible to compete in the Games and communicate with the APA in an effort to permit these athletes to compete; and

5) in the event the APA does not allow the athletes selected in accordance with this Final Arbitration Award to compete in the Games and/or the United States will lose one (1) or more opportunities to compete in a specific track and field event as a result of this Final Arbitration Award, the athlete(s) currently selected in the specific track and field event(s) affected is permitted to compete in the Games representing the United States.

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USATF Membership Lookup for Event Directors

I stopped requiring USATF membership at my beach vaults last year, over concerns that requiring membership of all participants would make the pole vaulting pit a USATF members only area, and that my bar putter-upper volunteers would have to be three step SafeSport compliant.

I had hoped to resume requiring memberships once the National Office put out a clear policy regarding SafeSport at events.

However, a key component of requiring a USATF membership is having the ability to verify that membership.

My events attract participants from 3-4 USATF Associations every year. This year I had vaulters from Pacific NW, Inland NW, Oregon and Montana Associations.

As an event director, it is not reasonable for me to have to contact the membership chairs of four Associations to verify memberships.

When space allowed, I have taken entries as late as the night before the meet. In the past, I was always able to verify memberships myself.

Now, USATF feels that event directors should not have access to this information. They want them to either go through membership chairs, or apply with their Association to have access to all the membership data within their Association, and still have to go through other Associations’ membership chairs for participants outside their Association.

First, that has never been the job of membership chairs, to do membership verification for event directors.

Second, the logistics of accomplishing this on a tight schedule are a nightmare.

Third, giving event directors access to the Association membership data is super problematic. Using the event directors’ lookup, all you could see was name, city, age and club. The Association lookup gives much more personal information like email, phone number, etc. Everything on your membership application.

If the concern was the fact that a public link existed, there are solutions to that problem. You can put it behind a log in and have event directors apply for access. Bam, problem solved.

The real issue here is that once again, the National office has made a decision that has a BIG impact on volunteers’ ability to do their jobs, with ZERO consultation of those affected. This is just the latest saga in what has been years and years of the same underlying problem.

THE SPORTING IQ IN THE OFFICE IS TOO LOW

And the staff’s unwillingness to engage the volunteers who make this organization function means that low sporting IQ is causing massive problems, year in and year out.

Associations rely on revenue from sanctions and memberships to exist. If the national office keeps doing things that make sanctions and memberships less desirable, event directors will continue to take their business elsewhere.

Why would any non-Championship event require USATF membership at this point? Is this what our Board of Directors wants? Is this your vision?

If it is, then the volunteers need to replace the Board. And if it isn’t, then the Board needs to remedy the issues with our staff.

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USATF SafeSport Improving

I’m coming away from the Annual Meeting feeling so much better about the direction we are headed with implementing SafeSport!

This past year started out terribly. The National Office implemented a difficult policy that was never clearly communicated.

It was unreasonably burdensome with little to no payoff in terms of athlete safety, and sucked up all of our time and energy that could have been put toward actually making athletes safer.

The communications consisted of unclear contradictory word salad which meant that everyone was confused and defensive and didn’t know how to make this work.

But! Hope is in the air!

Desiree is gone. Madeleine is here, she is a National Office staffer who is solely focused on SafeSport. She is a lawyer and is articulate and I am confident we will have clearer communications moving forward.

Our interim President Mike Conley created a SafeSport Advisory Committee, to collaborate with the National Office on the education and outreach side of SafeSport, and that has been a HUGE help.

I am going to make a separate post about the new volunteer waiver program that will be coming online soon, but I wanted to make a broad post to let people know that we are moving in a really positive direction.