You got me. Here at GroupOne Background screening, we would assume a youth league would be the first place people would wish to conduct background checks on coaches who supervise our children. We ran across this interesting case this month in Indiana where a parent uncovered a multi-year safety failure at a soccer academy.
Specifically, the investigation revealed that the league had neglected to run mandatory criminal background checks on its recreational coaches for up to a decade, placing thousands of children in close proximity with unvetted adults.
The league, which serves more than 1,000 children as young as four years old per season, utilizes over 175 volunteer coaches. Perhaps more damaging to the league’s leadership is the revelation that the screening portal is entirely free to the club through its membership with the Indiana Soccer Association.
The timeline of dropped safety protocols was assembled by a local parent who noticed a complete absence of background check procedures when she coached her daughter’s team for two years. Whenever she questioned league coordinators, her concerns were brushed off with promises that safety forms “would be coming soon.”
Eventually, a local online community gained traction with complaints about operational anomalies and contacted the Indiana Soccer Association directly. The response confirmed that while elite travel coaches were vetted, the league sat at an absolute 0% compliance rate for recreational coaches. Not a single recreational coach had completed the state-mandated criminal background screening. You can imagine the reaction.
There’s really no excuse to avoid running background checks on youth coaches, but oftentimes it’s due to cost burdens and disorganization, or both.
To check if background checks are run in your child’s youth league, contact the league’s safety officer or board president, review their official written bylaws, or check if they are affiliated with a national governing body that mandates screening.
Additional ways to verify league screenings include:
- Ask Leadership: Contact the league commissioner, president or designated safety officer directly and ask for their written screening policy.
- Review Bylaws: Check the organization’s website or handbook for published codes of conduct and volunteer requirements.
- National Affiliation: Determine if the local group operates under a larger organization (like Little League or USA Baseball) that legally requires national background screening for all rostered coaches and regular volunteers.
We should note, the Indiana soccer academy was not a rural organization where, so to say, everyone knows your name. It was a suburb of a large city. Background checks on volunteers in youth sports is a critical best practice. So, whether it’s disorganization or cost, or both, the cost of a check is often minor compared to the cost of a child’s safety.