Rumor Control: ASA Backdoor Tactics

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I heard a rumor tonight that ASA is requiring teams to carry insurance by THEIR provider in order to play in any ASA state or national events. Has anyone else heard this? There is cheaper insurance out there and this seems like a way to backdoor more money into ASA's coffers.

 

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Oh Ringer, it's much worse than you think. They are also requiring background checks for coaches and to get those checks they are requiring coaches to provide social security and driver license information. That we have to pay something like $6 a coach for the check is just an insult compared to the possible injury of identity theft and the yet to be specified grounds upon which the results of the background check would be revealed and to whom. We're contemplating as an organization whether to fight the good fight but frankly at this point we are simply trying to get reliable information about what comprises this background check program. Insurance agent says ASA is requiring the background checks and some of our ASA contacts are pointing the finger at the insurance companies. (Common sense leads me to think that it is an ASA requirement rather than an insurer requirement, because unless I misunderstand what the insurance covers I can't figure out how background checks are relevant to the coverage question).

Anyway, as best as we can determine, a team's ASA sanction may be held hostage to this background check as well as the requirement of placing the team's insurance through the ASA.

 

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Oh Ringer, it's much worse than you think. They are also requiring background checks for coaches and to get those checks they are requiring coaches to provide social security and driver license information. That we have to pay something like $6 a coach for the check is just an insult compared to the possible injury of identity theft and the yet to be specified grounds upon which the results of the background check would be revealed and to whom. We're contemplating as an organization whether to fight the good fight but frankly at this point we are simply trying to get reliable information about what comprises this background check program. Insurance agent says ASA is requiring the background checks and some of our ASA contacts are pointing the finger at the insurance companies. (Common sense leads me to think that it is an ASA requirement rather than an insurer requirement, because unless I misunderstand what the insurance covers I can't figure out how background checks are relevant to the coverage question).

Anyway, as best as we can determine, a team's ASA sanction may be held hostage to this background check as well as the requirement of placing the team's insurance through the ASA.

My job requires me to have a Background, those holders of a CCW Permit in Ohio are also required to have a Background. Don't see why couldn't they just use a copy from our work or CCW permit?


FASTPITCH! Anything else, and you're playing to SLOW!

 

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That would be too sensible, now wouldn't it? But I'm still majorly concerned about why the ASA needs to have a background check in the first place. I certainly understand that in a perfect world parents would want to know about information indicating a particular coach was a danger to their daughter. But we already have sexual predator databases. Beyond that, I doubt we could get more than 100 of the thousands of OFC members to agree on what other information should be relevant in the background check. And frankly, I'm not sure that I would agree that just being on a sexual predator list is an automatically disqualifying factor. I'm thinking here of the young couple where the male is 19 and the female is underage and the county prosecutor exercises his or her fairly unbounded discretion to throw the book at the male despite the consensual relationship. Twenty, thirty years later should that be a disqualifying factor for the purposes of ASA sanctioning? Until our players reach the age where they can drive themselves it's highly unlikely that any player is going to be alone with my hypothetical coach. It's just such a slippery slope and I'm going to sound a lot like my libertarian friend JoeA (with whom I often tussle on political questions), but if parents aren't paying attention to their daughter's interaction with the team and coaches to the extent that their daughters are exposed to danger, then shame on the parents. Why should we abdicate to the ASA and a cold written record decisions about who is a safe or unsafe coach? Personally, I'd much rather have had my hypothetical coach working with our daughter than a coach who publicly demeans his players in truly hurtful ways, but is the ASA going to get involved with issues like that?

It really is a pandora's box.

 

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It's just such a slippery slope and I'm going to sound a lot like my libertarian friend JoeA

A nice sound, indeed!

This whole thing has to be about money. ASA and/or Bollinger have to be making more money on this.

As I recall, they started the individual player registration a year or two ago and said it would save teams money. For organizations with several teams, it did not save money, as it eliminated the volume discount they had received in the past. And now we add $6 per coach. By having the individual player registrations and every single coach, ASA and Bollinger now have a good address for all of those people. Who knows how much they are making by selling those addresses? They couldn't get good addresses from ASA rosters because the forms are so small that the writing on them is often unreadable. The other thing is that, again as I recall, ASA wants all the addresses typed and not handwritten. Why would that be?

As with most things that seem fishy, follow the money.

 

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For what it is worth, I spoke with a Bollinger rep two days ago. (I got the contact information through the ASA website.) She told me in no uncertain terms that Bollinger does not require background checks. Now, she may be incorrect, but I doubt it.

So it looks like it's ASA that's behind this. I've re-checked my email messages on this score. It's apparently $12.00 per coach. (The $6.00 figure was for the individual player card.)

That's a nice piece of change, even after you take out ASA's expenses.

 

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masonte

Thats also the word I got . If you look on there website for insurance it is a option but not required just one of many sevices Also could not find where it says you have to carry there insurance where did that come from ?

 

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Background checks should be mandatory.. you should be certified and cleared to coach .. other sports do it...

 

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What other private sports. Not saying I disagree just wondering

 

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This is not new....last year we were required to have background checks to participate in our ASA double header league....however......included in our fee two coaches were paid for by our league fee......our insurance which was not ASA supplied was deemed sufficient.....although a bit of a pain, in today's world not a bad idea to have a background check...if nothing else to put the parents minds at ease....better safe than sorry!

