![Somerset Valley YMCA Cuts Swim Coach After Learning of Decades-Old Crime [Updated with USA Swimming Response]](https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/stock-TB2_6869-.jpg)
According to the website NJ.com, YMCA powerhouse team in Somerset Valley, New Jersey has chosen not to renew the contract of coach Joe Weber after learning of a crime he plead guilty to 17 years ago.
In 1995, now-46-year-old Joe Weber spent 5 years in prison after pleading guilty to having oral sex with a 14-year old girl, a fact that was only discovered by the YMCA recently, despite Weber having spent 6 years with the team. There were no new allegations against the coach, but this revelation was an obvious grounds for immediate removal from the program that has over 300 members.
“We take our responsibility to parents and their children very seriously,” YMCA CEO Paul Kieltyka said in a statement. “The safety and well-being of children in our care has always been and will always be a top priority of the Somerset Valley YMCA.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that he formerly was employed as a swim coach at the Germantown Academy Aquatics Club at the time of the incident, which is a USA Swimming club as well.
The Somerset Valley YMCA is one of two power programs in the area, along with nearby Somerset Hills. Somerset Valley finished 9th at this summer’s YMCA National Championships.
His role was referred to by the Somerset Valley YMCA as a “dryland consultant” for the swim team, but USA Swimming spokesperson Jamie Fabos Olsen denies that he was ever a USA Swimming registered coach. Their only record of him is that he was a non-coach/non-athlete member of the organization from September of 2009 through December of 2010, with non-athlete members only required to have their background checks done in January of 2011.
Though they also compete in the YMCA system, the Somerset Valley YMCA Swim Team is also a USA Swimming registered club. A letter sent to families, cited by the Hillsborough Patch, says that he worked at all of the Somerset YMCA locations, but predominantly with the affiliated rec teams in Bridgewater and Hillsborough. It’s not clear whether his role as a contracted “consultant” to the teams requires him to be a member of USA Swimming.
Braden, When was that rule effective?
There is information on the nj.com article stating that a contractor/consultant to the YMCA does not have to go thru the same background checks as required by the YMCA and USASwimming.
However, this guy was just one step ahead of everyone else! Sounds like he knew how to get around the background checks and still get to coach. He was a “dryland coach” but there was information on the SVY website that he was also running swimming clinics.
Also, above article states that he dropped his USA Swimming non-coach/non-athlete member status a month before USASwimming started requiring background checks for this type of member.
While he may not have been a *registered* USA Swimming coach, the fact is, he… Read more »
The loophole is closed, at least in the USA Swimming rule book:
Section 502.6.4: Anyone who coaches swimmers at a USA Swimming practice or competition, must be a
coach member of USA Swimming and must have satisfactorily completed safety training,
criminal background checks and other coaches’ education as required by USA Swimming.
Though, enforcement is not the same as legislation. We asked USA Swimming about this rule, but received no response. Perhaps they’re abusing the definition of “USA Swimming practice”.
The other news article states that Weber was a private contractor to the YMCA, through his company Mindsport, LLC. He was NOT an employee of the YMCA. All SVY employees go through extensive background checks, so the question is whether or not the same standards applied to private contractors
Given the USAS statement, it is interesting that this article from the time of the sentencing for the 1994 incident notes that Weber was a Germantown Academy Aquatics Club coach.
Also (possibly) noteworthy, the relationship appears to have involved more than the oral sex charge, but the age of consent for oral sex in PA is (or was) different and higher than for the sexual intercourse that also appears to have taken place.
http://articles.philly.com/1995-08-15/news/25710479_1_joseph-weber-young-girl-borderline-personality-disorder
How does he spend five years in jail in the late 90’s and that does not come up in the initial background check that I am hoping they ran when he first got hired??
Yeah, that seems like a bit of an oversight.
Right, don’t they have Livescan/Fingerprinting, etc.??
http://ru1bailbonds.com/2012/07/31/somerset-ymca-swim-coach-fired-after-officials-learn-he-pleaded-guilty-to-sex-with-teen-in-95/
According to this article, it appears his crime was coach/swimmer related:
“In 1995, Weber pleaded guilty in Montgomery County, Pa., to charges that he had oral sex with his 14-year-old protégé while he worked as a swim coach in the Philadelphia area. He was sentenced to up to 7 ½ years in prison.
According to news reports, the relationship between the two became sexual in December 1994 and ended a month later.
Good info Nona.