WAG Steve Penny arrested

[LJL07]

What I have found from reading all of these posts is that there are a lot of toxic or abusive coaches still out there coaching but yet no one wants to name them. Wouldn't it be helpful to make these coaches names public so that others can be warned??? Just curious.

I guess we can’t really do that. That would be great though. Our former coach/gym is under investigation by USAG safe sport for some pretty awful stuff, although not sexual abuse, and so far the way USAG safe sport has handled or rather not handled the investigation is maddening and gives me no hope. I think the parents should be aware so they can make an informed decision about leaving their children over there, but unfortunately, most of the families will find out the hard way. And while we are on this subject, I corresponded a good bit with “dunno” about this very situation. He gave advice and agreed it was horrific. I had no idea he was USAG safety chair. He did nothing with any of the information I gave him, and I later learned that he gave the coach in question advice about covering themselves so to speak when law enforcement was contacted several years ago. It’s so disappointing all around.

 

[LJL07]

My daughter’s old coaches attempted to ruin us financially with invented fines and told every gym within 100 miles that we didn’t pay our bills (false) solely because my daughter wanted to change gyms. We fulfilled every financial obligation in the contract and it still wasn’t good enough.

I can only imagine what they’d do if I put them on blast by name publicly.

And again, if you’re new here, this was reported to USAG legal and I was told “if I had a dollar for every story I hear like this BUT we can’t control what gyms do.”

That statement alone makes them a worthless sanctioning body and that’s before you factor in everything else.

That is horrible for you, and they are totally worthless. I have nothing good to say at the moment about uSAG. Unless it’s sexual abuse, they will not take action, and as we’ve duly noted, until recently they took their sweet time handling sexual abuse allegations.

 

[gymbeam]

I guess we can’t really do that. That would be great though. Our former coach/gym is under investigation by USAG safe sport for some pretty awful stuff, although not sexual abuse, and so far the way USAG safe sport has handled or rather not handled the investigation is maddening and gives me no hope. I think the parents should be aware so they can make an informed decision about leaving their children over there, but unfortunately, most of the families will find out the hard way. And while we are on this subject, I corresponded a good bit with “dunno” about this very situation. He gave advice and agreed it was horrific. I had no idea he was USAG safety chair. He did nothing with any of the information I gave him, and I later learned that he gave the coach in question advice about covering themselves so to speak when law enforcement was contacted several years ago. It’s so disappointing all around.

wow, just wow.

 

[bogwoppit]

I guess we can’t really do that. That would be great though. Our former coach/gym is under investigation by USAG safe sport for some pretty awful stuff, although not sexual abuse, and so far the way USAG safe sport has handled or rather not handled the investigation is maddening and gives me no hope. I think the parents should be aware so they can make an informed decision about leaving their children over there, but unfortunately, most of the families will find out the hard way. And while we are on this subject, I corresponded a good bit with “dunno” about this very situation. He gave advice and agreed it was horrific. I had no idea he was USAG safety chair. He did nothing with any of the information I gave him, and I later learned that he gave the coach in question advice about covering themselves so to speak when law enforcement was contacted several years ago. It’s so disappointing all around.

Now that is mind blowing. Just continues to show that USAG are not there to protect any gymnast.

 

[RTT2]

I guess we can’t really do that. That would be great though. Our former coach/gym is under investigation by USAG safe sport for some pretty awful stuff, although not sexual abuse, and so far the way USAG safe sport has handled or rather not handled the investigation is maddening and gives me no hope. I think the parents should be aware so they can make an informed decision about leaving their children over there, but unfortunately, most of the families will find out the hard way. And while we are on this subject, I corresponded a good bit with “dunno” about this very situation. He gave advice and agreed it was horrific. I had no idea he was USAG safety chair. He did nothing with any of the information I gave him, and I later learned that he gave the coach in question advice about covering themselves so to speak when law enforcement was contacted several years ago. It’s so disappointing all around.

This is just sick. It is truly unbelievable the lengths some adults will go to protect other adults who abuse children.