 

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Ringer, so ASA wants us to have their insurance or not be permitted to play, basically? So, even if there are cheaper alternatives, ASA wants us to have their insurance? sounds like a money grab...let me know if i am wrong on this one, does pony or nsa, ifa provide optional insurance? I think we had ASA insurance last year, not sure about when my DD was 12....

cgs, as far as background checks are concerned...
as a teacher, we have one on file, but when we became foster parents, they wanted another one...every agency wants to be in control of their own, and regardless of the fact that our records are in the "system" that makes too much sense not to make someone fork out the money to get another one...be thankful its only 6, for school, they wanted a much higher fee.....but I do understand that you'd rather not have a witch hunt going on with our coaches, so what will determine a red flag for ASA...drunken driving arrest? drug use? failure to pay child support? domestic abuse?

besides the fact that we wouldnt want sexual predators around the kids, what will a parent deem admissable for their own DD....i mean, columbus fired bus drivers for having a 10 year old or more DUI on their record (in retrospect, they also threw the hammer at people who had recent arrests that went unnoticed)...and in essence, who gets the say of what information gets out there? would the parents now have a database to search their coach and see if they didn't pay their taxes in 1995?
I see the need for background checks, but but i also can see the abuse thereof

 

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manitouringer:

Do those other sports have a clear statement of the factors that will be considered as disqualifying? Do they guarantee that the information provided by the coaches such as social security number and driver's license number will be safeguarded in a manner that precludes identity theft?

I don't agree that background checks should be mandatory for volunteer coaches, especially for coaches who have proven trust-worthy over several years. but if the ASA had an organized, well-defined, and well-conceived program, I certainly wouldn't say that someone who takes your position is being unreasonable. Based on our inquiries to date, this ASA thing appears to have grown like Topsy and now no one is stepping to the plate to explain the process or the set of standards that will govern "clearing" the coach.

 

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Statman,

You posted while I was writing my last thread and it's clear we have many of the same concerns. In part my concern is selfish . . .issues relating to the Buckeye Heat organization take a very large amount of masonte's time as he is co-president. Now he is going to have to decide what to do with background checks that, while not revealing any present danger to the players, don't come back pristine. As his spouse and a lawyer, I think he is being placed in an untenable position: if he doesn't reveal something like a DUI to the parents, are they going to claim that he breached a fiduciary duty to them if they find out about the conviction some other way? If he does share that information, would that coach quit and would future potential coaches decide that they would rather not coach than have a prior DUI revealed to the families? I think your example of the past due child support is another great example of information with which Ted wouldn't know what to do.

 

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When I talked to Warren a couple of weeks ago, I asked about the insurance situation. He said the ASA insurance was not required. but the TD's might require that you carry ASA insurance. And he never mentioned that i need to do background checks on my coaches. this is what I know.

 

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I have always had background checks done for coaching, even prior to ASA requirements. I certainly understand the need of an organization to "know" who is coaching the kids involved. We have to realize and accept that there are many a person out their that might be coaching with less than desirable backgrounds. I would rather be safe than sorry. . .It's the least we can do for the girls.

You see soc cer teams, girl scouts, my job, and many other venues requiring a check to validate you are not potentially a harm/threat to those participating. IMO it's a good thing and the least I can do as a coach to prove my worth. . .

 

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you're right, i waver back and forth (like the good fence-straddler i am) between full disclosure and what-you-dont-know-wont-hurt you. Being a teacher is much like being a coach...we decide to be role models, leaders of young people, etc...so we assume the responsibility of being put upon that pedastal...now, we are human and not infallable, and we make mistakes (not the I'm-taking-your-kid-to-my-back-seat kind), wether we did them 10 years ago, 10 days ago or going to do so...
So now what? do we REALLY want to know every blemish of our coaches lives for the sake of our DD's (or sons, cause i'm sure if its good for the gander, its good for the goose)? luckily for me, all i have on my record is a few speeding tickets (well, okay, more than a few)...so I can talk the talk, but if i had been stupid and caught with mary jane as a college student, i probably would not have been hired as a teacher so i gues it cuts both ways....

 

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We were told @ our ASA/Metro Meeting that only one coach from each team needed the background check. Are region 9 teams being told that all coaches need to be checked?

 

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Don't you think that there is the possibility that we are over complicating what it is they are looking for? IMO it is to determine that we do not have any sexual predators or violent criminals coaching. I don't think they are looking for drunken behavior, bankruptcies, and misdemeanor crimes. If you show a history of issues, maybe that might be one to think on. . .just fired for sexual misconduct or robbed a corner store, hell no. . .LOL

 

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i think thats all it is, feisty, good point, i believe cgs just wants to make sure it doesn;t snowball into a witch hunt

 

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It is a good thing to have and you should be able to have your police department do it and that should be good enough for ASA. These orgs just get greedier and greedier and you ask where will it stop?

But with that said, didn't Newark HS have one a few years back? didn't Lancaster's B-Ball coach just get let go 4 weeks ago for improper texting?

As a Parent you need to have a knowledge of where your kid is and who they are with. If you have a gut feeling about something, 99% your gut instinct is correct...