 

[sce]

What I've learned from all of this terrible, unfortunate news over the last two years is what not to do as I make my journey to the elite world. I've certainly discovered a lot about my own values as a coach, and I'm much better for it. That's one positive that's come out of all of this for me, at least. I'm going to do whatever I can to be one of the "new guard" and help change the culture. I love gymnastics too much not to do my part.

The gym world needs more like you aero.

 

[Aussie_coach]

I'm sorry but this is a cop out. These gyms know most parents in these situations don't have time or means to take situations like this through the courts. Not to mention the courts can't do anything about it. They cannot force another gym to take an athlete. The blackballing of athletes is bull and for USAG to acknowledge that it happens and they can't do anything about it is ridiculous. If you cannot sanction a club what is your purpose?

There is no reason USAG can't have a quick acting mediation team to handle situations like this. To leave a parent with the options to either spend years suing while you're kid can't train or quit is unacceptable, especially when they've given up a damn decade for the sport.

I wasn't suggesting that parents should take a gym to court.

My point was I regards to the comment made that, if USAG can't interfere in what the gyms are doing. Then it makes them a worthless sanctioning body.

A sanctioning body is responsible for the delivering the sport, competitions, national teams etc. it should not be their right to interfere in the private businesses of the individual gyms.

That does not mean that gyms should be allowed to do anything illegal, if that is happening it is a matter for the police.

 

[Taxidriver]

And while we are on this subject, I corresponded a good bit with “dunno” about this very situation. He gave advice and agreed it was horrific. I had no idea he was USAG safety chair. He did nothing with any of the information I gave him, and I later learned that he gave the coach in question advice about covering themselves so to speak when law enforcement was contacted several years ago. It’s so disappointing all around.

Wow I’m just speechless, clearly not putting the gymnasts first.

 

[LJL07]

Wow I’m just speechless, clearly not putting the gymnasts first.

It honestly feels like USAG and “the powers that be” could care less. They sanction/regulate nothing. I understand that they have much bigger fish to fry than a little old gym with a couple of very abusive coaches and young level 7s and 8s. But their inaction has cut short some really talented girls who could have possibly made it to level 10. A few of them could maybe have tried for hopes with better and more educated coaches. This wasn’t an attrition situation. They all quit in a mass exodus and most of them hate the sport now. So USAG should care and should take this seriously. Given the current state of affairs in this sport, I’ll bet this is far from the only gym like this.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

My daughter’s old coaches attempted to ruin us financially with invented fines and told every gym within 100 miles that we didn’t pay our bills (false) solely because my daughter wanted to change gyms. We fulfilled every financial obligation in the contract and it still wasn’t good enough.

I can only imagine what they’d do if I put them on blast by name publicly.

And again, if you’re new here, this was reported to USAG legal and I was told “if I had a dollar for every story I hear like this BUT we can’t control what gyms do.”

That statement alone makes them a worthless sanctioning body and that’s before you factor in everything else.

Wow! That is so horrifying.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

You are not the first to say that.

I've had over an hour to process this recent revelation of who dunno is and I am still in shock. As a newcomer to this forum, he was one of the voices that stood out and I believed/trusted so much of what he said. (He was definitely too defensive during the Nassar thread which did make me wonder about him.) Just goes to show how so many have been so easily deceived by smooth talking coaches. Ugh, gross!

 

[profmom]

I wasn't suggesting that parents should take a gym to court.

My point was I regards to the comment made that, if USAG can't interfere in what the gyms are doing. Then it makes them a worthless sanctioning body.

A sanctioning body is responsible for the delivering the sport, competitions, national teams etc. it should not be their right to interfere in the private businesses of the individual gyms.

That does not mean that gyms should be allowed to do anything illegal, if that is happening it is a matter for the police.

In a situation like Empowered's, turning to the state would not necessarily have proved a very useful option. I suppose she could have filed a police report against the gym in question, claiming fraud and/or criminal slander, if Michigan even has a criminal slander statute. Since the back channel communications that caused her daughter to be blackballed were probably entirely verbal, it would have been quite difficult to persuade a district attorney to "waste his/her time" with something like this unless there were multiple victims being defrauded of thousands of dollars. Empowered could have sued the gym civilly, but in the US parties bear the costs of litigation even if they win, and she likely would have wound up out as much money as she might have recovered. Had she gotten the best outcome -- a suit that the gym agreed to settle -- the gym certainly would have demanded a non-disclosure agreement as a term of the settlement, preventing Empowered from warning anyone else about the issues.

USAG does demand certain things as a condition of club membership in the organization, some of which do get into how club owners run their businesses. I get why it's a good thing to allow gym owners to talk to each other about families that are moving gyms, because certainly there are families about whom gym owners and coaches should know. We've seen them flame out here before. But if a gym is throwing its weight around, an owner/coach is exercising so much influence in a state that they are able to threaten other gyms into not accepting athletes, and this is happening multiple times, I don't think it would be inappropriate at all for USAG to intervene.

 

[SMH]

I figured out who Dunno was awhile back when one of our coaches re posted his information about trampoline parks on their Facebook page, the same things he posted here- it was easy to put two and two together at that point.
I am disgusted that someone with his attitude and opinions is seen as a ‘leader’ in my region and state.

 

[MILgymFAM]

I figured out who Dunno was awhile back when one of our coaches re posted his information about trampoline parks on their Facebook page, the same things he posted here- it was easy to put two and two together at that point.
I am disgusted that someone with his attitude and opinions is seen as a ‘leader’ in my region and state.

Same for me, about figuring out who he was. I always butted heads with him here anyway, and didn’t much care for most of his advice, but the stuff posted recently takes my opinion to a new low.

 

[mls529]

Same for me, about figuring out who he was. I always butted heads with him here anyway, and didn’t much care for most of his advice, but the stuff posted recently takes my opinion to a new low.

Ditto - I know he was an "expert" but I didn't have a very high opinion of him either. And a few months ago, I was doing searches on severs on Chalkbucket, and literally felt ill to my stomach as I read olds posts from him touting "Doctor Larry" and "there is no one better than Dr. Larry". Obviously the video links are now removed, but the text is still there. Some as recently as late 2016.

 

[Flyaway]

I am gobsmacked.

I "liked" quite a few posts in this thread, but what I was really wishing for was a "hug" option.

Oh my, this situation makes my heart hurt.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

Actually, he also recommended the verbally abusive gym we left. He didn't recommend it to me, and wasn't the reason we were there, but when I first joined Chalkbucket I searched the forums for our gym and found that he recommended the gym we were going to and said the head coaches/owners were great, and at the time I thought it was fantastic that a well respected member of this community spoke so highly of those coaches. Birds of a feather, indeed.

When I was looking for a new gym for my daughter, I know it would be pointless to ask him where to go, because he recommended the gym she was at, all the time. But several people urged me to. I mentioned that I felt like the culture at her gym was too intense and borderline mentally abusive with negative coaching and we were looking for someplace healthier. He recommended the gym her current head coach was in the process of moving to, *because* that coach was moving there...so, yeah...

 

[MILgymFAM]

When I was looking for a new gym for my daughter, I know it would be pointless to ask him where to go, because he recommended the gym she was at, all the time. But several people urged me to. I mentioned that I felt like the culture at her gym was too intense and borderline mentally abusive with negative coaching and we were looking for someplace healthier. He recommended the gym her current head coach was in the process of moving to, *because* that coach was moving there...so, yeah...

I knew I couldn’t pay attention to his advice when the first advice he gave me was that it didn’t matter what gym I took my daughter to, since she was just an Xcel gymnast.

 

[amiandjim]

I knew I couldn’t pay attention to his advice when the first advice he gave me was that it didn’t matter what gym I took my daughter to, since she was just an Xcel gymnast.

Ouch

 

[Greatlakesmom]

I knew I couldn’t pay attention to his advice when the first advice he gave me was that it didn’t matter what gym I took my daughter to, since she was just an Xcel gymnast.

Wow. As a mom of both a JO and Xcel gymnast, this is beyond disappointing, to say the least!